Aristotle: Body and Soul

Aristotle: The Body and Soul

• Believed that all living things had both a body and a soul
• The body is the material of which something is made (material cause), and the soul the form, purpose and shape of the thing (Formal cause)
• Analogy of the axe: Wood and metal are the body, the soul is its shape and ability to cut
• Analogy of a statue - statue needs the soul to make the material into a statue - 'It indubitably follows that the soul is inseparable from the…