LIFE AFTER DEATH: Aristotle

Question 1

What is the psyche?

Answer 1

For the ancient Greeks this was another for the soul

Question 2

What nous?

Answer 2

For the ancient Greeks this was the thinking part of the mind

Question 3

Who was Aristotle?

Answer 3

Pupil of Plato

Question 4

Did Aristotle believe in an afterlife or in the immortality of the soul?

Answer 4

No

Question 5

How did Aristotle define the soul?

Answer 5

In De Anima he describes the mind as the reasoning part of the soul
The soul develops skills, character, temper

Question 6

How does Aristotle describe the soul’s relationship with the body?

Answer 6

The soul gives the body life (the anima) and turns the physical form into a living thing
The body and soul are in unity/cooperate AND different things
When the body dies, the soul ceases to exist- neither survive death

Question 7

For the ancient Greeks, what side of mind/body dualism is the psyche, sensations and emotion on?

Answer 7

The body side. Most affections aren’t produced ‘without the body’- De Anima

Question 8

What does psychosomatic mean?

Answer 8

The constant and inseparable interaction of the mind (psyche) and the body (soma)

Question 9

What is the Christian view of the person?

Answer 9

God has created humans as a unity of mind, body and soul. The soul is not a separate nature from the body but it is the spark that gives life to the physical body. The soul leaves the body at death

Question 10

What was Aquinas’ position on the soul?

Answer 10

The soul animates the body and gave it life
The soul operates independent of the body
Only things that are divisible into parts decay- the soul is not divisible so it is able to survive death
When a body dies, the soul that departs retains the individual identity of the body which it was attached