Will and Hierarchical Soul

Aristotle's and Kant's concepts of Virtue as Self-Control makes explicit what is implicit in a hierarchical model of the Soul, pioneered by Plato, upon which each is based--that Reason is superior to Animality. The main difference between the two models is that, following Descartes, Kant denies that Animality, is even a part of the Soul. Otherwise, for both, Virtue consists in gaining rational control of locomotion, the fundamental characteristic of Animality. In contrast, Formaterialism rejects entirely this traditional hierarchical model, preferring, as the basic dimensions of its concept of Personhood, Outer and Inner, derived from the the fundamental processes of Exteriorization and Interiorization. On this model, Locomotion is a mode of the former, i. e. of Will, which the latter, i. e. Consciousness, structures, which is one reason why they are also classified as Material Principle and Formal Principle, respectively. But, there is no systematic hierarchical relation between them, i. e. neither is superior to the other. Hence, what Aristotle and Kant interpret as an imposition of a higher faculty on a lower faculty, is re-conceived here as coordination, the more balanced, the better, yielding a process of Self-Creation, rather than of Self-Control.