Common Sense in Themistius and Its Reception in the pseudo-Philoponus and Avicenna
Résumé
In his paraphrase of the De anima Themistius provides an account of
Aristotle’s doctrine of common sense that combines Alexander of Aphrodisias and
Plotinus. The Aristotelian koine aisthesis is interpreted as the unifying power of an
incorporeal pneuma that receives the information from the senses, the messengers
of the soul. On the basis of this Plotinian tenet, Themistius describes the koine aisthesis
as a spiritual power that unifies diverse and even opposite sensorial inputs, and
discriminates between them. This interpretation of koine aisthesis was influential in
subsequent Greek works on the De anima from late Antiquity (pseudo-Philoponus)
to Byzantine times (Sophonias) and inspired Avicenna