Aristotle on the Soul Essay

Aristotles imagination differs from the usual conception of a intelligence as about sort of substance occupying the personify, existing separately and etern on the wholey. To him, the oral sex is the essence of a accompaniment thing. The reasonableness is what captures an organism an organism at altogether by veritableizing its capableness for behavior, and its constituted by its competency for activities all important(p) to that specific type of creation. His investigation into the nature of the intellect demonstrates basic principles of his philosophical theories at work, including Hylomorphism, effectiveness and tangibleity, and his tetrad executes.His use of goods and services of these theories in analyzing and teasing out the complexities of the understanding make for a adhesive and comprehensive study, easily amenable with his former(a) works. In this radical I will analyze his nonion of the disposition as described in De Anima, recounting how he ca me to define the psyche, the explanation of the soul, how the souls of different kinds of ensouled beings differ, and his unequalled concept of how the soul is related to the personate.Aristotle begins Book 1 of De Anima by stating that since the soul is a principle of animals, and hither I will interpret animals to mean more broadly beings, describing its essence has implications beyond its obvious scope. In unfolding the nature of the soul, it is possible to determine which attrisolelyes belong to the soul al wholeness and which belong to the organism in virtue of having a soul (Aristotle, De Anima 402a). So besides exploring the nature of life, his analysis will to a fault want to answer the question of whether all mental states (of the soul) are as well as secular states of the body, or whether some attributes of the soul are unique to it.In doing so, we are confronted with the inte outrideing implication of Aristotles position on the school principal/body problem, to whi ch I will get to later on. Returning to the question at hand (what is the soul? ), Aristotle starts his investigation by use of his explanatory theory of Hylomorphism, which states that substances are compounds of thing and draw, and change occurs when form actualizes matter (Shields). There are three sorts of substances form, matter, and the compound of form and matter. Matter is potencyity and form is actuality.Form actualizes matter, which possesses the potential to be what it is. So using Aristotles example of a bronze statue, the matter, in this case the bronze, l whizz(prenominal) actualizes its potential of being a statue when it acquires the form, or the shape and features. Of interest is the third kind of substance, compounds, which make up nutrition beings. The body is the substance as matter, so the soul is the substance as form or shape. Here we get to Aristotles preliminary definition of the soul as the actuality of a immanent body having life potentially (Aristot le, De Anima 412).It is in virtue of this form, the soul, that makes an organism alive. Without the soul, the body would alone when r distributively the ply for life potentially, and so the soul is the essence (the form) of living things. This preliminary definition is taken a pervert further when Aristotle identifies the soul as the start actuality of a essential body that is potentially alive (Aristotle, De Anima 412a). He claims that the actuality that is the soul is interchangeable the actuality that is knowledge, in that we speak of it in two ways.We can distinguish between a state of knowing x and a state of attending to the knowledge of x, where the latter(prenominal) is more of an progressive process. The supine of state of knowing x is the first actuality, first be sweat it moldiness necessarily come preliminary to attending or remembering that knowledge i. e. potential precedes actual. Similarly, the soul of a sleeping person is resembling the passive state, t he first actuality, dapple the soul of an awake person is like the spry state.The soul must be the first actuality, for if not we would be forced to say a sleeping animal lacks a soul, a conclusion we do not want to make (Aristotle, De Anima 412a-412b). First actuality seems to correspond to a capacity to engage in the activity of the second actuality, and in this way is a kind of potential to exercise some function, like the ability to engage in thought. Aristotle makes this clear when he states that, If the eye, for instance, were an animal, sight would be its soul (Aristotle, De Anima 412b).Sight is the capacity of the eye for seeing, where sight is the form and the eye is the matter. The first actuality is the capacity for seeing, and the second actuality is seeing, alive(p)ly exercising the potential ability. So it seems that beyond defining the soul as the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive, we can say the soul is a set of capacities that character ize living things. These lineament capacities are different in different beings, and we will see that it is by these that Aristotle creates his hierarchy of ensouled beings or the degrees of souls.I will return to this distinction later in this paper, when describing how the souls of different ensouled beings differ. At this point we have a definition of the soul, but as Aristotle stresses throughout his various works, we must determine the take or explanation in order to truly grasp the essence, and therefore get at complete envision of his view of the soul. The definition just given condones the what, but a adequate account must explain the why.He states in the Physics, for our inquiry aims at knowledge and we specify we know something only when we find the effort why it is so, i.e. , when we find its primary cause (Aristotle, Physics 194b). His criteria for an adequate definition, one that is sufficient for knowledge, rest on his theory of causation and explanation.The fou r causes include the material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. Material cause is what something is made of, the formal cause is the form or pattern of which a thing is what it is, the efficient cause refers to the agent of change or rest, and the final cause is the intended purpose of the change or the occasion why a thing is done (Shields).We must, therefore, determine why the soul is what it is in virtue of these four general causes. The soul is the principle and the cause of the living body, for it is in virtue of the soul that the body is alive, and frankincense it plays an explanatory role. It is the cause of the living body in three of the four ways, as the source of motion, as what something is for, and as the substance of ensouled bodies(Aristotle, De Anima 415), corresponding to the efficient cause, the final cause, and the formal cause respectively.It is the source of motion in that it causes growth and decay in the organism. The soul is also the cau se of the living body by being the final cause, as the body is merely an organ for the sake of the soul, aimed at the soul. And finally, the soul is the formal cause of the living body for it causes life by being the form and actuality of what is potentially. The body makes up the fourth cause, the material cause, by being the matter that makes up a living organism (Aristotle, De Anima 415).I will use Aristotles example of the nature of a house as described in Book One, when he is discussing the importance of form, in order to better illustrate the necessity for analysis of a concept to a lower place his theory of causation and explanation. To merely define a house as stones, bricks, and timbers, is not to capture its full essence. A house is stones, bricks, and timbers (material cause), built into an enclosed structure (formal cause), fashioned together by a work (efficient cause), in order to provide shelter from the elements (final cause).We can describe the what, but without f urther details round the explanation, we dont really know the nature of a house. Similarly the soul is why, it gives the explanation for, the life activities of a living body. At this point Aristotles notion of the soul is quite clear it is the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive, it is a set of capacities for life-giving and defining activities of organisms, and it is the form, the source of motion, and the meaning (it directs) to the end of the living body.Souls of different living beings are differentiated by their capacities to engage in the activities characteristic of that type of organism, which comprise their livelihood and survival. It is these differentiating faculties that make up the soul. Among these faculties are the nutritive and reproductive, perceptive, locomotive, and the capacity for thought and understanding. Aristotle claims, the soul is the principle of the potentialities we have mentionedfor nutrition, detection, understanding, and m otionand is defined by them (Aristotle, De Anima 413).There are three types of souls, arranged in a nested hierarchy, so the possession of a higher soul entails possession of all that are beneath it. The lowest, or most basic, in this hierarchy is the nutritive soul. All living things possess the capacity for self-nourishment, for without this they would not live. Next is the sensitive soul, which is possessed only by animals. The highest type of soul is the rational soul, belonging only to humans. These three souls are differentiated by their function, corresponding to the ensouled being in possession of the soul with the power to exercise that function.While the animal soul possesses the nutritive and the sensitive, and the human soul the rational as well, each has but one unified soul with a various sets of capacities (Shields). The nutritive soul is the potentiality held by all living things to preserve it and equip it for life. The function of this soul is the use of nourishme nt and generation, or reproduction. propagation is the most natural function, as it is a means for a living being to dissipateicipate in the future (the everlasting and divine) by producing something else of its own sort.The use of nourishment allows the being to preserve itself, only existing sequence it is nourished. Nourishment allows an organism to grow as well as decay, according to its form. Since all living things possess the nutritive soul, all living things have the capacity for self-nourishment, growth, decay, and for reproduction. Further, since all nourishment involves digestion, and digestion involves heat, all beings contain heat (Aristotle, De Anima 415-416). The sensitive, or perceptive soul, distinguishes plants from animals.Perception is a type of alteration, in that a capable sense-organ in perception is affected or changed by an external object. The external object acts as the agent, possessing the qualities in actuality that the sense-organ possesses potenti ally. Aristotle describes that it is through an intermediate condition, such as air, that sense organs receive the forms or qualities of the objects of perception, not the matter, when involuntarily acted upon by the external object. Thus, the sensitive soul has the capacity to receive sensible forms, resulting in perception.The sense-organs become like the agent after being affected, or receiving the qualities (Shields). Again, we can see Aristotle returning to his theory of Hylomorphism in describing perception as the change in the sense-organ as a result of the acquisition of form. The potential of the sense-organ is made actual in virtue of the external object which possesses the form in actuality. Aristotle states that every animal has the sense of touch, but not all possess the sense of sight, hearing, taste and smell.Animals are further distinguished along these lines while each possesses a nutritive and a sensitive soul, there are various degrees of complexity of the latter soul corresponding to the activities of the animal. Aristotle continues further that the possession of the perceptive soul implies that the animal has the capacity to desire, and desiring includes appetite, emotion, and wish. He also determines possession of this soul entails the ability to feel pleasure and pain and it is in virtue of this soul that some animals possess the power of locomotion (Aristotle, De Anima 413-415).The rational soul, perhaps the most difficult section to interpret of De Anima, is essential and indicative of humans alone. It is in virtue of the rational soul, the intellect, that we come to know and understand things. The intellect is the ass of thought and thus reason. Thinking is similar to perception, as it involves the reception of form by a fitting capacity. However, while the object of perception is external and is the composite of form and matter, the object of thought is within the soul and is form alone (Shields).While hard to follow, I believe the objects of thought are the forms of forms they get their unadorned forms in virtue of the sensible forms sensed in perception. Aristotle discusses the concept of appearances, which are different from perceptions and beliefs, for appearances exist while we sleep, with no external stimuli actualizing the sensation, and beliefs involve conviction, while appearances do not. Appearances are images resembling objects of perception (Aristotle, De Anima 428). It is helpful to think of appearances as the representation of reality we see in imagination.I believe Aristotle is claiming that it is these appearances that are the objects of thought. In intellection, the mind is made to be like the object of thought through reception of its intelligible form. The intellect is handsome potentiality, it potentially has all of these objects of thought, and only in thought do these intelligible forms become actualized in the mind (Shields). As Aristotles philosophical worldview rests on a Hylomorphi c principle, it is difficult to see how the alteration, bringing the intellect from potentiality to actuality in thought, comes about.In perception, this is in virtue of an external object that acts as an agent for change in the sense-organ. But what is the agent of change in intellection? Aristotle divides the intellect into the active and passive intellects. The active intellect acts as the agent of change when the mind thinks the active intellect actualizes the intelligible forms in the passive intellect. The passive intellect stores the concepts of knowledge and intelligible forms in potentiality, to be recalled by the active intellect during thought. This means however, that the actual must precede the potential, contrary to what was discussed above.The nature of the active intellect is its activity, so it must be unremittingly active in order to cause the passive intellect to act and us to have thoughts and reason. If it is continuously active, this part of the rational soul m ust be eternal and thus stands in stark contrast with the rest of the souls Aristotle posits, but this controversial point is something I will not take up in this paper (Shields). Returning to the more broad implications of De Anima and Aristotles larger philosophical framework, we can analyze his notion of the soul in terms of the mind/body problem.Explicating his position, or lack thereof, on this matter will also illustrate his views on the soul in terms of wholey, oneness, seperability, and mortality. Substance dualism is the position that the mind is separate from the body and that the mind is non-physical, often posited as being eternal. Aristotles conception of the soul, however, is that it is not ontologically distinct from the body. All nourishment, perception, and change surface thinking require a body. Further, as the living body is the composite of form (soul) and matter (body), it represents one inextricable substance.The soul and body are inseparable, except for perha ps the active intellect. While we can conceptually distinguish between a soul and a body, or form and matter, they are but one substance, related in terms of this composite. So when the body perishes, the soul does as well. Leaving aside the debated active intellect, the soul cannot be immortal. Therefore, Aristotle cannot be said to be a substance dualist. Materialism, on the other hand, claims that all that exists is physical and that substance is pure matter.But as has been said, Aristotles position on the soul takes it to be pure form and thus immaterial. The primary substance of a living body is the unity of body and soul, which is not purely matter. So, he cannot be a materialist either. While Aristotle does not clearly take a position towards this dilemma, he does suggest a new way of viewing it. Instead of presupposing the mind and speculating on the body as dualists do, or vice versa if you are a materialist, identifying the two as a unit and illuminating the association in terms of unity relations may prove more feasible.To summarize, Aristotles notion of the soul is that it is the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive. The concept of first actuality represents a sort of capacity for parturiency the action that characterizes the second actuality. So the soul is life-giving and facilitates the body for undertaking the actions necessary for survival and well-being. Plants have only the nutritive soul, enabling them to sustain themselves and reproduce. Animals have this soul as well as the sensitive soul, which facilitates perception and feelings of pleasure, pain, desire, appetite, etc.Humans are further distinguished in virtue of the elusive rational soul, which gives us the unique power of understanding, thought, and rationality. Aristotles soul is unlike other conceptions as it posits that although the body and soul is one, inseparable unit, the soul is immaterial while the body is physical. His consistency on his views of the soul with his views of nature and reality are obvious, as he frequently makes use of his broader theories of Hylomorphism, his four causes, and the potential/actual nature of everything that exists, making for a powerfully cohesive portfolio.Works Cited Aristotle, Terence Irwin, and Gail Fine. De Anima. Aristotle Selections. Indianapolis Hackett Pub. , 1995. 402-34. Print. Aristotle, Terence Irwin, and Gail Fine. Physics. Aristotle Selections. Indianapolis Hackett Pub. , 1995. 184-263. Web. Shields, Christopher. Aristotles Psychology. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). N. p. , 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.