Couverture / Jaquette

The Ancient Greek Category of Psuché has been mistranslated and thereby has been repressed as a categorical idea in Medieval and Contemporary Philosophy. The closest correct translation of Psuché would be "life-form" and Aristotle was the Philosopher par excellence who provided us with a hylomorphic theory of life-forms, which are to be contrasted with inorganic forms of existence that belong essentially to the mineral world. Kant, in his later work postulated both a metaphysics of Nature and a Metaphysics of Morals, which implied differing categorical frameworks for these different kinds of study (logos), that in turn resists reduction to just one method or theory, unless, it is argued, the theory is of a hylomorphic kind. Areté, arché, dike, phronesis, and eudaimonia, have also been problematically translated in a way that seems to demand either materialistic or dualistic methods and theories, both of which have been rejected by hylomorphic argumentation. Freud stated that his Psychology was Kantian and to the extent that Kantian theory assumes much of hylomorphic theory, this implies that Freud too must be committed to some of the assumptions of hylomorphic theory.

Note biographique

Dr. Michael R D James was born in South Africa, educated in England and Sweden and has lived in Sweden since 1979. He is the author of the series of volumes entitled "The World Explored, the World Suffered: A Philosophical History of Psychology, Cognition, Emotion, Consciousness and Action."

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