The text discusses the concept of the soul and its interaction with the body, particularly through the senses. It suggests that while the soul is not physically located in the body, it influences and receives reports through the senses, with a focus on the importance of sight. The passage also addresses philosophical ideas about perception and awareness and highlights the critical role of interpreting sensory input correctly.
Human Figures, Etc.
The soul acts, but its exact location, the sensible and comprehending soul, primarily holds itself to receive the said reports; and how it can, upon receiving, think independently as a reasonable spirit, to understand how, what, and where it thinks and knows, and then make decisions to act upon the body via the Animal Soul, that is, the spirits, thereby directing them. Most opinions and discussions do not claim that the soul is localized in the body; much less do they claim that the location of awareness itself is the soul. Because if no location can be conceived as one that is made by a combination of parts, and thereby makes up the essence of a body; then if this combination were broken or dismantled, the soul would also necessarily cease to be. Therefore, we cannot easily accept this notion.
Following our previous grounds to precisely indicate how the soul acquires knowledge of each working of the five senses, or how things are conveyed to it, would require substantial elaboration, with each to be addressed individually. However, since the ways and manners by which this occurs are mostly unanimous; thus, if one of them is well understood, there will be little difficulty with the rest. We believe the use of the eyes—meaning sight—should in no way be considered the least of the five senses, and thus they will be fitting for explaining the function of the others.
To fully understand sight, we must first acknowledge that objects can appear incorrectly when in an inverted or contradictory position relative to the eye.