Aristotle

Aristotle

• Aristotle believed that there is a soul, but the body dies too. So the question is – why do we have a soul?

The Psyche

• Definition : Principle of life; something that distinguishes it from a living being to a non-living being.

• The creatures psyche was ‘its’ principle of life;

The faculties of the Soul

• Each soul has a number of faculties, but not all living things have the same ones: The faculties are:

1. Nutrition

2. Perception (Could be evolution e.g. rabbits are scared of everything)

3. Desire (We are social characters. Evolution made social creatures more successful)

4. Movement

5. Intellectual (More to do with humans)

• These are all related to the Soul.

• All these are more to do with the theory of evolution more than Soul.

The big 3

• Everything that is alive has a soul, but these souls work in a different way.

• Plants:

o Vegetative Souls – They possess the faculty of nutrition; obtain food to stay alive.

• Animals:

o Sensitive souls – Possess the faculty of perception, desire and movement to keep staying alive and to sustain life. E.G. movement – Migration of animals, as they know the food will run out if they stay there for too long.

• Humans:

o Have ALL faculties.

o Have rational souls – possess the faculty of intellect .

o Aristotle argues that the thinking aspect of the human psyche was that which distinguished human kind from all species.

• Plants actively seek light, and nutrition. So they seek the preference to stay alive.

• Humans only have to worry about moral dilemma from human intellect.

Greek Dualism

• Distinguished between mental activity and bodily sensation.

• Aristotle’s 4 causes:

1. Material cause

2. Efficient cause

3. Formal cause

4. Final cause

• These are applied to the soul.

The body/soul relationship

• Body is the material cause – flesh, bone, blood and cells.

• Soul is the efficient cause – animates the body and brings it to life.

• Formal cause – The idea that shapes...