Do I have a soul? - Philosophy Session 3
Summary of philosophy Session 3
Do I have a Soul? - Philosophical Perspective - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Socrates (470 BC) spoke of the soul as the “true self”.
For Socrates, the starting point of life – and particularly the life of virtue – is to “know thyself”. And another occasion “an unexamined life is not worth living”. Socrates’ topics delved into concepts “love” “dignity” “justice”. He would go to the forums, sit there, throw out a definition and banter back and forth (Socratic method). But what is “true self”? And where does the soul reside? These are questions that Socrates did not answer.
Plato (428 BC)
Student of Socrates, tries to prove the existence of soul through reason. What does it mean to be a living thing? As opposed to a non-living thing? How do you know if something is alive or not?
Movement
If we want to determine if something is live or not, we usually test for signs? The reason we do this is that life has something to do with movement. For Plato, movement defines a living thing.
But even non-living things move? What is the difference?
The principle source of motion of a non-living thing is extrinsic to the moving thing where as a living thing moves itself (self-ambulation). Hence the principle of motion of a living thing is intrinsic. “Living things have an intrinsic principle of motion”. What exactly is an intrinsic principle?
Consider what living things have in common with non-living things? The answer is matter. A Chemist might tell us that our bodies are made up of Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, etc. But is a thing alive by virtue of its matter? Clearly not. If a thing is alive by virtue of its matter, then all material things would be living. But this is clearly not the case.
Matter is inert (inactive, passive). So a thing is alive by virtue of a principle that is non-matter, or immaterial – and that is what Plato calls the soul.
“Self-motion is precisely the essence and definition of soul. Body that has an external source of motion is soulless, but a body moved from within is alive or besouled, which implies that nature of soul is what we have said” - Plato
*besouled means “endowed with a soul”.
Immateriality of the Intellect – Soul is an intellectual soul – Plato
The Greek word for soul is “psyche” which often is translated as “mind”. The object of the intellect is the essence of things. Concepts, as they exist in our mind, are universal, thus they are not material.
A material thing cannot be a receiver of an immaterial form, rather, a material thing like pottery clay, receives a material form (imprint). The form, as it is received by matter, is individuated and is subject to change.
But the mind receives forms or conceives ideas that are one, unchanging and universal. Thus, the mind is immaterial. The soul of the human person is an intellectual soul, capable of apprehending the nature of things.
As Plato says: “The soul resembles the eternal Ideas, which are proper object of all its attentions”
Plato’s dualism - For Plato, he considered the relationship between body and soul as two substances. The body is the prison of the soul.
Aristotle
Aristotle’s understanding of the soul is very different from Plato’s because first of all, Aristotle didn’t consider the body and soul as two substances but one substance: a “psychosomatic” unity (pyscho: soul; soma: body).
We all have agreed that a thing is alive by virtue of a principle that is not matter, that is, an immaterial principle.
Aristotle explains it from the standpoint of “causes” – What causes something to be as it is?
For Aristotle there are four causes: Agent cause, Material case, Formal cause, Final cause. The “form” is the idea that he originally conceived. Without the idea or form, there is no computer (example of the computer, ref. book).
The soul is the “substantial form” of a living thing. The soul is the organizing principle of the living substance.
For Plato, form are subsistent things that are eternal and exist only in the intelligible world of ideas. The sensible world is not fully real for Plato.
For Aristotle, this is not the case – forms exist in substances. A thing is “what it is” by virtue of its form. It is immaterial but it is intrinsically united to the material: there is no body without the soul. It is more true to say that the body is in the soul than it is to say that the soul is in the body.
The soul is the substantial form of a body. It is life principle of a living substance. It is what makes the substance to be the kind of thing it is.
Download pdf of powerpoint presensation of Session 3
to deepen further on the topic
THE BIG THREE OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY: SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE.
https://sites.psu.edu/rclperdue/2014/09/19/the-big-three-of-greek-philosophy-socrates-plato-and-aristotle/