Abstract
According to JSVMR 5, empirical observation demonstrates that there are two ways in which fire is destroyed, exhaustion and extinction, and that these processes take place in both animate and inanimate things. Both kinds of destruction have the same cause: a failure to nourish, and thus sustain, the heat. For heat to be conserved, there must be some way of cooling it where its principle is located. Focusing on the concept of fire rather than the concept of heat, Chapter 5 aims to elucidate the broader term (i.e. fire) and so explain at the same time the two ways in which natural heat perishes in living beings. Aristotle uses two related examples taken from everyday life: the example of a lamp’s fire and that of choked up and banked up coals. These provide clear illustrations of what happens inside the body, depicting the conditions under which the natural heat can be preserved or destroyed in its hearth.
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Notes
- 1.
I thank Matteo Martelli for this reference.
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Korobili, G. (2022). Commentary on JSVMR 5. In: Aristotle. On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 1-6. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99966-7_7
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