This paper will focus on the independence of the soul. Both Aristotle and Plato have ideas about what the soul is, but the difference are too numerous to do justice to them all in this essay. One primary difference between Aristotle and Plato is on the subject of the value or independence of the soul. The questions: can the soul exist without the body? Is the soul an independent substance? Aristotle and Plato would give very different answers to this question. I will give a brief overview on what the soul is and then demonstrate the differences on the subject of the soul's independence. The soul is the primary subject of Aristotle's work DeAnima, and a number of the Platonic dialogues have arguments about what the soul is. I will demonstrate the characteristics these two philosophers give to the soul regarding its independence.
For Aristotle, the soul is the form of a living thing. Not the Platonic form, but the notion that the soul is the actuality of the living thing. That is to say that that the soul is an expression of the living thing that has the soul. For Plato the soul is something seemingly more substantial. It is the driving force of the individual and the substance that directs all the forces that effect on the body. Forces such as reason, emotion and appetite all have effects on the body or mind, and it is the soul that coordinates the whole operation.
An important aspect of the soul that Aristotle and Plato disagree on is the independence of the soul. Aristotle makes it clear that he finds that soul is not separable from the body. For Aristotle, the soul is not an independently existing substance. The soul is the capacity of the individual; it is the means of measuring but not the article being measured. The soul is not a substance that can stand independent, it is something that belongs to the body and ceases to exist when the body dies.
However, Plato makes many arguments that the soul is something that often exists in the absence of a body. A good argument in found in the Meno. Primarily focused on an argument regarding knowledge this dialogue leads to the understanding that the soul exists after the body dies and before it is born. Plato shows that knowledge is found innate in us when we are born and that learning is merely the ability to recollect. Plato demonstrates how it is the soul that is the common factor that maintains the knowledge recollection theory.
The independence and sustainability of the soul is an aspect of the soul that Aristotle and Plato disagree very much on. These two philosophers make it clear that the independence of the soul is one thing that they do not agree upon. The sovereign existence of the soul may seem like a meaningless debate, however for Aristotle and Plato this is a vital difference in their arguments.
