Aristotele sull’intenzionalità elementare : la sensazione dei ‘proprî’ e la teoria della ‘medietà’

I propose here an interpretation of Aristotle’s theory about the sensation of i[dia aijsqhtav which could perhaps make sense of his much debated concept of sensory mesovth" (de An. G 13, 435a21-22). I will argue that Aristotle held that sensory mesovth" is the power of the animal’s central organ to react, when properly stimulated by the external sensibles through the external sense-organs, by acquiring a special kind of qualities, whose series is in a 1:1 correspondence with the series of the external simple proper sensibles. I hope to show that with the aid of this idea we could accommodate much of what, in the current interpretations of Aristotle’s theory, remains shadowy or enigmatic.