Chapter 1

The sensitive soul is united with the body by means of feeling.

249. Consciousness tells us that of all the things different from the soul, body is the only reality sensible and perceptible by the human being. This direct proof is all that is necessary, and from it we can immediately draw a very important corollary: soul and body are joined by means of feeling.

250. Because it is precisely in feeling that I have placed reality, the union between soul and body is real. But we must not picture this union as similar to that of a body acting on another body, where the action of one is similar to the action of the other, the passive experience and re-action of one similar to the passive experience and re-action of the other (this is the origin of the erroneous principle that 'action is equal to re-action'(120)), and hence the touch of one similar to the touch of the other. On the contrary, we are dealing with two entia of different nature, each acting on the other in its own way, that is, in a different way, each experiencing and re-acting differently. Now, the union of soul and body is clearly demonstrated by the fact of feeling, from which are excluded all mechanical laws applicable to the mutual action of bodies. I called this union of the soul and body and their mutual action a relationship of sensility, and have discussed its nature and laws extensively.(121)

251. I also showed that every feeling has, as it were, two extremes, called by me the sentient (the soul) and the felt (the body). Every feeling is composed of that which is felt and that which feels, and this feeling, as first and fundamental, is a single, indistinct ens. Consequently, not only must the body must be united to the soul, and the soul to the body, but the union must be that of form with matter.

252. I next directly refuted the hypothesis of pre-established harmony and of occasional causes. I argued on very clear grounds that these could not give any knowledge of the body, because all such knowledge comes down to this: the body is term of the soul's feeling. The very notion of body essentially involves a relationship of union with soul, and of the real action and passive experience between the two principles. In short, I found that physical influence was contained in the very definitions of soul and body.(122) If we remove the real union (the physical influence), neither soul nor body can be conceived or named.

253. We must not forget that, although the animal is a single feeling, this feeling contains the simple principle (the sentient) and the extended term (the felt). These two elements form one and the same feeling. The body, the term of the feeling, is not given to the animal in its first state, that is, isolated from the feeling principle to such an extent that it constitutes a separate feeling; on the contrary, one single feeling is configured in such a way that under one aspect it is sentient, and under another, felt. Then, through the action of intelligence, the felt is divided from the sentient in the way I will now explain.

Notes

(120) Rinnovamento, bk. 3, c. 47 [497 ss.].

(121) AMS, 230-246.

(122) NE, vol. 2, 998-1002.