Aristotle's Theory Of The Soul As The Concept Of The Self

Aristotle’s Theory of The Soul as the Concept of The Self

One of the biggest questions throughout all of philosophy is what is the self? There have been different definitions and meanings across history, one being that it is the distinguishing mark of living things, as something that is the subject of emotional states and that is responsible for planning and practical thinking, and also as the bearer of such virtues as courage and justice (Lorenz, lines 9-10). We as humans may never contrive a valid answer to this question until we ourselves reach the point where our own individual souls are faced with the end of its life. Many philosophers have produced their own conclusions as to what the self is and how it functions in relation to our

Aristotle saw the relationship between the soul and the body to be one of unity; two different things that make one marvelous creation. Plato believed that the soul came into the body after it was conceived in order to capacitate and rule it. He also says that this action of fulfilling the physical body is a burden onto the soul and that we must spend our lives trying to liberate it. He argues that once the body dies, the soul is freed and let go so that it may be reincarnated for another body. This conclusion by Plato is not falsifiable because there is no way for a person to experience it without having to die and in turn have no way of reporting the findings. For Aristotle the soul isn’t placed inside of a body after the body is born or has arrived in the world. The soul is apart of our existence from the very beginning and cannot come from anywhere outside of the body, therefore making it one with the physical body. The death of a physical body is also the death of the soul according to Aristotle’s theory because the different skills that make the soul, which in turn fulfills a living creature, cannot simply disappear into thin air, as Plato suggests. So when faced with the question of the immortality of the soul he replied with “A soul is simply not the sort of thing could survive. How could my skills, my temper or my character survive me” (Barnes 67). Aristotle believed the soul made an individual unique, so if it was able to live on forever and be passed on from body to body then that would defy the individuality of people and what makes up our society. Therefore, until a theory that suggests that the soul does leave the body at the moment of death to live on, such as Plato’s, is proven we must rely on Aristotle’s theory of the unified soul in order to try to understand the relationship between soul and