Aristotle’s Philosophy: Soul, Knowledge, and Happiness
The Powers of the Soul
On the other hand, defining the soul in terms of life or self-movement also implies that all living things have souls, that is, have a life. Man has a rational soul, animals have a sensitive soul, and plants have a vegetative soul. These are not species of a genus, but different realities, each of which is characterized by specific functions. The higher possesses all the lower functions, as well as its own.
Abstraction, Agent, and Patient Understanding
According to the unitary vision of man, Aristotle believes that there is continuity between sensible knowledge and intellectual knowledge. Moreover, intellectual knowledge exists only to the extent that sense knowledge exists. Sense knowledge is the source and the principle of all human knowledge. Universality is obtained from the particular by an operation called abstraction, which consists of the following: when a man perceives an object through his senses, an image is formed in his imagination. In this fantasy image, what is collected directly is the individuality of that object; its subject matter and form, the universal, are there only in potential. The intellect turns its activity on that image, which is in fantasy, and gets dematerialized, discovering it. Once that is done, the intellect, which abstracted the image, presents it to another person for patient understanding, and this one is called the universal. Intellectual knowledge is based on sense knowledge, which provides, so to speak, the materials to be used to develop intellectual knowledge. This is achieved after the complex operation of the mind that is abstraction.
Objects of Knowledge
Aristotle understood that knowledge is either of what is necessary and immutable, or of what is contingent. The first is always theoretical knowledge (what is sometimes called wisdom) that deals with the knowledge of principles through their causes. The knowledge of the contingent can be directed to making, producing, and so is art. But it can also go into the act, to live individually or collectively. In this case, we have practical knowledge, moral or political, a good living with prudence, whose ideal is the knowledge of the immutable.
Ethics: Happiness
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that every activity tends to an end that is its good. As the activities of men are varied and pursue many different purposes, it is necessary to prioritize these. The most important issue is to know the ultimate end of man, what is his highest good. Everyone agrees that the supreme good, the ultimate end of man is happiness, “eudaimonia”, since happiness is sought for itself, while other things are wanted for it, to try to get it. However, no such agreement exists when one tries to specify what happiness is: some identify it with pleasure, others with honor, others with wealth, health, and so on. But happiness is not in any of these things, and to accept it is to confuse means with ends. To answer the question about what is the supreme good of man, and, therefore, the question of what can make man happy, Aristotle turns to nature: the good of each thing can only consist of the performance of its proper function (the good of a knife is cutting, of the eye to see). So the good of man can be to develop an activity that involves the implementation of its own function. Therefore, man will be happy insofar as he properly performs the function of his own. For Aristotle, happiness is not a possession, not even a state of being, but good living under “arete,” virtue, understood as excellence in performing tasks. But what is the proper function of man, whose excellent performance is the “arete”? The answer to this question is complex.
The “Arete” of Humans
First, man has various functions depending on his age, sex, status, profession, and whether he is good or bad does not depend on possession but on excellence (to be a good teacher, a good student, a good father, a good son). Carrying out these tasks properly will be critical and necessary to be happy, but happiness cannot consist in their making, since none of them is the proper function of man as that man. Secondly, there is the complexity of human beings. Man is a being composed of body and soul. The body, in turn, is composed of parts, each of which has a role to play. Therefore, we must speak of excellence in developing the role of each of these parts.
As for the soul, it is necessary to distinguish three distinct functions: vegetative, sensitive, and rational, of which the most important is the latter. The rational soul is thinking or cognitive, while the sensitive soul is appetitive or volitional. So we must speak of intellectual virtues when there is a good performance of the thinking part of the soul, and moral virtues when there is a smooth operation of the appetitive or volitional part.