Compare Aristotle and platos’ concept of the body and soul.
The two philosophers Plato and Aristotle both had theories concerning the body and soul. Plato was a dualist believing the body and soul where two separate parts to a person. Aristotle however did not. Plato believed that the soul was the single most important part of a person and believed in the importance of moral concepts, ideas and the afterlife. Aristotle however, was more interested in the physical world and the forces adopted within this. He was interested in observation and his theories unlike Plato’s were based on the functions of physical things and how well they perform.
Plato, a dualist, believed the body and soul to be two separate entities. The soul he considered immaterial and belonging to the “world of the forms” as part of the “form of the good”. He believed that the soul was implanted within a human longing to return back to the “forms”. The soul in the opinion of Plato is immortal and unchanging and the only link between a person and full understanding or knowledge. The second part of a person, the body Plato suggests was the physical part enabling us to perform actions such as communication. Forming the outer appearance the body uses senses to make opinions about the physical world in which it belongs. However in Plato’s opinion it could not reach the “world of the forms” in any way. The body is constantly changing and therefore not truly real.
