But there are some (Aristotelians or Peripatetics) who might think
that the intelligible Man and the sense-man form but one. Let us first
discuss this point. Does the sense-man have a being different from the
soul which produces him, and makes him live and reason? Is he the soul
that is disposed in some special manner? Is he the soul that uses the
body in some particular way? If man be a reasonable living organism,
and if the latter be composed of soul and body, this definition of man
will not be identical with that of the soul. If the man be defined as
being the composite of the reasonable soul and the body, how can he be
an immortal hypostatic existence? This definition suits the sense-man
only from the moment that the union of the soul and the body has
occurred; it expresses what will be, instead of setting forth what we
call the Man-in-himself; rather than being a real determination of his
characteristics, it would be only a description which would not reveal
the original being. Instead of defining form engaged in matter, it
indicates what is the composite of soul and body, after the union has
occurred. In this case, we do not yet know what is man considered in
his being, which is intelligible. To the claim that the definition of
sense-things should express something composite, it might be answered,
that we do acknowledge that we must not determine the consistence of
each thing. Now if it be absolutely necessary to define the forms
engaged in matter, we must also define the being that constitutes the
man; that is necessary especially for those (Peripateticians) who, by a
definition, mean a statement of a being's original "characteristics."