Faculty member of Imam Khomeini research and Educational Institute
Abstract
Soul and related issues are important in philosophy about which most of philosophers made remarks but the plurality of soul and spirit received less attention which as a result gave rise to a big gap in views and ideas among men of thought. It seems that arguments over such problems as immateriality or otherwise of soul, temporal creation of soul and its motion result from failure to distinguish between these two i.e. soul and spirit. Of especial importance is to survey the works of ancient Greek philosophers on this problem for their thoughts is considered almost as the ground and base for later philosophers. Of ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle is of special prominence for his particular argument on soul.
This article is to study particular views of Aristotle on soul and its constituent parts, active intellect and its relation with passive intellect. Also the views of Aristotle commentators on these two intellects as well as historical evidences for the idea that the Aristotelian active intellect can be identified with spirit are discussed.
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