Human Rationalism by Aristotle - Research Paper Example

The soul is not kind of body, but cannot exist independently without a body. According to Aristotle, reason is inborn and exists in human beings through an induction process that begins with a sense experience. For instance, Aristotle demonstrates that experience grants medical practitioners the capability to carry out accurate medical diagnosis when compared with medical theorists of layman. Thesis statement: rationalism leads reason which is the source of knowledge while rational soul strives to attainment of happiness which is the ultimate life goal.

Reason is the cornerstone of knowledge while sensations are restricted. Reason deals with ideal aspects of knowledge while senses deal with the material aspects of phenomena. Aristotle recognizes that active reasons lead to objective thoughts while passive reasons receive objects of thought. Reasons support intelligent world thus many reasons are connected to the human being soul. Aristotle asserted that knowledge exists through the induction process. Human knowledge is derived from three forms that include sensation, thoughts and desires.

Sensation is a passive state of the soul to be changed by external objects while thoughts entail active changes of forms without contact with external objects (Dawn 6). Thoughts entail a common sense without the involvement of sensory parts of the body. In addition, all senses lead to information, knowledge must be acquired rationally through the sense information. Through the use of reason, the universal truths can clearly be discovered and facilitate the deduction of other sciences. In ethics, the fundamental moral virtues are innate in human beings and moral principles can be evident to the rational faculty (Warne 34).

Aristotle provides three aspects of the soul that include nutritive soul that cannot experience pleasure or pain. The sensitive soul that occurs when fetus starts to move thus can experience pain and pleasure. The third and important aspect of soul is the rational soul that is present in gods and human beings only. The rational soul includes all other soul forms and has the capacity to analyze and make a reasoned decision (Aristotle 3). The rational soul assists human beings in understanding different forms of relationships thus contributing to the knowledge process.

According to Aristotle Nicomachean ethics, the rational soul consists of the theoretical part and deliberative part. The theoretical part entails faculty reasons or scientific reasoning activities, while the deliberative part is associated with human decisions. The rational soul is actuality of the body since it has the capability to behave and fulfill desires. The human function follows rational principle and entire soul acts with reason. Reason originates in rational soul since animals do not exhibit moral sense.

Moral actions combine both character and intellect that entail development of the desires. According to Aristotle, the three goods which human beings try to attain include goods of the soul such as virtues, goods of the body such as physical strength and good health and also external goods that entail political power, friends and wealth (Aristotle 8). However, Aristotle concludes that happiness is the last good that human rationalism strives to attain at the end of life. In addition, happiness entails having a good spirit and not simply being amused.

It is the possession of a virtue and not sensation and some contributors of happiness include attainment of one’