Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Psyche and Reason

As has been previously discussed, Freud restores to the Psyche a sub-Rationality that Aristotle recognizes, but, that under the influence of Christianity, gets purged.  Now, since Aristotle attributes a Soul to all living entities, but only Rationality to humans, Descartes' identification of Mind and Soul entails that humans are the only biological entities that possess a Soul, i. e. he conceives each other animal to be a mechanical automaton.  But, Freud gives no indication of attributing a Psyche to any non-human entities.  So, it is unclear if he is following Descartes in that regard, or is implicitly following Aristotle, and, for example, implicitly attributing a Libido to biological entities.  If the latter, then the significant divergence from Aristotle is that he conceives Reason to repress, rather than to enhance, the non-Rational parts of the Psyche.

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