Aristotle

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Aristotle

• Body and Soul

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Introduction

• The body and soul are inseparable, Aristotle did
  not believe in immortality of the soul or the
  afterlife.
• The soul is divided into two halves, the rational
  and the irrational.
• Without the soul the body cant move, as without
  the soul we are not complete, neither can survive
  without the other.
• Aristotle was a dualist but they are together not
  separate.

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The BODY

• The body and soul are a unity and when the body
  dies the soul ceases to exist so the body is not
  real.
• The body is its own material cause, Aristotle
  refers to the body and matter, is composed of
  matter and is subject to change
• Without the soul, a main component, the body
  cannot move.

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The SOUL

• Aristotle believed that the soul is the Form of
  the body.
• The soul is neither immortal or physical.
• The soul is the part of the body that gives it
  life. It is what turns the physical form into a
  living organism of its particular type e.g. a dog
  has a dog soul and a human has a human soul. The
  soul is not immortal it is simply the form of the
  body and is not capable of existing without the
  body.
• The soul develops a persons skills, character or
  temper but it cannot survive death.
• The body and soul are a unity, this would appear
  to be materialistic but Aristotle believed that
  the body and soul were different. The soul is
  capable of an intellectual life and the body is
  just matter.
• Aristotle refers to emotions as affectations
  of the soul e.g. anger
• Aristotle believed that the soul constituted the
  Efficient, Formal and Final causes of the body
  whilst the body provided its own Material cause

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• The soul is divided into two halves the rational
  and the irrational
• The rational side was made up of the calculative
  part which was responsible for choosing things
  and the scientific part which was responsible for
  understanding facts and logic
• The irrational side was made up of the
  desiderative part which was responsible for our
  desires and our vegetative part responsible for
  identifying our needs.
• Aristotle suggests that the soul can produce
  movement and without the soul the body cannot
  move. He offers an analogy in his writings of De
  Anima and says Oarsmen are an example they
  are clearly not in motivation in the same way as
  the boat is. The boat is in motion in itself,
  they by virtue of being, in that moving thing.

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Extra bits

• Every living thing has a psyche (The word
  Greeks gave to the animator, the living force
  in a living being) and the psyche is what makes
  it alive.
• For the Ancient Greeks the psyche, our sensations
  and emotions, were on the body side of the
  mind. If a person is hungry then the body feels
  hunger but the mind would dwell on the universal
  concept of hunger.
• Mental activity is kept separate from the body
  and its sensations.
• Only humans can reflect on feelings and
  sensations and grasp Universals (Goodness as
  opposed to an individual good thing). In this way
  humans come to understand eternal truth.

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THE Hierarchy

• Human beings have a soul or self that is capable
  of an intellectual life, this is due to human
  reason.
• Aristotle has a hierarchy of particulars of
  this world
• Humans (Rational Soul)- have nourishment,
  reproduction, sensation, movement, levels of
  memory and the capacity to reason.
• Higher animals (Sensitive Soul) e.g. Bears have
  nourishment, reproduction, sensation, levels of
  memory.
• Lower animals (Sensitive Soul) e.g. mice have
  nourishment, reproduction, sensation, and
  movement.
• Plants (Nutritive Soul) only have capacity for
  nourishment and reproduction
• Only humans have reason therefore they are the
  highest in the hierarchy, we are superior, and
  according to Aristotle we are the ultimate
  species.

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Comparing Plato and Arry

• Plato started with intellectual ideas Aristotle
  started with observations of the natural world.
• Plato saw reality as essentially mathematical,
  arranged along theoretical lines, to be deduced
  intellectually.
• Aristotles understanding was based on
  perception, observation and investigation.
• Aristotle claimed that individual things make the
  primary realities. This is a contrast to Plato,
  who believed that sensible objects in this world
  are only shadowy reflections of the true reality.
  This can be described by giving an account of
  what these inadequate particulars reflect and
  imitate.

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Criticisms

• Aristotle looks for the function of human beings,
  but why assume that there is a function? Why
  assume that there is a unique one?
• Aristotle believed that God was the Prime Mover
  that was the necessary source of all substances.
  Atheists would disagree to the existence of God.
• It has been suggested that Aristotle believed
  that reason is immortal although this remains
  unclear because it hasnt been specified in any
  of his writings.

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• The End
• Maddie and becky