Monday, June 24, 2019

Material Causality, Body, Psychology

One of the important applications of Aristotle's concept of Matter as inert is to the bodies of otherwise animate entities including Humans, an application that has significant ramifications for any concept of Psychology.  Accordingly, if, as has been proposed here, Matter is conceived instead as inherently dynamic, i. e. as a process of increasing Multiplicity, or, in other words, as Material Causality, then the Human Body is immanently dynamic independently of the Formal Causality that he, and the subsequent tradition, attribute to Mind.  On that basis, the Motility of an animate entity can be conceived as an instance of Material Causality, with autonomous motor functions emanating from the brain to the extremities, e. g. legs, arms, etc.  Accordingly, that motivation is an essential factor in any behavior, and, hence, must be recognized as such in a theory of Psychology.  Thus, for example, ordinary experiences such as an urge to exercise, boredom, and wanderlust, are expressions of an independent vital principle, and, so, are not in themselves Psychologically trivial.  Likewise, organic Health therefore consists in a Mind-Body balance from which concepts of Psychological Health and Mental Health are derived, not independent of or prior to.

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