Eudemus or On the Soul: a Lost Dialogue of Aristotle On the Immortality of the Soul

Abstract

In the ''catalogues of Aristotelian writings found in Diogenes Laertius and Hesychius, there is listed among the earliest works a composition entitled On the Soul in one book1). Modelled on the writings of Plato, this work, which apparently also carried the subtitle of Eudemus, was a dialogue. In any event, one extant fragment of the Eudemus, preserved by Plutarch2), retains the Socratic technique of question and answer, so characteristic of the early Platonic dialogues. But barring a few and, on the whole, rather scanty fragments, that is, references or citations to be found in some ancient authors, the Eudemus has been lost in the course of time3). Nevertheless, this work, which must have acquired some renown throughout antiquity, in part can be reconstructed with a