A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

The Teleological Series: The Qualitative Changes of Phenomena.

1. The Psychology of Aristotle. As the first experimental psychologist, Aristotle intimately connected his studies in psychology with his studies in biology and medicine. Man is a part of the world of nature, and psychology is in part a comparative study. As we pass upward from the mechanical changes, we find chemical changes of quality, and then changes of organic life. Studying the organic realm, we find organisms to consist of souls of relative ranking. There are vegetative souls, sensitive souls, and rational souls. Plants have vegetative souls with the powers of assimilation and propagation; besides vegetative souls animals have sensitive souls, with the powers of appetition and locomotion; man possesses, besides both these souls, the rationalsoul. Here is a series of teleological relationships, where the purpose of the organism is explained only by the activity of its soul. The soul builds up its body as a system of organs, and as an organology the theory of Aristotle has great significance. Nature strives ever upward, even in the inorganic processes, through an unbroken series of creations to its highest Form in man. Each step in the upward progress is the realization of an entelechy, or purpose, and constitutes for the moment the goal of the impulse to strive. The whole world is striving to realize the perfect Form. The lower ends, the mechanical and vegetable and appetitive Forms, are not lost but are utilized in the process; for they are the Matter upon which the Forms higher than themselves are built. Every member is both Form and Matter in the whole series.

The psychology has therefore two parts: (1) the general theory of animal souls, which possesses rich suggestions; (2) the doctrine of the Nous as the distinctive characteristic of man. These are the empirical and speculative sides to Aristotle’s psychology.

Man is an epitome of all the changes in the universe. He has vegetative, appetitive, and rational souls. Yet there is unity in man, for the lower souls are subservient to the reason and exist for it. The appetitive soul is the Form of the vegetative soul, the Matter of the Rational soul, etc. Accordingly, Aristotle defines the soul as the entelechy of the body, because bodily human activity is enlisted in the service of the reason. Reality in man is an unfolding purpose, just as it is in nature. The real self is this unfolding rational self, whose possibility is the body; whose actuality is pure reason. The mind is actualized body, the body is potential mind.

Aristotle made many contributions to psychology about the origin and value of the several sensations, about the feelings of pleasure and pain and the desires. He shows his remarkable genius in pointing to the necessity of a unity of consciousness, which he calls the “common-sensibility.” His discussion of the Nous, or reason, is of importance for two reasons: first, because it leads to and illuminates his ethical theory; and second, because it is an example of his deviation from his original conceptual position. The reason, according to his first intention, is the unfolding purpose of the body,—it is the immanent essence of the body. As Aristotle finally left his discussion of the Reason, it is as transcendent as his God, or as any Idea of Plato. The Nous, or Reason, is not a Form of the body, but a Form of the soul. It is purely immaterial, simple, unchangeable, and incapable of suffering. It does not originate with the body as a function. It comes from without as a godlike activity, and will remain after the body passes away. Its fundamental activity is thought, and its object is those ultimate principles of Being which are the ultimate premises of logical thinking.

Aristotle’s theory of the Reason is considerably complicated by his division of it into two parts,—the active and the passive Reason. Within itself, the Reason is to be distinguished as Form and Matter. The passive Reason is the Matter for the active Reason, and the active Reason is the Form for the passive Reason. By the passive Reason Aristotle evidently means the individual and developing man. The active Reason can alone persist after death, but whether absorbed in the Deity or not he does not say. Immortality toAristotle in any case is not a perpetuation of the individuality.

2. The Ethics of Aristotle. We have seen that nature phenomena are of two classes,—those mechanically related, and those related as to their purposes or ends. Physics is concerned with the first class; psychology is concerned with the second class. But in a special way are ethics and politics sciences of the phenomena of the second class—sciences of teleologically related phenomena. Moral life is an unfolding essence having a possibility and an actuality. The Possibility or Matter of the ethical life is our feelings, temperament, disposition, impulses, and perceptions—just those psychological factors that make up the endowment of the human personality. The ultimate Form or actuality of the ethical life is the reason. The reason as the goal of the moral being determines its character. Man is distinctly a rational being. Virtue is the process of the ethical life from its possibilities to its actuality; it is the essence of the ethical life. Virtue is that continuous state of mind that makes rational activity possible. So much for the factors that make the ethical situation; the natural endowments of the mind are its material, the reason is its goal, while the means of developing the natural endowments into rational activity is virtue.

The situation would be simple enough for us as moral beings if, in our striving, each had only himself and his own development to consider. But man lives in a world of men, and his highest good is determined somewhat by his environment,—by riches, bodily comforts, success. These are not essentials but only accessories, and the lack of them is only a limitation. The essential factor is the rational activity. Nevertheless,these modify the definition of what we mean when we define rational activity as the highest Good or Form of the moral life. For the question which Aristotle proposes in his notable treatise of Ethics is, What is the end or supreme good of human action? The highest Good for a man among men is Happiness, or well-being; that includes not only rational activity, but also the pleasures that accrue to such activity. But what is happiness? It is an end in itself, and not the means to anything else; it is the result of functioning, a state of conscious vitality; it accords with the law of excellence of that functioning. Perfect happiness is, therefore, partly the result of one’s own individual effort, partly dependent on circumstance. While virtue is the measure of the worth of different pleasures, yet pleasures do not always attend our acts in our present society. The greatest Good is happiness, but since this depends in part on external goods, the goal to which we should directly attend—the factor within our control—is rational activity.

There are two classes of virtues based on the two kinds of rational life,—the practical virtues and the dianoetic virtues. The practical virtues are those of conduct based upon the rational control of the impulses; the dianoetic virtues are those of intellectual activity based upon the development of the perceptions. The perfect moral development of human nature will consist (1) in the perfect development and true regulation of the feelings and desires in moral excellence; and (2) a perfect development of the intellectual faculties for rational culture.

(a) The Practical Virtues. The essential thing for the individual to regard, therefore, is the training ofhis will by right rational insight. He should seek to direct his impulses by reason, and not only once but so many times that the impulses will become rational habits. This is what Aristotle means by training in virtue. It is continuity in rational activity; it is a permanent development toward reason; it is the unfolding of the real Self. Aristotle had regard for the facts of life when he differed from Socrates, who said that virtue is knowledge. Aristotle did not conceive the will as psychological power independent of the reason. He doubted if rational insight was more powerful than the impulses, when the test comes. Experience often shows that although we may know what is right, an impulse will often drive us into habits not guided by reason. This presupposes for Aristotle a will that is free to choose among the desires that one which will lead him along the path that reason points out.