ABSTRACT
The Aristotelian soul is the 'form' of the living thing, the principle of life which activates its 'matter'. Although specific forms were supposed to be ontologically simple, they were nevertheless assigned a certain complexity in so far as they contain the forms of higher genera. Consequently man was often spoken of as possessing three forms, souls or lives. Barely as a living thing a man shares the lowest kind of life with plants, the life of nutrition, growth and reproduction. As an animal it enjoys sensation, imagination and the power of self-movement. But the distinctive life of the human being is the life of reason and intellect.
