Aristotle on the soul?

Question

So Aristotle views the soul as the essence of a person, that part of self that reasons and makes choices...dreams and hopes. But then he contradicts himself by saying that the body develops before the soul and that the ability to reason developed before the ability to feel.

The soul IS reason...So the soul IS developed first. Aristotle had it wrong.... Well we know he did, because he stated that the soul does not live on as we in chrstianity believe it does

Answer 1

Well, you are assuming that you know what a soul is and Aristotle did not.



Also you don't understand what Aristotle was saying. Aristotle used the word "soul" to mean the essence of something or someone. That is why he would say that the soul occurs after the body is formed as the essence doesn't exist until the body is complete.



But Aristotle also used the term soul to refer to anything that is complete. He wrote of the soul of an axe and the souls of trees, ideas that might be foreign to a person who thinks of "soul" as having some Western monotheist religious concept. His idea of a soul is closer to that of the Zen Buddhists except that for Aristotle he felt that the soul died with the body and did not have any live beyond the body.



Aristotle's idea of soul is far more compatible with the use of the word "soul" by modern philosophers than your religious idea of soul.

Answer 2

The soul never thinks without a picture. Aristotle The soul is characterised by these capacities: self-nutrition, sensation, thinking and movement. Aristotle

Answer 3

Good one Whatev, my sister in Christ. He did have it wrong, and I can't take much of what Aristotle said seriously because Alexander was one of his pupils, though "the great one" was a genious he ended up believing himself to be diety or atleast more than a mere mortal. However Aristotle was partially right about what the soul is and what it does. The soul is the essence of a person. Basically it is the mind, will, and emotions. A person isn't just their physical body and their earthly name and title. We are basically defined by what and how we think, feel, and do. But as we Christians know that can be either good or evil. People are not basically good by nature, they are both good and evil. And to the degree one is good they can be evil to that same degree. The soul will of course exist forever because we are all made in the image of God, having the breath of life within us. It's not a matter of existing forever, it's a matter of where and with who.

Answer 4

What if the body is only the chalice that is only filled when it receives a soul. Under the current Christian doctrine, a body without a soul can conceptually exist (for example, cloning). Also under the Christian doctrine, a soul without a body can also exist - this is how we get to heaven. Therefore, Aristotle's view that the soul and the body are two are not inconsistent.