UTKARSH SINGH

19095101
ELECTRONICS

Aristotle’s Concept of Mind

Before discussing the Aristotle’s concept we should first go

back to Plato’s concept because certainly Plato’s thinking and
observations had an impression and deep impact on
Aristotle’s concept.
According to Plato soul is transcendental, it is not composed
by the body it is actually the essence of life. So it makes
decisions on its own and display s the emotions which are
displayed as voluntary actions.
Above all there is a purpose behind the activities of soul so all
the engagements-interactions human body have with the
outer world is not a historical and repetitive process its more
kind of dynamic .
Now lets elaborate what were Aristotle’s views –
Aristotle’s proposes a transcendental theory of life, affirming
that soul is the principle of life the essence of life.
Here is where the important aspect of philosophy comes into
action that is metaphysics , according to Aristotle’s
Metaphysics is the ultimate source of knowledge so he
presupposes the notion of soul as a metaphysics concept to
explain the nature of reality.
From this mighty branch of philosophy comes two concepts
that are-
Potentiality and Actuality.
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For example lets take our human body and name it
potentially ‘x’
So we identify body as ‘x’ this is actualisation.
From this discussion it is demonstrated that soul is
actualisation and body is potentialisation.
According to Plato matter and forms are two separate
entities and forms are logically prior in this universe than the
existence of particulars, while Aristotle’s believed both to be
same.
It is actually by the process of actualisation that matter gets
an identity.
While Plato considered form to be copies of particulars ,
Aristotle’s belief was absolute opposite that form actually
carries particulars and give them identity.

Plato, in his theory of forms, separates the sensible world

(appearances) of the intelligible world (ideas) and therefore
the intelligible world was the sole reality, the inspiration of all
truth. But in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, at the guts of his
philosophy, such separation removes any intelligibility
and intending to the globe. in step with him, the intelligibility
is present in every being and in every thing. the
globe consists of drugs. The substance is either matter or
form, or a compound of both. the form is that, in every being,
is general, so intelligible. for instance the form of a dog
is what's common to any or all dogs. The matter
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is what's special, so unknowable.
or Aristotle the biologist, the soul is not—as it absolutely
was in a number of Plato’s writings—an exile from a
higher world ill-housed in an exceedingly base body. The
soul’s very essence is defined by its relationship to an body.
Not only humans but beasts and plants too have souls,
intrinsic principles of animal and vegetable life. A soul,
Aristotle says, is “the actuality of a body that has life,” where
life means the capacity for self-sustenance, growth, and
reproduction. If one regards a protoplasm as a composite of
matter and form, then the soul is that the variety of a natural
—or, as Aristotle sometimes says, organic—body. An organic
body may be a body that has organs—that is to mention,
parts that have specific functions, like the mouths of
mammals and also the roots of trees.
Now we talk about the debate in our surroundings .There are
natural substances around us then there are artificial things
around us which have been created by human beings like
computers and furniture etc.
All the living beings like human , plants all grow and decay
that’s what sums up their lifetime , according to Aristotle
every natural body which shares life is substance and soul is
the essence of this life .The relationship between the
substance and body does not has mechanicality in it but is
natural.
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ELECTRONICS
According to interpretations of Miller he rather has an
interesting take on this topic, by saying the matter is not a
attribute of a subject (body).Hence soul is not an attribute of
the body rather soul is the substance which potentially
partakes of life.
This statement if read from a layman’s perspective seems a
bunch of plain and flat words but if you put into the real
meanings of “potentiality”,”body” and “soul” which were
given or discussed by Aristotle the meaning of this piece by
Miller strikes clearly.

In the first level of actualisation knowledge is the actual state

and being aware corresponds to the exercise of such
knowledge.So this takes us to four different levels of souls-
1)Intellect 2)Perception 3)Locomotion and rest 4)Nutritive
movement ,growth and decay
Human beings live a very complex life with a very complex
knowledge system compared to the normative and basic life
animals live.
As seen from the above discussions Aristotle had a different
meaning or what u can say different interpretation of what
soul meant to him.
According to him soul is in the body with a purpose, these
views somewhat differ to that of Plato’s . Summarising about
the nature of soul it is said that soul is basically material
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,matter is to form is what body is to soul , soul is
imperishable and immortal.
Now he talks what are the four different causes-
1)Material 2)Efficient 3)Formal 4)Final
The material cause is part of the matter, he material cause is
what something is made out of. The formal cause is what
makes a thing one thing rather than many things.
The efficient cause is what did that. The final cause is why
efficient causes do what they do and why formal causes do
what they do.
The universe is changing rapidly and there is only one
constant which is change , change is the only constant . And
for Aristotle god is the unmoved mover , the principle behind
every movement .
Principle of power is present which is special because it is
having intellect . At last according to Aristotle soul is the most
material component of the body , it is a part of the body but
still it has its own logical functions which are different from
the body’s actions.
UTKARSH SINGH
19095101
ELECTRONICS