Manipulating Souls. Dominik Perler (ed.), Transformations of The Soul. Aristotelian Psychology 1250-1650, «Vivarium», XLVI/3 (2008), and Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2009; Klaus Corcilius, Dominik Perler (eds.), Partitioning the Soul. Debates from Plato to Leibniz, Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter, 2014

A spectre haunts the history of philosophy, the soul. Since Antiquity, this topic crucially underlies the philosophical attempts to explain the activities of nonhuman (animals and plants) and human beings. From the digestion of food, growth, sensation, and perception, to the rational faculties, the main capacities of living beings belong to the soul. Additionally, the soul defines the unity and the unicity of living beings, also distinguishing between species. Traditionally considered a crucial topic to ground a system of knowledge that includes all natural bodies, the soul attracted the attention of philosophers, religious people, physicians, and naturalists. Nowadays, while the soul sounds like an old-fashioned concept, a mere remainder of a metaphysical order, it still provokes questions and kindles philosophical, neuro-biological, and neuropsychological investigations. Yet, these contemporary treatments relevantly benefit from a confrontation with the historical precedents in Antiquity, Mediaeval, and early modern philosophical debates.