HUMAN NATURE IN ARISTOTLE

Abstract

: Aristotle wrote several treatises on animals but none specifically on the human
being. Our aim is to reconstruct Aristotle's anthropological thought from his assertion
that man is the most natural of all animals and from the wide range of values that the
term ʽnatureʼ has in his work. In short, it is about to elucidate whether the intelligence is
also found in animals or only in humans, and whether the difference between both,
humans and animals, is a question of degree or a question of essence. Also we analyze
the implications of the expression intellectus ex foris, and if Aristotle, who defended the
eternity of the world and man, was eventually an advocate of the immortality of the
soul, as Thomas believed, or rather was a supporter of the mortality thesis, as other
exegetes argued.