Aristotle psychology: Definition, theory, contribution, analysis. Introduction. According to Aristotle, psychology is the theory of the soul. We could say that this philosopher’s theory of the soul is better understood in terms of two other doctrines. First, the body and soul are joined together by Aristotle as matter and form.
Second, all transitory existence for Aristotle moves from potentiality to actuality. Consistent with his basic approach to psychology, Aristotle wants to give a this-worldly account of the nature of the soul as a naturalist, not a super-naturalist account.
He starts with the ordinary Greek meaning of the terms UK or soul, for the typical Greek on the street meant the principle of life. It was not restricted to human beings or conscious beings. It was the element responsible for life, whether possessed by a carrot, a dog, or a man, and of course, it was the element responsible for cognition.
A thing that is alive in Greek is a thing that has a soul, and we still use that language today, although if you don’t know Latin, you won’t be familiar with it because you call a living thing an animate thing. An animate is simply an English derivative of the Latin word anima, Latin for the soul.
Aristotle was famous for psychology because he helped develop the modern scientific methodology. He tells the importance of combining observation of the world and then influencing or thinking about the world.
Definition of Aristotle Psychology
If we talk about the meaning of Aristotle’s psychology, it’s the branch of science that looks into the intensity, soul, and properties. Aristotle thinks that the soul is the general principle of life. According to Aristotle, there are various kinds of souls.
In other words, multiple types of vital capacities are to be discovered by observing the kind of unusual behavior living things engage. There are three types of the soul, according to Aristotle.
- Vegetative or nutritive soul
- Sensitive soul
- Rational soul
Aristotle investigated each of this soul each of these sets of vital capacities in detail in his work, the de anima Latin translation on the soul.
Aristotle’s theory of psychology
According to Aristotle’s psychology, strong desires lead to dangerous inequality and the tendency to perform harmful actions. Aristotle’s psychology is based on the study of the formation of the human mind.
According to Aristotle, from childbirth, he has zero knowledge of worldly things, but he gains knowledge and experience as time passes. Unlike Plato, Aristotle is a believer in Nurture. Aristotle has faith in that alongside the” Libido,” where id and ego were the thought of wish and cause are two drives that determined actions.
Aristotle belongs to Greece, and he wrote about 31 works; he also created an academy, except he called it a Lyceum. Aristotle takes philosophy, and then he tries to understand botany, biology, logic, music, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, cosmology, physics, history of philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, theology, and rhetoric. He is regarded as the most influential philosopher of all time. He was the encyclopedia of mind.
Aristotle’s contribution to psychology
Aristotle was a popular pupil of the famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Aristotle called psychology a part of philosophy, and if we talk about his contributions to psychology, his best gifts are:
Influence on the history of psychology
Aristotle was the first person who wrote a book that dealt with the specifics of psychology to anima or the soul in this book. He proposes the idea of abstraction that reigns over the body and mind of the human being. The body and mind exist within this being and are intertwined, so the reason is one of the many essential functions of the body.
In the more detailed psychological analysis, he divides the human intellect into two basic categories; the passive and active minds. Aristotle said that human psychology is to imitate something that provides a sense of happiness and satisfaction.
The logic of the categorical syllogism
A syllogism is a particular form of reasoning where a conclusion is made based on two premises. These premises always have a standard or middle term to associate them, but this binding term is absent in the decision. Aristotle discovered the process of logical deduction, which perhaps lies at the heart of all his notable achievements.
Classification of living beings
In Aristotle’s book” Historian Amalia Moore’s history of animals,” Aristotle was the first person in human history to venture into the category of different animals. He used common traits among certain animals to classify them into similar groups. In Aristotle’s perspective, life had a hierarchical makeup, and all living things are grouped from the lowest to the highest position.
Founder of zoology
Aristotle is also called the founder and the father of zoology as proof of his grouping of living beings. All his grouping procedures and several other theses primarily involved different species of the animal kingdom only; however, he wrote a different thesis that revolved around various aspects of zoology.
Some of his significant and famous ideas are the history of animals, progression of animals, motion of animals, and the rest were based on the research and education of land, water, and aerial animals; his predecessors merely documented their routine observation of nature.
Contribution to biology
Aristotle viewed some psychological phenomena in biological terms. So, in a sense, he was one of the earliest biological psychologists.
Advances in Meteorology
For his time and age, Aristotle put forth a very detailed analysis of the world around him. At present, the term meteorology specifically encompasses the interdisciplinary scientific study of atmosphere and weather.
Still, Aristotle had a far more generalized approach wherein he also covered the different aspects and phenomena of air-water and earth within his treatise meteorological in this treatise in his own words, he lays out details of different affections that are common between air and water as well as the other parts of the earth and the preferences that bind those parts together.
The highlights of his meteorological treatise are his accounts of water evaporation, earthquakes, and other typical weather phenomena. His analysis of these different meteorological occurrences is one of the earliest representations of such phenomena.
Influence in the history of Politics
The word politics is derived from the Greek word polis, which simply represented any city-state in ancient Greece. Aristotle believed that the polis reflected the topmost strata of the political association; being a citizen of the polis was essential for a person to lead a good quality of life. Attaining this status meant that citizens needed to make necessary political connections to secure permanent residence.
Aristotle’s view of this very pursuit pointed out that man is a political animal. Undoubtedly, the various ventures of Aristotle’s life helped shape his political acumen in ways his predecessors and contemporaries could not; his progressive adventures in the biology of natural flora and fauna are pretty visible in the naturalism of his politics.
Contribution to Poetics
Much like many other documents of his philosophical and literary works, many of the records of Aristotle’s views on art and poetry were composed around 330 BC. Most of these exist and survive today because they were duly noted down and preserved by his pupils during his lectures.
Aristotle’s insight into poetics primarily revolves around drama during a later period when Aristotelian ism was gaining more ground worldwide. His original take on drama was divided into two separate segments. The first part focused on tragedy and epic, and the second part discussed the various details of comedy.
Aristotle’s analysis of Psychology
For Aristotle, psychology was about practical wisdom and the study of the soul. Aristotle rejected Plato’s multi-part soul. He says I don’t feel desire in one part of my soul and anger or shame in another part of my soul simultaneously. I have a single soul which has considerable powers.
For Aristotle soul is not a substance in the total sense. Still, the soul actualizes matter into a composite, and this composite, this actualized matter, actualized body, and an ensouled body, is a substance in the total sense. Here are four big psychological questions Aristotle answered.
- What makes people happy?
- What is art for?
- What are friends for?
- How can ideas be cut across in a busy world?
These are the essential questions that Aristotle answered according to his experience related to psychology. Today psychology doesn’t sound like the most practical activity. Maybe that’s because we haven’t paid enough attention to Aristotle. Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle; Aristotle philosophy; Aristotle politics; Aristotle’s Rhetoric
External resource: Standford.edu
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