''On Divination in Sleep'' (or ''On Prophesying by Dreams''; grc-gre, Περὶ τῆς καθ᾽ ὕπνον μαντικῆς;
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''De divinatione per somnum'') is a text by
Aristotle in which he discusses
precognitive dreams
Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future.
There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...
.
The treatise, one of the ''
Parva Naturalia'', is an early inquiry (perhaps the first formal one) into this phenomenon. In his skeptical consideration of such dreams, Aristotle argues that, although "the senders of such dreams should be the gods," it is nonetheless the case "that those to whom they are sent are not the best and wisest, but merely commonplace persons" (i, 462b20-22). Thus, "Most
o-called propheticdreams are, however, to be classed as mere coincidences" (i, 463a31-b1).
External links
*
English translation by J. I. Beare*
* Greek text ed.
W. D. Ross
Sir William David Ross (15 April 1877 – 5 May 1971), known as David Ross but usually cited as W. D. Ross, was a Scottish Aristotelian philosopher, translator, WWI veteran, civil servant, and university administrator. His best-known wor ...
available in HTML format vi
Greco interattivo(Link not functioning).
* Greek text available o
Greek Wikisource
Works by Aristotle
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