Question

Aristotle's Psychology

1. Explain (a) Aristotle’s theory of hylomorphism and (b) how the human being is understood in light of it.

2. Explain the different operations or activities that are found among living things (plants, animals, and humans).

Answer 1

• 1.Hylomorphism, in philosophy, metaphysical view according to which every natural body consists of two intrinsic principles, one potential, namely, primary matter, and one actual, namely, substantial form. It was the central doctrine of Aristotle’sphilosophy of nature.
• The main parts of Hylomorphism are: Matter, Form, and Substance.
• Matter, as operationally defined by Aristotle, is the thing that makes up another thing. For example, a bronze statue’s matter would be bronze. Going deeper, Aristotle defined the bricks of a house to be proximate matter, which is the contents of an object which has it’s own contents. In the case of the bricks, the matter would be clay.
• Form on the other hand, is simply the shape or form that the matter appears in. Going back to the bronze statue, the matter of bronze is shaped into the form of a statue. As we see that statue we don’t see all the individual parts of the statue and the subatomic particles that make up the proximate matter of bricks
• Finally, substance is defined as the combination of form and matter.
• Another key point of Hylomorphism is the idea of different forms of substance. These forms include the Substantial, and Accidental. Essentially, Aristotle states the Substantial Form is one that consists of only the essential essence of that substance. For example the substantial form of a table is that it (depending on the person) four legs and a flat top.
• With substantial form, it is assuming that everyone will have an operational definition of the essences of a table. Obviously, the idea of a true substantial form not limited by the state of theory, is virtually impossible because one thing never has the same meaning for two people. On the other hand,
• Accidental Form is defined by Aristotle as the NON-essential qualities of a substance. manipulating the essential qualities would change the substance into something else Removing the legs of a table would render it into a wooden mat or something of the like.
• However, a tables accidental form would still be considered a table but may have different designs, perhaps an extra central leg, again what we consider a table and how we draw that line is still shrouded in mystery. In theory, however, Hylomorphic Accidental Form makes sense.
• The concept of matter and form applied to all beings, animate and inanimate, but Aristotle considered the human soul and body to be a special case of form and matter.
• Aristotle contended that, in order to understand the process of existence, change, and generation it was necessary both to identify the primordial elements that constituted all bodies, and to identify the intrinsic conditions that made a body what it was. He adopted Empedocles' doctrine that all things consisted of four primordial elements: Earth, water, air, and fire.
• To explain the process of generation and change, Aristotle declared that there were two principles at work, one that underwent change relative to the other, which stayed essentially the same. He argued that if a being changes and becomes another being, the two beings must have something permanent in common, otherwise no transformation could take place; instead, the first being would simply disappear and be replaced by the second being.
• Furthermore, this common element could not be a “being” in the strictest sense, because a being is static and cannot be in the act of becoming something else. Therefore this common element was a being “in potency,” a passive and indeterminate being.
• At the same time, there had to be an active, determining principle that directed the process of the change. Matter was the passive and indeterminate substance that underwent change; form was the actualizing principle that shaped and directed matter.
• Aristotle treated the relationship between the human soul and body as a special case of the general relationship between matter and form which existed in all animate and inanimate compound beings, whether they were naturally present or created by man.
• Aristotle spoke of the soul as a “first actuality of a natural organic body,” as a “substance as form of a natural body which has life in potentiality,” and, similarly, as “a first actuality of a natural body which has life in potentiality”. These statements could be applied to all living beings—plants, animals, and humans alike.
• Aristotle maintained that the form was the actuality of the body, which is its matter. Matter was only a potential being until it acquired an actualizing form which made it an actual being. Therefore, in the case of the human soul and body, it was the soul that informed the body and gave it character and form.
• Due to time limit,remaining question can be asked as another question,it will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation