ARISTOTLE ON THE WAY SOMETHING APPEARS

In this paper I analyse Aristotle’s inquiry into phantasia (especially in De anima III 3). First, I focus on Aristotle’ preliminary distinction between perception, phantasia and thought; second, I reconstruct his polemical debate with Plato concerning the cognitive value of perception and the relation between perception, «appearance» and belief; third, I argue in favour of an involvement of phantasia into the processes underlying complex perception (perception of common sensibles and co-incidental perception); fourth, I briefly suggest a disjunctive interpretation of Aristotelian ‘appearance’ in order to partially avoid the apparent inconsistency between the sharp distinction between perception and phantasia on the one hand, and the view that phantasia is involved in complex perception on the other hand.