Psychology
The Greek letter psi, which is a symbol for psychology.
Aristotle's work on psychology is mainly known by its Latin name, De Anima, or On the Soul. According to Aristotle the soul gives potentiality of certain functions as the essence of an object gives definition to matter (See page on Metaphysics).
Aristotle gives three definitions for a soul of an object. The "dialectial" definition describes the purpose or intention of the object, the "physical" definition describes the physical form of the soul’s embodiment. These two definitions are then combined to form a genuine physical definition of a soul.
The soul gives an object purpose and initiative, and also provides potentiality for certain functions, such as nutrition, sensation, imagination, thought, etc. In the case of nutrition, the function has three parts: the body that is being fed, the food that the body is being fed, and the soul which provides the initiative for the feeding.
Growth is the most elementary of the functions made possible by a soul. As Aristotle observed, although plants do not even sense or feed themselves, they still grow and mature. Other organisms also grow, but perform other functions as well. This ties in to Aristotle’s idea that as organisms are more advanced, they have more functions, and each level of function takes into account all others beneath it.
Sensation is performed by animals and people, but not plants. The five traditional senses, sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste were defined as such by Aristotle. The soul enables sensation, because an animal eating a sweet fruit is nourished by the fruit, but it is the soul that makes it possible for the sweetness and texture of that fruit to be observed.
Memory, Aristotle writes, is the persistence of impressions upon the senses. He also makes a point of defining the difference between remembrance and recollection. Remembrance is the automatic reproduction of sensory impressions, whereas recollection is a willful search for past sensations.
Thought, however, is said to be confined only to people, and all other animals can only perform imagination. Thought may or may not be followed by action. “Action” is movement with a distinct end, whereas people can think, which is motion, but not act upon it.
One more thing Aristotle discusses is the sequence of sensation, desire, and reaction. First an animal uses senses to identify a situation, then identifies what it desires in the particular environment, and then reacts. According to Aristotle, all non-compulsive movements follow this sequence, and the motivation is either attraction toward something deemed to be pleasurable or retraction from something considered to cause pain.
Aristotle gives three definitions for a soul of an object. The "dialectial" definition describes the purpose or intention of the object, the "physical" definition describes the physical form of the soul’s embodiment. These two definitions are then combined to form a genuine physical definition of a soul.
The soul gives an object purpose and initiative, and also provides potentiality for certain functions, such as nutrition, sensation, imagination, thought, etc. In the case of nutrition, the function has three parts: the body that is being fed, the food that the body is being fed, and the soul which provides the initiative for the feeding.
Growth is the most elementary of the functions made possible by a soul. As Aristotle observed, although plants do not even sense or feed themselves, they still grow and mature. Other organisms also grow, but perform other functions as well. This ties in to Aristotle’s idea that as organisms are more advanced, they have more functions, and each level of function takes into account all others beneath it.
Sensation is performed by animals and people, but not plants. The five traditional senses, sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste were defined as such by Aristotle. The soul enables sensation, because an animal eating a sweet fruit is nourished by the fruit, but it is the soul that makes it possible for the sweetness and texture of that fruit to be observed.
Memory, Aristotle writes, is the persistence of impressions upon the senses. He also makes a point of defining the difference between remembrance and recollection. Remembrance is the automatic reproduction of sensory impressions, whereas recollection is a willful search for past sensations.
Thought, however, is said to be confined only to people, and all other animals can only perform imagination. Thought may or may not be followed by action. “Action” is movement with a distinct end, whereas people can think, which is motion, but not act upon it.
One more thing Aristotle discusses is the sequence of sensation, desire, and reaction. First an animal uses senses to identify a situation, then identifies what it desires in the particular environment, and then reacts. According to Aristotle, all non-compulsive movements follow this sequence, and the motivation is either attraction toward something deemed to be pleasurable or retraction from something considered to cause pain.