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CHAPTER I
CONCERNING THE HUMAN SOUL AND ITS FACULTIES[1]
Know that the human soul is one,[2] but that it has many diversified activities. Some of these activities have, indeed, been called souls, which has given rise to the opinion that man has many souls, as was the belief of the physicians, with the result that the most distinguished of them[3] states in the introduction of his book that there are three souls, the physical, the vital, and the psychical.[4] These activities are called faculties and
- ↑ For a discussion of the contents of this chapter, see Scheyer, Psychol. Syst. d. Maim., c. I; Jaraczewski, ZPhKr., XLVI, pp. 9—10; and Rosin, Ethik, p. 45 ff. A summary of the Peraḳim is found in Speier, The Threefold Cord (London, 1891), Appendix.
- ↑ In Moreh, I, 41, M. explains the term soul (נפש) as being "the vitality which is common to all sentient beings." Cf. Aristotle, De Anima, c. 1 (ed. Hicks, pp. 50 and 51), "Hence soul is the first actuality of a natural body having in it the capacity of life." On the homonymous use of the word נפש, see Moreh, loc. cit.
- ↑ Hippocrates, the creator of medical science. See Rosin, Ethik, p. 45; Wolff, Acht Capitel, p. 1, n. 2; M. Schloessinger, in JE., VI, p. 403.
- ↑ M. opposes the belief in the existence of three souls, but uses this classification to designate a threefold division of the soul's faculties, although, later in this chapter (see infra, pp. 38—39), he divides the faculties into five classes. In Moreh, III, 12, he points to the threefold division of the faculties, where he says, "all physical, psychical, and vital forces and organs that are possessed by one individual are found also in the other individuals." See, also, ibid., III, 46 (end), where the appetitive (התאוה), the vital (החיונית), and the psychic (הנפשײת) faculties are enumerated. Baḥya, Ibn Gabirol, and Ibn Zaddik seem to have believed in the existence of three souls in man. See I. Broydé in JE., vol. xi, art. Soul. Abraham ibn Daud, in Emunah Ramah, I, 6 (ed. Weil, 1842), also, opposed the belief of the physicians, supporting the Aristotelian view of the unity of the soul, as did M. Consult Scheyer, Psychol. Syst. d. Maim., p. 11, n. 3; Munk, Guide, I, p. 355, n. 1; idem, Mélanges, p. 38, n. 1; p. 40, n. 3; p. 54, n. 2; Rosin, Ethik, p. 45, n. 1; Kaufmann, Attributenlehre, p. 398, n. 60.
