Philoponus on the Dual Character of the Soul as Entelecheia of the Body

Abstract

Commentators are puzzled by Aristotle’s remark about the possibility of the soul being in the body like a sailor in a ship at the end of De an. ii.1, a chapter where the soul is described as the inseparable entelecheia of the body. Based on Philoponus’ account of the soul as a dual entelecheia and considering the phenomenological way in which we come to know the soul, I explain that the soul may be both inseparable from the body as its entelecheia and yet separable in another respect.