Common Sense in Themistius and its Reception in the pseudo-Philoponus and Avicenna

In his paraphrase of the De anima Themistius provides an account of Aristotle’s doctrine of common sense that combines Alexander of Aphrodisias and Plotinus. The Aristotelian koine aisthesis is interpreted as the unifying power of an incorporeal pneuma that receives the information from the senses, the messengers of the soul. On the basis of this Plotinian tenet, Themistius describes the koine aisthesis as a spiritual power that unifies diverse and even opposite sensorial inputs, and discriminates between them. This interpretation of koine aisthesis was influential in subsequent Greek works on the De anima from late Antiquity (pseudo-Philoponus) to Byzantine times (Sophonias) and inspired Avicenna.