Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor, Shahid Madani University of Azarbaijan
Abstract
A problem concerning Aristotle’s psychology asks where its right place is. Should it be studied in the physics or in metaphysics or some part of it in physics and some other part in metaphysics? There are two views concerning the place of psychology according to Aristotle’s philosophy of science. The first view which is the predominant, says that psychology is a physical science. This view insists on the close relationship between soul and body. The second view says that psychology has indeed two distinct parts. One part being studied in physics and the other part in metaphysics. According to this theory, the material souls are being studied in physics and the immaterial souls in metaphysics. It is true that the two theories find evidences in Aristotle’s books, but this article criticizes them and shows that in spite of the Aristotelian texts, one cannot consider psychology as a physical science. This article tries to show that according to the Aristotelian basics, psychology in a metaphysical science and Aristotle’s texts shows nothing but the close relationship between psychology and physics.
Keywords
- Aristotle (1995), complete works of Aristotle, Ed. By Johnathan Barnes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Bolton, Robert (1978), “Aristotle's definitions of the soul: "de Anima" ii 1-3", Phronesis, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 258-278
- Bos, Abraham, P.; Ferwerda, Rein (2008), Aristotle on the life-bearing spirit (De Spriritu), Leiden: Brill.
- Bos, Abraham, P. (2003), the soul and its instrumental body, a reinterpretation of Aristotle's philosophy of living nature, Leiden: Brill.
- Heinaman, Robert (1990), “Aristotle and the Mind-Body Problem”, Phronesis, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 83-102
- Hicks, R. D. (1907), Aristotle's De Anima, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- Lizzini, Olga (2010), “l’âme chez Avicenne: quelques remarques autours de son statut épistémologique et de son fondement métaphysique”, Documenti e Studi Sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale, SISMEL, Firenze, XXI, pp. 223-242
- Nussbaum, Martha C.; Rorty, Amélie O. (1992), Essays on Aristotle's De Anima, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Ross, W. D. (1955), Aristotelis Fragmenta Selecta, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.
)
Send comment about this article