Book II On the Soul Aristotle
Book two focuses on the senses and their role with the soul and the body. We find they are temperamental and tied to physical phenomenon but translate them to our particular way of sensing them that is somewhere else from the physical objects we perceive.The senses make up a lot of the souls parts and we find these parts are used by the soul but are not required for the soul to exist. But while talking about the souls parts in sensation we early on find a fundamental use for the senses which is to find food and water. While this is the most elemental of goals for the senses it is a stepping stone to view the senses as likewise a nutritive component for the soul. As the body needs these material to form into the body the soul needs sensation fill thought with it's otherworldly material to give shape to what would otherwise be blank murmurs of thoughts.
The senses are characterized by their ability to be in consistent in certain ways to they can be receptive to the world they perceive which is constantly in flux. In this matter they are hard to describe as one does a geometric object which is pure and never changing. The senses do not sense everything but only a select spectrum and some animals sense in different ways. A living thing has to maintain the things they sense with and have to artfully keep them from sensing in abundance to keep from destroying their senses such as looking at an overly bright object like the sun.
As we go through the senses we find they are in some ways uncomparably different and other time are curiously alike. Sight and smell appear to be sense and a distance while taste and touch sense very directly. Our sense cannot be categorized in one way and considering these basic functions of how we perceive reality requires a nuanced attention.
So far our sense are describe in very simple terms in regards to how they are used. Cognitive aspects of the soul will be discussed in the next book, but here the generally a soul that relies on the senses more so than thought is lusty and hungry and also tied to pleasure and pain.
Chapter 10 Elective Affinities Johann Goethe
So far we have been in this aristocratic garden that may not be paradise but never the less made to be capricious and enjoyable. And as guests have been invited to stay for a long period of time, the garden has been shaping into something more like paradise itself rather than a hobby garden. Each of the married couple starts to have budding passions for the other guest that was invited to stay.While it plain as what was developing, these feelings seemed as innocent as the beauty of a garden plant. We realize that in matters of cooperation great beauty comes about simply by the two unmarried couples being next to each other. While it is easy to assume what will develop will be debaucherous it is easy to entertain that what is taking place at this moment is sweet and a pastoral.
There is very little unease until we meet an unexpected guest who was our symbol of concord earlier. On his first visit he reprimanded the married couple for trying to foresee the consequences of the previous guests at their house. But as he learns about the guests that will dine with them shortly he becomes obstinate and foreboding. These upcoming guests have a pulse on desire and in his mind subversive towards married. There is a sense of the tension that will soon come to sit at their table.
These guests are themselves a couple who pose to have a realistic view on love and marriage. The seem to have from scientific observation statistical malaise about a person's ability to stay committed and not become attracted to someone else or to be able to see in people who is a genuinely suitable partner for marriage. They take on a guise as devilish as if their blunt conversation on the foolishness of marriage begins to bother their hosts, but there is also this sense that awareness is budding just as previously passions have been.
This is exactly what happens but awareness first descends upon Charlotte who is more astute and cunning. But her awareness is also made unmistakeable by the baroness who makes it impossible for her to suppress what she sees as plain. She cannot ignore any longer how her husband dotes on the young Ottille and she cannot ignore her own feelings which have just become apparent for the other guest. Eduards child-like approach to concealing love conceals himself from seeing his wife's new love interest which means Charlotte is the first stung by what these Baudelaire like cupids have vulgarly brought to light and have struck a displeasing chord that can be easily heard.
The garden that was once a place for pleasure and object the home owners used as an object to transform into beauty is now transformed. The hut that was garishly decorated but also planned as a space to entertain guests now serves as a space for Charlotte to be alone with her conflicting emotions. She see her husband in love with someone else and realizes she is too. It is here where she sees an opportune spot to grieve and release her unwelcomed awareness.
