Many philosophical and religious movements raise the question of the soul, thinking about it as a kind of intangible essence opposed to the body. The soul is often considered the basis for feelings, consciousness, thinking, manifestations of will, and similar things. It reflects the inner world of humans and is a collection of mental phenomena. The ancient Greeks were the first who began to analyze the soul as a particular philosophical concept, and they were especially interested in the relationship between the body and the soul. The works of Plato and his student Aristotle on the issue of soul and body stand out. The first assumed that they exist separately from each other, and the latter, unlike his teacher, believed that they were connected and then presented a unique view on the soul’s essence. Even though modern science explains and justifies many phenomena that the philosopher discusses in another way, his work is of interest and is essential for understanding the development of scientific thought.
Aristotle’s work discussed in this paper represents a study of the question of the soul and is phenomenal for the time of the thinker. He presented his thoughts on the issue in work called De Anima, in translations known as On the Soul. Recognizing the complexity of understanding the soul, he suggests studying its essence through properties and actions specific to it. This approach and the following analysis of the thinker’s predecessors, who also devoted part of their works to the question of the soul, make the treatise unique. Among his predecessors are Democritus, Thales, and several other philosophers, including Aristotle’s teacher Plato. The analysis of other thinkers helped Aristotle create his own unique vision, fill the gaps he saw, and challenge the assumptions with which the philosopher disagreed.
Understanding his predecessors and their views gave Aristotle a starting point for his research. As a result of analysis, he concluded that all thinkers, when reflecting about the soul, considered such things as motion, perception, and incorporation. At the same time, in attempts to understand the nature of the soul, Aristotle’s predecessors were divided among themselves. Some paradoxically sought a material basis through minimizing the corporeal, focusing on atoms or elements. Others, on the contrary, sought to separate from the material entirely and focus on the soul only as a spirit. Assessing these directions and their disadvantages, Aristotle presented his perspective, which is separated from the previous ideas.
In De Anima, to understand the soul, Aristotle proposes to consider it not as matter but as a form. He sees no point in dividing the soul and body, believing that the soul at the same time cannot be a body and cannot exist without a body. In this way, based on the idea of their, the philosopher believes that soul is a form of a living organic body. For a better understanding, Aristotle presents an analogy – if one looks for the soul of the eye, it will be the vision (Aristotle, 2011). Thus, the soul is the essence of the existence of a specific object, the expressed goal of its presence.
Continuing to separate form and matter, it is essential to note that from the point of view of Aristotle, everything in the world, including humans, is the unity of form and matter. Everything around is essentially a collection of forms connected with the matter. For example, what a house is built from, bricks or wood, is matter, and the purpose of the house is to provide shelter to people – this is a form. Finally, according to this scheme, a person’s body is matter, and a soul is a form.
Thanks to the soul, the human body is alive and being what it is since the soul is the basis for thinking, feeling, growing, and even breathing. The soul binds all the body organs and its life forces to reach the goal of existence. As a result, under the influence of external forces, the soul forces the body to carry out activities laid down as a goal. For example, another comparison that Aristotle uses alongside with analogy of the eye is an ax. It is made of metal and wood – this is its matter, body, and the ability of an ax to chop is its form and soul. If the ax loses this ability, it will remain just wood and metal and lose its soul. A similar thing happens to man and animal – when they die, only bodies remain, and therefore their souls are the reason they live.
Based on the above, such characteristics of the soul are distinguished: it is the essence of the body, it is the goal of existence, and at the same time its cause. Combination of these qualities substitutes the actuality of the body and is called being-fully-itself (entelecheia). Thanks to them, the body has access to life forces, even during the soul’s inactivity, such as during sleep. The soul, as the cause of life and the basis of activity, is the first entelecheia of the body.
Thus, the soul’s presence is a distinctive feature of living organisms, opposed to the non-living, but there remains a need to recognize which species have a soul and which is not. Considering the soul as the basis of life and form, Aristotle also solves a problem of his predecessors, who missed some crucial aspects. Most of them agreed that living is different from non-living due to their ability to perceive and move. This approach shifts the focus to animals and humans, leaving plants out of attention. Their movement manifests itself in growth, but the ability to perceive is in question, while there is no denying that they are alive.
As a result of thinking about the abilities of various types of living beings and their souls, Aristotle brings out a specific hierarchy. It is built on the basis of potencies which are laid down in different types of the soul. The levels increasing the number of abilities are arranged in the following way – the nutritive soul, the sensible soul, and the rational soul. The first type is the soul of plants, the second – of animal, and the third – of human. It is critical to note that potencies included in each previous level form the basis for the following, that is, abilities in each type are added.
Each ability helps the survival and development of species and distinguishes them from each other. The soul of plants (nutritive soul) gives the potencies to grow, feed and reproduce. It is inherent in all living beings and forms the basis for the survival of the species. In animals (the sensible soul), perception and movement are added to these abilities. They help to know the world around them and give senses, the most common of which is touch. Feelings help sensible souls experience pleasure or pain, which in turn causes desires. Aristotle offers appetites – hunger and thirst – as an example of such desire. Finally, human (rational) souls have the power for thinking, imagination, and reflection. This ability helps to collect information, act on the basis of its analysis, and think. The rational soul is the highest form and, unlike others, has a particle that does not die.
In Aristotle’s reflections on the distinctive potency of human souls, there is a division into passive and active minds. The first refers to the knowledge that human already has, to their use and actualization. The second helps to create something new based on personal experience. The passive part is associated with Aristotle’s vision of intellect (nous) – the universal mind. It helps people think rationally and serves as a repository for part of a person’s soul after death. Nous is constantly changing because people during their lives learn something new and bring it to it after death.
Since nous is continuously supplemented by new knowledge, thinking and discoveries are essential, and more enriched intellect will be transferred to the next generations. At the same time, it is worth noting that Aristotle does not believe in the immortality of the whole soul, but only of nous. This particle infuses the child at birth and connects with other potencies – nutritive and sensible. A person may not realize the presence of this knowledge gained by people’s experience, but in learning and thinking, they are updated.
In favor of Aristotle’s conclusion that the soul dies with the body, his thoughts on the uniqueness of the person’s personality speak. While nous is the only preserved part of the soul, Aristotle believes it is not decisive for a human’s personality. People differ because the critical elements of individuality are memory and love, their combination in a particular body. By old age and death, all combinations are erased, as well as personality, which leads to the conclusion about the mortality of the soul.
Thus, Aristotle’s treatise De Anime represents his unique view of the issue of the soul. The philosopher considers one of the most critical problems to be the category to which it could be attributed. As a result, he proposes to think about it as a form and the body as matter. At the same time, the emphasis is on the fact that they are not separable – the soul cannot exist without a body, and the body without a soul is dead. The last conclusion leads to the fact that the soul is the basis of life, its essence, the way of expression, and purpose.
Soul’s presence distinguishes a living organism from a non-living one. Moreover, to apply this concept to various organisms and justify their differences, Aristotle represents several types – the soul of plants, animals, and people. They relate to each other as links of hierarchy and potencies present in a simpler form, in a more complex form supplemented by other abilities. People’s souls are the highest form since they have the ability to think, which Aristotle also divides into two forms – active and passive. Although the philosopher considers the soul to be mortal, he believes in the existence of its immortal particle – passive thinking or intellect (nous), transmits to the next generation.
Reference
Aristotle. (2011). De anima. (M. Shiffman, Trans.). Focus Publishing. (Original work published 350 BC).