Aristotle and Psychology
KRAEFTY AXE
Basic Information, Impact, and Interesting Facts
> Death year: 322 BC (in Chalcis)
> His father died when Aristotle was a child
- He lived with a guardian
> Studied at Plato's Academy in Athens for nearly twenty years
> Aristotle believed that psychology and biology were two subjects as part of the same science.
- During his time, psychology was about discovering attributes and the essence of the soul, though Aristotle himself struggled to come up with an exact definition of "soul".
- Instead, he developed a theory based on the nutritive, sensitive and rational souls.
* The nutritive soul exists in all living things.
* The sensitive soul, which which exists in all animals, is capable of both perception (the ability to see or hear) as well as desire (a strong feeling of wanting something).
* And the rational soul, where he stated that humans had the power to do all things that plants and animals could do, but additionally had the power to think and reason.
- Additionally, Aristotle posed a relationship between the soul and the body.
* He believed that the two were inseparable, and that the soul is the primary actuality of the body that provides the body itself with its essential character.
> Aristotle, having had a significant impact on numerous areas and subjects that are still at issue around the globe today (including physics, biology, zoology, poetry, music, linguistics, politics, and government), had a very big impact on psychology and behavior.
> His works, as well as those of fellow philosophers Plato and Socrates, are considered to be key works of psychology in its earliest years.
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*** DID YOU KNOW? ***
Aristotle taught Alexander the Great for many years, and earned merit and a great reputation in doing so.
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Source(s)
PICTURE: http://www.liberal-vision.org/liberal-philosophy/aristotle-384-322-bce-the-politics/
INFORMATION: http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/aristotle/section6.rhtml, http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/314/Aristotl.html