On The Soul In Aristotle's On The Soul

Aristotle 's “On the Soul” discusses the soul, although his definition goes a little further then the literal Greek translation “breath”. The soul, in Aristotatlian thought, is the actualization of life, the primary principle by which one lives, moves and acts, It distinguishes a living body from an an inanimate body. All living things have souls, although there are different types. For example, a tree has a vegetative soul, which can take in nutrients and self-propogate, and is intrinsically tied to the matter of the tree, Therefore, when the tree dies, so does the its vegetative soul. In contrast, animals have sensitive souls which have the power of sensation, locomotion and some sort of self-preservation, as well as containing the functions of the vegetative soul. For Aristotle, there is a hiearchy in forms of souls. All higher forms of soul also contain the powers of the lower forms. Finally, there is the rational soul, belonging to humans, which has the ability to conceptualize. The rational soul is intrinsically tied to the body, which differentiates Aristotle 's idea of soul from that of the Atomists and many moderns who disconnect body and soul. However, this definition still causes problems from a Catholic perspective, because although it dissipates dualism, it still assumes the mortality of the soul. Aristotle

The final cause especially distinguishes Aristotle from modern thinkers such as Darwin who would argue that there is no end to nature, no purpose since everything happens randomly. The final causes points to some sort of design and intentionality behind nature. Aristotle would argue that that which happens frequently happens by design, while that which happens seldomly happens by chance. Since in nature there are consistent occurences, nature must have some design. However, for Aristitle this idea simply pointed to the fact that some God might exist, but one that way disinterested in