Polytropy

We saw the soul divided in two, in Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics. In the present reading, of the first five of the 13 chapters of Book VI, Aristotle returns to the division, and he tells us he is returning. At least, what we are given in the text is,

πρότερον μὲν οὖν ἐλέχθη δύ᾽ εἶναι μέρη τῆς ψυχῆς.

It was stated previously, then, that there are two parts of the soul.

“It was stated previously.” The passive voice may mean that somebody else added this comment. We may also ask whether the comment is actually referring to an earlier passage of the work that we are now reading.

This is a difficulty of reading Aristotle. We don’t know, or at least I don’t know, whether Aristotle himself created the Ethics as a single work, comprising ten books, to be read in order; and if he did, whether he finished the work to his own satisfaction; and if he did, how well the text that has come down to us (apparently through Andronicus of Rhodes) represents Aristotle’s work.

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