Aristotle and the Soul
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- Created on: 18-01-17 12:34
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- Aristotle and the soul
- Aristotle's approach
- Aristotle's approach was very different from that of Plato. Remembering his notion of the four causes, one of these is the formal cause, that which gives something its shape and nature. The table is a table because it is in the form of a table. In the same way, for Aristotle, I am a person because my body is animated by the soul which gives it life; the soul is the formal cause of the body otherwise, I am just the material cause — bones, meat, flesh, etc.
- For Aristotle, the soul is not a simple, immortal substance as it was for Plato. When the light goes out and the soul dies, I go back to being a lump of matter. There is no person left. The idea that the soul goes to another world is not part of Aristotle's understanding. He speculates about whether reason in some sense might live on, like legacy, but he does not believe in personal survival after death. Aristotle is more of a materialist in this perspective.
- The soul is not reducible to physics and chemistry. Matter needs the soul to animate it, but his dualism is not the complete separation of types that we find in Plato. Aristotle's version of the soul is obviously very different from that of Plato. But there are also some similarities.
- He
derives from Plato an idea that he develops in more detail, the belief that the
soul has three elements:
- the vegetative soul, shared with all living things, including plants
- the appetitive soul, in which we find passions and appetites, such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire as well as emotions such as anger, envy or sadness. The appetitive soul is just in animals and humans.
- the intellectual soul, which is rational and directive — it thinks about things and decides the actions we might take. It also includes the powers of memory and reflection on our past and future. The intellectual soul belongs only to humans.
- Aquinas' interpretation of Aristotle's teachings
- St Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest medieval philosophers, was at the forefront of those influenced by the Aristotelian revival of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
- Aquinas tells us in
Summa Theologica:
- "The soul is defined as the first principle of life in
living things, for we call living things 'animate', and those things which have
no life, 'inanimate … the soul, is not a body, but the act of a body, just like
heat is not a body, but an act of a body."
- From this quote, we see how closely he follows Aristotle. He is not saying that you are your soul, it is the principle of life. He goes on to argue this more precisely, saying the human soul, which is called the 'intellect' or the 'mind', is something immaterial, and subsists the body.
- "The soul is defined as the first principle of life in
living things, for we call living things 'animate', and those things which have
no life, 'inanimate … the soul, is not a body, but the act of a body, just like
heat is not a body, but an act of a body."
- Aquinas also believes the soul is
incorporeal and should be understood as the mind, not something separate from
it, he adds more from Summa Theologica:
- "The body is necessary for me to be me … it belongs to the whole notion of man to be composed of soul, flesh, and bones."
- Aristotle's approach
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