Abstract

I show that Aristotle’s psychological hierarchy of vegetal, animal, and rational existence is not an exclusion of plants but a highlighting of their status as definitive of life. To the objector who replies that life is cheap in ancient thought, it will be demonstrated that plants are not just alive according to Aristotle, but exemplify completeness (in a way not available to, e.g., basic beings like grubs and certain insects). In fact, in us too it is the vegetative soul principle that ensures our participation in a crucial form of divinity.