Single Idea 5266

[catalogued under 16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 7. Self and Thinking]

Full Idea

It would seem that the thinking part is, or most nearly is, the individual self.

Gist of Idea

It would seem that the thinking part is the individual self

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1166a25)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.294


A Reaction

It seems that where Socrates identifies the self with the whole of the psuché (and hence is interested in its immortality, in 'Phaedo'), Aristotle considers the self to be merely the thinking and rational part of the psuché.

Related Idea

Idea 1650 For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates]