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CHAPTER I

I.

Life and Works of Aristotle Aristotle, son of Nicomachus, was born in 384 BC in the town of Stagira. At the

age of eighteen, he went to Athens and entered the Academy which was founded by Plato. It was in the Academy where Aristotle enhanced his philosophy and he then became one of the greatest students of Plato. He remained there for twenty years until the death of Plato in 347 BC. Aristotle left Athens which was probably the result of his difference of opinion with Speusippus, Platos successor as the head of the Academy, whose philosophical views were greatly at odds with his own1 and cultivated associations with other Academy students in Greece together with Theophrastus, his disciple. In 343/2 BC, Aristotle was asked by King Philip of Macedonia to become the tutor of Alexander, his son, who would soon become the greatest conqueror of his time. Aristotle remained beside Alexander until he ascended to the throne in the year 336 BC. The following year, 335 BC, Aristotle finally left for Athens and established the Lyceum, which was named after Apollo Lyceus whose temple was near the school. The Lyceum was also known as Peripatos (the greek word for a stroll) because

Ignatius Yarza, History of Ancient Philosophy (Manila: Sinag-Tala Publisher, 1994), 111.

Aristotle was used to give lectures while walking up and down the garden of the place.2 When Alexander died in 323 BC, Aristotles life was in risk because a strong reaction against Macedonian suzerainty swept through Athens.3 But to escape the fate same to that of Socrates, he fled to Chalcis leaving the Lyceum to Theoprastus as the head and there he died in the year 322 BC. The works and writings of Aristotle can be classified into two: the exoteric which were written for the most part in dialogue form and intended for general publication4 and the esoteric works which were based on his lectures in the Lyceum.5 Among his famous works are the Metaphysics, the Categories, the Prior and Posterior Analytics, the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics and De Anima that contains his discourse regarding his psychology and in which he defined soul () as the principle of life.6

cf. Ibid., 165. cf. Ibid., 112

Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy. Vol. I. Greece and Rome, From Pre-Socratics to Plotinus (New York: Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1993), 268.
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cf. Yarza, History of Ancient Philosophy, 112. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, 327.

II.

Aristotelian Psychology The common conception of people regarding psychology is that it is the science

of mind and behavior; and there are such methods on how to determine ones personality through his/her actions, mannerisms and the way he/she speaks. The contemporary psychologists focus on giving an account for conscious and intentional states while Aristotelian psychology is concerned to explain all those activities which are characteristics of living things.7 His psychology is primarily focused on the natural bodies which possess a soul, the principle of animal life. He tried to put a meeting point between physics and the biological sciences through his psychology.8 He distinguished the living beings from the non-living beings on the basis of movement as a consequence of his understanding of life.9 Aristotle aimed at providing a theory of mind. In order to have a clear discussion regarding his theory of mind, he had to explain all the capacities which are possessed by living things such as nutrition, respiration and the likes, hence it must include an account of those capacities which are possessed by humans.10 For Aristotle, to have an inquiry about the nature of the soul, he had to consider it as if it was a separate thing yet he is very careful to avoid a dualistic concept of cf. Jonathan Barnes, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (United States of America: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 168. cf. The Pocket Aristotle, Psychology, trans. J. A. Smith, (United States of America: Washington Square Press Publication, 1958), 48.
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cf.Yarza, History of Ancient Philosophy, 165. cf. Barnes, The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, 169.

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spirit and matter.11 He stressed out that soul is inseparable from the body because soul is the cause and principle of the living bodies.12 He therefore concluded that the soul is the form or act to the body and the body as the matter of the soul.13 His discussions went on as he tackled the different faculties or powers of soul which the various classes of natural life possess.14 He put the distinction of soul by applying hierarchy: (1) the vegetative soul, (2) sensitive soul and (3) intellective soul. Aristotle also gave emphasis on the intellective or rational soul. This is what makes human unique for they have the power for the logical reasoning, creative thinking and imagination.

III.

Aristotles predecessors theories regarding the soul Accordingly, there are two main characteristics of the soul which the Aristotles

predecessors based their views regarding soul: (1) soul as the origin of movement and (2) the connection of soul with the sensation.15 Some, like Democritus, agreed that the soul is preeminently and primarily the cause of motion and they regarded it as a thing which is in the motion. Democritus

11

cf. Smith, Psychology, 48. cf. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, 327-328. cf. Ibid., 327. cf.Smith, Psychology, 48.

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14

cf. Aristotle, De Anima, trans. R. D. Hicks (United States of America: Prometheus Books, 1991), 14.

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believed that the soul is a sort of hot substance or fire because the forms or atoms are infinite and those which are spherical, he declares, to be fire and soul and thus they maybe compared with the so-called motes of air. The mixtures of seeds of all sorts he calls the elements of the whole nature; 16 the spherical atoms are identified with soul because atoms of that shape are most adapted to permeate everywhere, and to set all the others moving by being themselves in movement.17 The atomists also assume that the one which imparts motion to the animals is the soul because life is dependent on respiration; the animals continue to live only so long as they can to maintain the resistance of respiration.18 The doctrine of the Pythagorean seems to agree with the same idea regarding the soul and of them declared the motes of air to be soul. Others viewed that motion is the most distinctive characteristic of the soul for everything else is moved by the soul, but the soul is moved by itself: and they never see anything cause motion without itself being in motion.19

16

cf. Ibid.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed., Great Books of the Western World, vol. 8 Aristotle: I, On the Soul, trans. J. A. Smith ( United States of America: Oxford University Press, 1952) , 633.
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cf. Ibid. De Anima, trans. Hicks, 15.

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With similar thoughts, Anaxagoras said that the soul is the moving principle yet distinguished from Democritus idea. He believed that the mind is the cause of beauty and order and elsewhere that it is soul.20 Therefore, those whose focus is in the motion of the animate beings defined soul as the origin of motion. On the other hand, those whose focus is in the knowledge and perception of all that exist, identified the soul with the principle or principles of nature, whether they recognize a plurality of these or only one.21 Thus Empedocles believed that soul is a combination of all the elements and at the same time regarded each of these elements as soul.22 In the same manner, Plato constructs the soul out of the elements. Plato conceived the soul as something opposed to the body- a motor principle no doubt, but one which did not inform it as a real substantial principle.23 Those thinkers who followed this line of thinking - that since the soul is both origin of motion and cognition, it is therefore a self-moving number.24 Thales recognized the soul to be a motive force by affirming that soul is being possessed by magnet which can attract iron. Moreover, Diogenes testified that soul is
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cf. On the Soul, trans. Smith, 633. cf. De Anima, trans. Hicks, 15-16.

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For tis by Earth we see Earth, by Water Water, By Ether Ether, by Fire destructive Fire, By Love Love, and Hate by cruel Hate
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Yarza, History of Ancient Philosophy, 166. cf. De Anima, trans. Hicks, 16.

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air because it is finest in grain and a first principle. Heraclitus identified the soul as vapor and in his further discourse agreed with other who considered soul as origin of motion.25 Alcmaeon, having the same conception about soul, took soul as immortal because it resembles the immortals and that this immortality belongs to it in the virtue of its ceaseless movement.26 There are more early thinkers who viewed soul as elements like Hippo who said soul is water and Critias who thought that soul is blood because soul holds that perceptiveness by the nature of blood.27 Thus, these early thinkers described the soul by three characteristics: motion, perception, and incorporeality and each of these is referred to the first principles. Thus, too, those thinkers who believed in one cause and element such as fire and air believed that soul is also to be one element and those who constructed a plurality of principles also assumed the plurality in the soul.28

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cf. Ibid., 17-18. On the Soul, trans. Smith, 634. cf. Ibid. cf. De Anima, trans. Hicks, 18-19.

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