Aristotle's Definition Of The Soul

Have you ever heard of someone dying? Everyone has, right? Whether it was someone they knew and loved, or somebody who they had never heard of or cared about. People die, everyone can agree on that. People die, their bodies decompose, and they are gone forever. But, what about them? The thing that was who they are, their personality, the thing that made them move and act like themselves? Some would say it’s gone, destroyed, or nonexistent. Some would call that the soul. There are many thoughts to be had about souls. Are souls real? Do people have souls? Will their souls be what goes to heaven or hell? Will their soul continue to exist after the body dies? These questions are ideas that should be brought to focus and answered. Yet it’s so …show more content…
The main connection between all these definitions is the way they all accept the soul as being a part of humans, immaterial, and being what gives the body actions and feelings. This shared meaning is what will be used to define the soul throughout this text. The online dictionary definitions and Plato’s both declare that the body and the soul are independent beings. On the other hand, Aristotle claims that the soul and the body are not detached from each other. Aristotle takes the soul and the body as two objects that form one whole item, or as we think of it a living being. While these definitions take the connection between the body and the soul, the Merriam Webster’s definition doesn’t bring it up as part of the meaning. Should the body and the soul be taken as separate beings or as connected parts of a …show more content…
People have bodies that do actions. These actions are just a collection of things that people do. The mind can be described as the abilities of the body to do the actions people do. For example, being innovative, falling in love, thinking, interacting, and forming ideas are actions that our minds allow us to do. Without a mind, none of these could occur. Some would say that the mind is the brain. To this we can apply the death scenario where if we pull the brain out of somebody, the brain isn’t going to think, imagine, or fall in love. It has lost its mind. It no longer has the thing that allowed it to do the actions that people do. Therefore the brain and the mind can be thought of as separate. This sounds very familiar to the soul and body relation. If a person gets brain damage they might become brain dead or lose part of their brain function. They can lose memories and the ability to make rational decisions. They can forget who they are. This means the thing that was them is gone. Yet, the body can still function. So this person could be said to have lost their mind, but have they lost their soul? If they did lose it, did they get a new one? Can a body hold more than one soul or exchange souls? Some people go brain dead, others have near death experiences, and some die and come back like when a heart monitor flat lines and that person gets