Twenty-five centuries ago, Aristotle delineated a philosophy of mind and consciousness that has never been surpassed. His principles, outlined in his books “Categories,” “Metaphysics,” and “Physics,” have withstood the passage of time. His books were written mostly in the period 340-325 BC.
The Aristotelian philosophy of mind and consciousness can be condensed in three principles. Let’s enumerate them one by one.
First, the definition of human beings as rational creatures. It differentiates Aristotle from his contemporaries Plato (428-347 BC), Zeno (334-262 BC) and Epicurus (341-270 BC). Those gave less weight to reason, and more to emotions and intuition.
Second, the acknowledgement of the fact that each person, through his mind and decisions, gives shape to his own life. In his work “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle said that “happiness depends on ourselves,” meaning that it depends on our actions, on our efforts.
Third, the recognition that the purpose of human life, and of thinking as a whole, is to achieve happiness. In “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle said that “happiness is the meaning and goal of human life, the central objective of human existence.”
Let us explore these three principle in detail.
The first principle in Aristotle’s philosophy of consciousness: rationality
First, the definition of human beings as rational creatures is far from self-evident. In fact, countless philosophers in history have ignored or overlooked this fact. They’ve devised complex theories to explain how humans acquire knowledge, instead of simply acknowledging the fact that humans are rational.
Chimpanzees, dolphins or elephants possess certain abilities that can be categorized as incipiently rational, but are severely limited, barely at the level of a human child. Only humans can acquire vast amounts of knowledge and organize it logically.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) gives us a perfect illustration of what happens when you overlook an obvious fact. Instead of simply acknowledging that humans are rational (intelligent, logical), he devised an extremely complex theory to explain how knowledge is gathered.
In his volume “Critique of Pure Reason,” published in 1781, Kant argued that the human mind gathers knowledge through a mixture of sensory experience and innate concepts.
According to Kant, the human consciousness organizes the sensory data by employing innate concepts (“categories”) like space, time, size, cause and effect. Actually, Kant attempted to supply a complete list of those categories; he first drew a list of twelve, but then realized that the list was incomplete.
Aristotle’s philosophy versus the Kantian categories
Kant theorized that, when we perceive the world, we filter every input through those categories but that we would still use the categories if we were unable to perceive the world.
It only takes a second to realize how absurd Kant’s doctrines are. Do you think that blind people have a good understanding of space, or that people imprisoned in a cave have a good grasp of time? Of course not.
Twenty-two centuries before Kant, Aristotle had understood that human beings are characteristic by their rationality, which is their essential characteristic; rationality is what enables us to observe, measure, compare, and draw conclusions.
Rationality is what enables us to define concepts such as the ideas of space, time, size, cause and effect. It is not that we are born with twelve innate categories, as Kant had theorized. The truth is that we identify all categories by employing reason and that there is no limit to the number of categories or concepts.
The problem of false explanations such as Kant’s categories is that they lead to all sorts of secondary errors. Once you give up essential truths (such as those identified by Aristotle), logic goes out of the window.
If you accept a list of “innate categories” invented by Kant, he’ll also try to convince you to accept his list of “categorical imperatives” in the field of ethics, instead of encouraging you to think for yourself.
The second principle in Aristotle’s philosophy of consciousness: self-determination
The second principle in the Aristotelian philosophy of mind and consciousness is that human beings shape their own lives. They do so by employing reason, drawing conclusions, taking decisions, and carrying them out.
“The goal of wisdom is learning distinguish between good and evil,” wrote Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics.” It is up to you to acquire wisdom and use it in every decision. Your life is not dominated by mysterious, supernatural forces. You do have the ability to think for yourself.
Every wrong philosophy contains a denial of the capacity to think. Every evil doctrine undermines Aristotle’s basic insight that each individual possesses the capacity to think logically. It is a different issue whether he exercises that capacity or not.
The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is the archetypical example of modern mysticism. Hegel (1770-1831) devoted his whole life to attacking the Aristotelian tenet that human beings can shape their own life.
While Aristotle had outlined a philosophy of consciousness based on the individual mind, Hegel said that history is driven by “The Phenomenology of the Spirit.” That’s the title he gave to his main book, which he published in 1807.
According to Hegel, history (and the course of human life) is driven by a “dialectical progression” through contradictions, conflicts, and resolutions. Reality, he argued, is a dynamically guided by an absolute spirit outside the control of individuals.
Hegel failed to supply the slightest thread of evidence of his theory of the spirit, but his doctrines have been employed by countless dictators who claim to be guided by the spirit.
I must say that Aristotle’s theory is not only more realistic, but also leads to a better functioning society, one where human rights are valued and protected.
The third principle in Aristotle’s philosophy of consciousness: happiness as main purpose
The third principle in Aristotle’s views of consciousness and mind is that purpose of human life (and the purpose of thinking as a whole) is happiness.
“The whole point of knowledge is to choose worthy actions and develop a worthy character,” wrote Aristotle in his book “Nicomachean Ethics.”
The mind is not an empty receptacle that can be filled with all kind of nonsense and that functions for no purpose. If you forget about the purpose of life, you will get sidetracked by all kind of worthless undertakings.
Unfortunately, philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 -1951) have put forward ideas that directly contradict or ignore that happiness should be the main goal.
Wittgenstein devoted two decades to writing about language philosophy and logic with the only result of creating confusion and chaos.
In his “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” (1922), he argues that language shouldn’t be used for ethical discussions because those cannot be empirical validated. Aristotle must have turned in his grave, realizing that his philosophy had been totally and absolutely forgotten or misunderstood.
Wittgenstein maintained his mistake in his “Philosophical Investigations” published in 1953. He argued that language is to be studied as a complex social practice unconnected to logic or reality. The result of such an approach is ethical uncertainty.
If you want to develop your ability to think clearly and take good decisions, you’ll be much better off by using Aristotelian logic.
If you are interested in applying Aristotelian ideas in daily life, I recommend you my book “The 10 Principles of Rational Living.”
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