Aristotle on the Relationship between Emotion and the Rational Part of the Soul

Abstract

The position of emotions in Aristotle's thought is often identified with his theory of the weakness of the will, but the study of his works shows that emotions play a wider and more complex role in mental activities. For him, there is a deep and mutual relationship between emotions and other mental functions and activities. That is, both emotions affect the rational part functions of the soul and the rational part functions affect the emotions and their intensity and weakness. In this article, for explaining the claim of the reciprocal relationship between emotion and the rational part, after expressing what emotion is and how it works in the mind, on one hand, we will study the influence of emotion on the rational part of the soul and examine its role in the will, power of judgment, and sensory perception. In our view, contrary to popular belief, emotions are not just a dangerous threat to ethics and rationality, rather, they can play a serious role in strengthening rationality. On the other hand, to understand the effect of the rational part on emotions, we will examine the role of some mental activities in the production of pleasure, pain, and emotions such as friendship, compassion, and resistance to the motivational force of emotions. We will also explain that mental functions do not work the same in creating emotions, there is also a direct relationship between the intensity and weakness of mental functions and the intensity and weakness of emotions.

Keywords

• aristotle
• emotion
• soul
• mind
• rationality