Aristotle’s Body/Soul Distinction
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MATERIALISM
This is the theory that our minds are inseparable from our bodies. Aristotle was a materialist, unlike Plato who was an advocate of dualism.
BODY = Matter of a person (according to Aristotle)
PSYCHE (Soul) = Form of a person, the structure and characteristics
HIERARCHY OF SOULS
Aristotle argued that the nature of the soul depends on the type of organism and its position in a hierarchy. Plants have a soul with the powers of nutrition, growth and reproduction as appropriate for their kind. Above plants, animals have appetites as well and thus can have desires and feelings which gives them the ability to move.
HUMAN SOUL
At the top of the hierarchy, the human soul has the power of reason
If the eye were an animal, sight would have been its soul. When sight is removed the eye is no longer an eye except in name – it is no more a real eye than the eye of a statue or of a painted figure.
DEATH
A dead animal is an animal in name only, it has lost its capacity to do the things animals do thus has no soul and is only matter (prime matter)
INSEPARABLE SOUL
The body and soul are not two separate elements but one thing
MORTAL SOUL
The soul is not immortal – it does not separate from the body because it is what makes the body a person rather than just matter (it is the form of a person).
REASON
All the faculties of the soul are inseparable from the body with the exception of reason. It has been suggested that Aristotle believed that reason is immortal, although this remains unclear. However, if reason does have the capacity to facilitate some sort of life after death it cannot not have a personal, recognisable identity.
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