Abstract

In this paper, I attemp to clarify the controversial use of pathêmata tîs psuchês, made by Aristotle in De Anima and De Interpretatione, specially when he signifies the act of thinking, thoughts and knowledge in general. I defend the thesis that the term pathos is essential for Aristotle's theory of knowledge. My argument is based upon the distinction, made by Aristotle in De Anima and Metaphysics, betwen two meanings of this term: as movement to the other, and as growth to the same. I interpret the latter in connection with the act, and I state the senses in which it would be proper to predicate the passibility and the impassibility of the faculties of cognition, the things which are known, and knowledge itself as act.