Aristotle believes to understand the soul is to understand nature, “for the soul in some sense is the principle of animal life.” The purpose of De Anima is to understand the essential nature of the soul and its properties. Aristotle starts of with asking the question “what is it?” In order to figure that out is there a formula or way of investigating? Is it a substance, does it belong to the class of potential existence or is it an actuality, is it divisible, is it homogeneous? These are all questions needed to be answered to get a grasp of knowledge on what the soul is. Aristotle uses his familiar matter form distinction in order to answer these questions.
What belongs to the soul itself in contrast to what belongs to soul-and-body as
What belongs to the soul itself in contrast to what belongs to soul-and-body as