THE PROBLEM OF THE SOUL IN ARISTOTLE'S De anima

Life and death, generation and corruption are obviously universal experiences of mankind. Man had to deal with these phenomena and search for psychological accommodation to the objective facts. Man, however, has tremendous capacity for imagination and wonder -- so it is easy to let our imagination err in the gray zone, especially when it seeks to satisfy our deepest desires. Thus, the notions of the soul as well as of God have mythological origins (1) and the fact that they survived in religions which are professed in the 21st century does not make them less mythical in the least.

This article briefly summarizes the concept of the soul in various cultural traditions and evaluates in detail Aristotle’s exposition in his treatise De anima. We find in literature a lot of misconceptions on the subject and we hope to dissipate them and draw attention to the actual thought of Aristotle.