Platonic and Aristotelian Views on Body-Soul Relationship: A Comparative Approach

This article deals with the relationship between body and soul according to Aristotle and Plato. The body-soul relationship presented in Plato’s Phaedo and appears in Aristotle’s thesis On the Soul and is unequivocally criticized by both. Plato’s, epistemological and ethical arguments ascertain the dualistic nature of soul and body. Aristotle insisted that the human being is consists of body and soul and that the soul is inseparable from the body. The two intangible approaches to the mind-body problem by Plato and Aristotle have been established throughout history. Plato observes human. (matter) as split into two or more divisions, while Aristotle perceives the human as a basic unity. Both Plato and Aristotle excellently contend that the soul and body are two different kinds of entities. They also see that the materialistic body and immaterial soul and are able to act and acted upon because there is a commonality between the soul and body. Our purpose here is to address the different aspects of the philosophy of mind and matter of Plato and Aristotle. We also discuss the active and passive capabilities of the soul and body according to Plato and Aristotle. This article shows that Plato almost agrees with the relational feature of mind and matter as active and passive. But Aristotle attempted to fine-tune the mind-matter issue with a ‘middle-path psychological theory,’ the two extremes of ‘crude materialism,’ and a ‘pure immaterialism.