Commentating a Quote #2

 This is becoming my favorite idea of posts.  I will stick to more Greek quotes for several more posts then branch into some more modern ones.  Most of the next ones would more than likely be from one of my role models: Aristotle.

     "We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one." -Aristotle

Background
    Aristotle was a Macedonian who attended and graduated Plato's Academy.  In his early years, he supported the academy's teachings, but as he aged, he began to argue against the academy as well as most of the other philosophers of his time.  It was here that he soon became tutor to Alexander the Great, and he influenced him so strongly that Alexander brought zoologists, botanists, and researchers with him on his conquests.  His scope of topics varied by a large margin, and he is said to be the last man to know everything there was to know in that man's time.

Meaning
    Aristotle believed that the soul had both a physical existence as well as a metaphysical existence.  He was one of the few that believed that.  Today we distinguish between the heart, the mind, and the soul as explanations for what and why we do stuff.  There was no such distinctions then; there was only the soul which controlled the mind or vice versa.  To Aristotle, there was no existence after life for the soul without the body, and there was no existence without the combination of both soul and body.  If one were to lose their soul, then their body would become an immobile corpse.  If the body was destroyed, then the soul, too, would pass into oblivion.  Any action taken against the body would also be against the soul in this duality of soul and body.  It makes distinction that life has two inseparable parts where one would not survive without the other, and that it would be pointless to attempt to separate them in any way.  The body would influence the soul and vice versa; if the soul chose a certain action then over time the body would adapt and change to that action.  If the body were to be affected negatively or positively, then the soul would become, respectively, bad or good natured in conduct.  This is the conclusion that I have arrived at in my short time of life.