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Aristotle Aristotle • Lived 384-323 BC. • He was a student of Plato. • Was the tutor of Alexander the Great. • Founded his own school: The Lyceum. • He wrote treatises on physics, cosmology, biology, psychology, politics, ethics, language, and logic to name just a few. • Was influential well into the 1600s. • Was as much a natural scientist has he was a philosopher—made detailed observations of plant and animal life and devised detailed theories of change and motion in the physical world. Background Aristotle and Plato Strategy for understanding ancient views about the mind. 1. Metaphysics: their view about the nature of the world. 2. Their understanding of the mind as it is informed by that worldview. 3. Importance to the history of psychology. Aristotle and Plato Aristotle and Plato • Recall, Plato thought the universe was • Aristotle inherited the problem of divided into two realms: the material world universals from Plato. of the senses and the eternal immutable • Recall, universals are merely the various world of the Forms. Forms, which explain the nature of the • This was shaped by his study of sensible world. mathematics and had an impact on his view of the soul (mind). • But there is an enormous difficulty with • The body belonged to the material world, Plato’s theory. while the soul belonged to the forms. • What do you think it is? 1 Aristotle and Plato Aristotle and Plato • The problem is to explain the relationship • Aristotle’s excursions into botany led him between the realm of the Forms and to believe that change and growth in the material objects. natural world result from a force in the • Plato became aware of these difficulties material objects themselves. later in his life (the population problem; • Aristotle rejected Plato’s theory of the and the third man argument). Forms. • Aristotle was also aware of this difficulty • Instead, he believed universals to be part and attempted solutions. of the natural world. Aristotle and Plato Aristotle and Plato • Aristotle’s solution was to replace the idea of two distinct realms with the idea that material things have dual aspects: all objects are a composite of matter and form. • In this way universals (Forms) become part of the material objects that make up the material world. • In order to better understand this view we need to have an account of Aristotle’s notion of substance. Aristotle on Substance Aristotle on Substance • ‘Substance’ refers to the basic elements of the There are three different concepts that fall world—it is the thing that remains constant under this term: throughout the change we see (e.g. the growth of plants and animals; the movement of the stars). 1. Substance as matter. 2. Substance as form (or essence). 3. Substance as the combination of 1 & 2. • The distinction between matter and form Æ is, roughly, what something is made of and what makes it the kind of thing it is. 2 Matter and Form Matter and Form • Insofar as they are the same kind of thing, they have the same form. • What makes these statues the kind of thing they are is that they portray the same subject—the thinker. • This is given by the shape of the objects. • So the shape is the form. • But they are composed of different Marble Bronze material (marble and bronze). Same form different matter. Matter and Form Matter and Form • In this case, both these statues are the same kind of thing—they have the same form. • But although they both come from bronze, they are different pieces of bronze. • The matter is what individuates them—its what makes them two distinct objects. Same form different matter. Matter and Form Aristotle on Change • The same holds true of the natural world. • For Aristotle change was a • Plants and animals of the same species have transformation from potentiality to the same form (or essence)—it is what different members of the group have in common. actuality governed by the laws of • The matter is what differentiates them from one causation. another. • For example, an acorn is potentially an • But (confusingly) form is also responsible for the oak tree. uniqueness of each object (e.g. its particular shape). • If the right conditions are met the • E.g. Your form (or essence) is what makes you a potential oak tree (found in the acorn) human being but also the unique person you becomes an actual oak tree. are. 3 Aristotle on Change Aristotle on Change 4 Causes • In living things the principle of change is within Potentiality the object itself. 1. Material cause: the material that makes up the object (e.g. marble). • For example, an acorn ‘wants to become an oak 2. Efficient cause: the agent of change or the means by tree.’ which change is induced (e.g. the sculptor). 3. Formal cause: the expression of what an object is (e.g. the shape of the statue). 4. Final cause: the end or purpose for a thing—why it is done (the idea of the statue in the sculptor’s mind; as a tribute to thinking). Æ Actuality Aristotle on the Soul Aristotle on the Soul The Definition of the Soul • E.g. the difference between a living body 1. Natural bodies (e.g. rocks, trees, water, and a dead one is that one possesses a animals…) are substances in the sense soul. of composites of form and matter. • Thus, the body (tissue, bone etc.) cannot 2. Some natural bodies are living, and be the soul. some are not. • The body is merely what makes life 3. Because a living body is a body of a particular kind (living!), the body cannot possible. be the soul. Aristotle on the Soul Aristotle on the Soul • The soul is a substance—a fundamental • Soul must be a substance in the sense of element of the world. the form of a natural body having life • Thus, it must be either matter, form or a potentially within it. combination. • The difference between a body that is • All living things are composites of matter potentially alive and one that is actually and form. alive is the presence of a soul. • So the soul must be one or the other. • But it can’t be matter because matter is only potentially a living thing. 4 Aristotle on the Soul Soul as the Form of Living Things • In living things the form is what makes a plant or animal a member of one species or another. • An acorn becomes an oak tree because it has the form or soul of an oak. • Same species = same soul. • Since soul can only enliven matter with a particular kind of organization (having the right parts for living), the soul is the actuality of a “natural organized body.” Aristotle on the Soul Aristotle on the Soul • But the soul is more than just a principle of life. • Things belong to a species in virtue of • It is also responsible for the naturally organized what they do rather than how they look. body functioning in the way that it does. • E.g. there are certain activities that are • In the natural world, what makes something the natural for dogs. kind of thing it is (its form) is a principle of growth and movement within the thing itself. • It is the capacity for this kind of activity that • Life is growth and movement. makes something a dog. • It is the specific nature of this power that • Physical organization of the dog make this determines the species to which something activity possible, but the soul is what belongs. makes this possibility actual. Aristotle on the Soul Aristotle on the Soul • Consider an axe (Aristotle’s example). • Consider an eye. • If it were a natural thing, its soul would be what • If an eye were a living thing, sight would be its makes it an axe. soul, since that’s what makes it what it is. • This would be its ability to cut wood. • Eyes of living creatures see, in contrast to the eyes of statues. • But an axe is not a natural thing, for if it were, it would be able to cut wood by itself. • Similarly, the power of sense (sensibility) is what gives form to the sensible organs of the body. • Living things have the power in themselves to do • Thus, the soul of a living thing is like a hierarchy the kind of things that make them the thing they of forms, each contributing to the are (e.g. growth, reproduction, perception…) powers/abilities that constitute life for that species. 5 Aristotle on the Soul Faculties of the Soul • What we get here is functional account of • For Aristotle the various species form a the mind. hierarchy according to the nature of their • The mind (or soul) is understood in part by activities. how it makes actual the functioning of a • All grow and reproduce. living thing. • But not all forms of life possess sensory organs • Unlike Plato, Aristotle believed the soul to perceive the world around them. was inseparable from the body—it would • This led him to propose different faculties of the be like asking “whether the wax and its soul whereby a species is categorized in shape are one.” accordance with the faculties they possess. Faculties of the Soul Aristotle on Perception 1. Nutritive Soul: all living things have the Vision power to feed and reproduce. • For Aristotle colour is what lies on the surface of visible objects. 2. Sensitive Soul: some also have the • We see other things through a powers of locomotion and perception. transparent medium/substance that exists between our eyes and 3.