On Breath
Encyclopedia
On Breath is a philosophical treatise included in the Corpus Aristotelicum
Corpus Aristotelicum
The Corpus Aristotelicum is the collection of Aristotle's works that have survived from antiquity through Medieval manuscript transmission. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school...

 but usually regarded as spurious. Its opening sentence raises the question: "What is the mode of growth, and the mode of maintenance, of the natural (or 'connate': emphutos) vital spirit (pneuma
Pneuma
Pneuma is an ancient Greek word for "breath," and in a religious context for "spirit" or "soul." It has various technical meanings for medical writers and philosophers of classical antiquity, particularly in regard to physiology, and is also used in Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible and in...

)?"

Authorship

Among the ancient catalogues of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

's works, a work On Breath (but in three books, not one) is listed only by Ptolemy-el-Garib
Ptolemy-el-Garib
Ptolemy-el-Garib was a Hellenistic pinacographer, probably of the Peripatetic school, who wrote a Life of Aristotle notable for its catalog of Aristotle's works. This work survives in an unpublished Arabic manuscript in Istanbul...

, and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 (N.H. XI.220) and Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 (De simpl. med. temp. et fac. V.9) are the first authors who appear to make reference to the treatise we possess. In modern times, its authenticity has been virtually unanimously rejected, although most or all of it has been acknowledged to be an early work of the Peripatetic school, possibly connected with Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...

, Strato of Lampsacus
Strato of Lampsacus
Strato of Lampsacus was a Peripatetic philosopher, and the third director of the Lyceum after the death of Theophrastus...

, or Erasistratus
Erasistratus
Erasistratus was a Greek anatomist and royal physician under Seleucus I Nicator of Syria. Along with fellow physician Herophilus, he founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria, where they carried out anatomical research...

, and shedding light on Hellenistic medicine. In 2008, however, Bos and Ferwerda published a commentary in which they maintain that On Breath is a genuine work of Aristotle whose doctrines respond to those of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

's Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...

and constitute an important part of Aristotle's philosophy of nature.

Commentaries

  • Daniel Furlanus, Theophrasti Eresii, Peripateticorum post Aristotelem principis pleraque... (Greek text with Latin translation and commentary), Hanover, 1605 (available online)
  • Amneris Roselli, [Aristotele]: De spiritu (Greek text with Italian translation and commentary), Pisa: ETS Editrice, 1992
  • Abraham P. Bos and Rein Ferwerda, Aristotle, On the Life-Bearing Spirit (De Spiritu): A Discussion with Plato and his Predecessors on Pneuma as the Instrumental Body of the Soul (with English translation and commentary), Leiden: Brill, 2008

See also

  • On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
    On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
    On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration is one of the short treatises that make up Aristotle's Parva Naturalia.-Place in the Parva Naturalia:...

    , one of the short treatises that make up the Parva Naturalia
    Parva Naturalia
    The Parva Naturalia are a collection of seven works by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul:* Sense and Sensibilia * On Memory...

    of Aristotle

External links

  • English translation: J.F. Dobson's 1914 Oxford Translation bound with De Mundo, pp. "32" ff. (archive.org)
  • Greek text: Werner Jaeger
    Werner Jaeger
    Werner Wilhelm Jaeger was a classicist of the 20th century.Jaeger was born in Lobberich, Rhenish Prussia. He attended school at Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum in Kempen Jaeger studied at the University of Marburg and University of Berlin. He received a Ph.D...

    's 1913 Teubner text available in HTML format via Greco interattivo
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