Aristotle's Psychology: On the Soul and Parva Naturalia

Aristotle regards the physical world as divided into two realms (the later and now obsolete division into three kingdoms: animal, vegetable, and mineral, is due to the alchemists): (1) the organic world (τὰ ἔμψυχα things with soul); and (2) the inorganic world (τὰ ἄψυχα things without soul).
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The characteristic mark of the organic world is the possession of soul (ψυχή psyche/soul), by virtue of which it is endowed with the power of self-movement.
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Its development and transformations are due to this native soul-force or life. Life is the universal form of organic activity; sensation and the various elements of consciousness are specific forms. Nutritive life and mental life are different manifestations of a single psychical power, the latter representing a higher stage in the evolution of ψυχή psyche.
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'Life,' or the inherent capacity of a thing to effect changes in itself, has several meanings. Whatever possesses any of the following capacities is said to 'live': (1) reason; (2) sensation; (3) local movement; (4) internal movement or transformation, viz. nutrition, growth, and decay. The last power is common to all living things, and is the basis for the further development of the higher powers. These various forms of self-movement are identical with the different types of life. The lowest and least complex of all the forms is the threptic nutritive or vegetal life manifested in the functions of nutrition, growth, and decay.

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Aristotle conceived of Nature's processes as moving without a break in an ascending scale from the inanimate world to the most complex forms of animate existence.¹
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Nature does nothing by leaps original: "Natura nihil facit per saltum". There is an unbroken