34cates attraction and transformation of what is external into what is internal. Growth is love of achieving more and more harmony of parts; and reproduction means perpetuation of the kind, which is only another phase of love.
3. In the animal kingdom, the various operations of the force of love are still more unified. It does preserve the vegetable instinct of acting in different, directions; but there is also the development of temperament which is a step towards more unified activity. In man this tendency towards unification manifests itself in self-consciousness. The same force - of "natural or constitutional love," is working in the life of beings higher than man. All things are moving towards the first Beloved - the Eternal Beauty. The worth of a thing is decided by its nearness to, or distance from, this ultimate principle.
As a physician, however, Avicenna is especially interested in the nature of the Soul. In his times, moreover, the doctrine of metempsychosis was getting more and more popular. He, therefore, discusses the nature of the soul, with a view to show the falsity of this doctrine. It is difficult, he says, to define the soul; since it manifests different powers and tendencies different planes of being. His view of the 'various powers of the soul can be thus represented:
1. Manifestation as unconscious activity -
(a)Working in different directions (Vegetative soul).
1. Assimilation.
2. Growth
3. Reproduction.
(b) Working in one direction and securing uniformity of action - growth of temperament.