Aristotle's thinking

• Aristotle was an empiricist so rejected Plato's concept of the world of the Forms
• His thinking on the soul was based on deductions from the world of sense experience
• The soul is what gives something its essential nature
• The soul shapes and gives life to the body
• All living things have souls which organise them to get what they need for survival
• Not all living things have the same faculties and Aristotle created a hierarchy of them
• Only the human soul has the capacity for rational thought (nous)
• Nous= the Greek word for mind or intellect
• Through reason, humans are able to make moral and intellectual development- the soul develops an individual's skills and character and is the 'principle of life'
• The soul is mortal