The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit - Aristotle

the human person as an embodied spirit one of the dominant themes in the course introduction to the philosophy of the human person is the idea that the human person is an embodied spirit but first of all we need to define terms here because as it appears the meaning of the concept embodied spirit is not directly clear to students who do not have a strong background and orientation in philosophy and so what do we exactly mean by embodied spirit the most direct connotation that comes to mind when we say something is embodied is that it is being materialized or incarnated hence when we say embodied spirit we normally thought of a spirit being incarnated however the idea of a human person as an embodied spirit does not necessarily refer to the incarnation or materialization of spirit as an immaterial entity the embodiment of the spirit in the context of Christian philosophy specifically refers to the inseparable union of body and soul thus when we say embodied spirit we mean that the body is not separate from the soul just as the soul is not separate from the body so when we say that the human person is an embodied spirit we specifically mean that the human person is the point of convergence between the material and spiritual entities that is between the body and Sol we cannot talk therefore of the human person without the union of body and soul just as we cannot talk of anything without the union of matter and form now to understand the specificity of the human person as an embodied spirit is important because aside from the fact that it enables us to know our potentialities and limitations it also exposes us to a thorough and deeper understanding of ourselves as a unique creature United by body and soul with this caveat in mind let us now proceed to an engagement with one of the most famous philosophers in this particular scholarship namely Aires total but before we engage in Aristotle's account of the human person as an embodied spirit that is again as a union of body and soul it is important at this point to provide the theoretical context of this issue as we may already know Aristotle's account of the human person as an embodied spirit is in large part a reaction against playtest take on the nature of the human person for Plato the nature of the human person is seen in the metaphysical dichotomy between body and soul this dichotomy implies that there is an inherent contradiction between the body and the soul on the one hand the body according to Plato is material hence it is mutable and destructible on the other hand the soul is immaterial hence it is immutable and indestructible and as much as the body is material mutable and destructible while the soul is immaterial immutable and indestructible Plato contends that in the context of the nature of the human person the body's existence is dependent on the soul while the soul's existence is independent of the body in fact in the tiniest play to argues that the soul existed prior to the body Plato writes the gods may the soul prior to the body and more venerable in birth and excellence to the body's mistress and governor interestingly then as Eddy Babur claims this contention made play to conclude that the human person is just a soul using a buddy according to Plato there are three parts of the soul namely they're rational the spiritual and the epitome Plato tells the myth of the charioteer to comprehend the complex nature of the soul but we will not discuss this topic here since our task here is just to provide an overview of Plato's account of the human person which serves as a background to Aristotle's account of the human person as an embodied spirit for Plato the rational soul is located in the head the spiritual soul in the chest and the a pet ative in the abdomen according to Plato the spiritual and appetitive souls contribute to the motion and activity of the whole person while the rational souls function is to guide the spiritual and appetitive Souls according to Plato the a pet ative part of the soul drives the human person to experience thirst hunger and other physical wants while the spiritual soul drives the human person to experience abomination anger and other emotional feelings lastly it is the rational part of the soul that enables the human person to think reflect analyse comprehend draw conclusions and alike as we can see the rational soul which is the highest of all parts of the soul guides the other two parts namely the a pet ative and spiritual what else could perform this guiding function from places point of view than the rational part of the soul think of a desperately thirsty man in the desert he sees a pool of water and approaches it with all the eagerness that depravation is able to create but when he reaches the pool he sees a sign danger did not drink polluted he experiences conflict within his desire urges him to drink but reason tells him that such signs usually indicate the truth that polluted water will make him very ill or may kill him and that if he drinks he will probably be worse off than he doesn't he decides not to drink in this case it is the rational part of the soul that opposes his desire his reason guides him away from the water the principal then that drives the person to drink is called appetite while the principal that forbids the person to drink the water because it is polluted is called reason another example could be that of a man who is angry with another person who insulted him out of anger he may desire to kill his Schmucker but does not actually kill the culprit because he knows that if he does he will be imprisoned with the same thread of reasoning Plato argues that it is the spirit in man that makes the person angry with his D writer yet his anger is curbed by reason that is by the rational soul hence again for Plato desire spirit and reason make up the sole desire motivates spirit animates and reason guides and for Plato if reason can successfully guide desire and spirit then the human person will attain a well-balanced personality if we recall for Plato the soul exists prior to the body hence the soul is an entity distinct from the body now it is important to note that if we talk about the human person we talk about the body and soul and that they are inseparable but this is not the case for Plato Plato believes that the body and soul are separable in fact for Plato has already mentioned the human person is just a soul using a body and Plato believes that the soul is imprisoned in the body that the soul survives the death of the body because it is immaterial immutable and indestructible this means that for Plato when the person dies the body decomposes while the soul leaves the body and goes back to the world of forms it must be noted that in plato's doctrine of form there are two kinds of worlds namely the world of forms and the world of matter and for Plato everything comes from the world of forms and everything that exists we'll go back to the world of forms after it perishes again when the human person dies the body decomposes and the soul will go back to the world of forms and lives there eternally it is here where Aristotle's notion of the human person as an embodied spirit comes in indeed Aristotle disagrees with Plato's dualism which implies the concept of other worldliness hours total believes that there is no dichotomy between the person's body and soul the body and soul for Aristotle are in state of unity they are inseparable hence unlike Plato Aristotle believes that we cannot talk about the soul apart from the body and vice versa now how does Aristotle view the human person as an embodied spirit first we need to understand that the term soul is the English translation of the Greek word psyche and for Aristotle the general definition of the involves the concept of life thus the soul for Aristotle is the principle of life this suggests therefore that anything that has life has a soul as the principle of life the soul causes the body to live indeed it is the soul that animates the body if the soul is the animator of the body the body acts as the matter to the soul hence Aristotle believes that the soul is the form of the body while the body is the matter to the soul for Aristotle everything that exists is composed of matter and form and matter and form are indeed inseparable hence we cannot talk about any object if either of these entities is not present in the context of the human person Aristotle believes that body and soul are inseparable body and soul therefore constitute the human person as a whole because for Aristotle anything that has life has a soul then it follows that plants and animals in addition to humans have souls thus Aristotle distinguishes three levels of soul namely that of plants that of animals and that of humans the kind of soul that is found in plants according to Aristotle is called vegetative while those found in animals and humans are called sensitive and rational souls respectively according to Aristotle Glantz have souls because they possess the three basic requirements for something to be called living being that is the capacity to grow reproduce and feed itself however plants do not share the higher levels of soul although they grow reproduce and feed themselves plants are not capable of feeling and thinking sensitive Souls grow reproduce and feed themselves but unlike vegetative souls sensitive souls are capable of sensation as Aristotle writes plants possess only the nutritive Faculty but other beings possess both it and the sensitive faculty and if they possess the sensitive Faculty they must also possess the a pet ative for appetite consists of desire anger and will all animals possess at least one sense that of touch anything that has a sense is acquainted with pleasure and pain with what is pleasant and with what is painful and anything that is acquainted with these has desire since desire is an appetite for pleasant finally rational souls grow reproduce feed themselves and feel but unlike the sensitive souls rational souls are capable of thinking according to Aristotle this highest level of soul is present only in humans now since humans possess all the characteristics of animals that is the capacity to grow reproduce feed itself and feel in addition to being rational Aristotle concludes that the human person is just an animal that thinks as Aristotle's famous dictum and the human person goes man is a rational animal

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Keywords: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit, Philosophy of the Human Person, Aristotle, 3 kinds of souls, rational soul, vegetative soul, sentient soul, sensitive soul

Id: ENFOjMRzDJk

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020