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The aim now was to purify the doctrine of Aristotle from the additions of its Neo-Platonic, Arabian, and scholastic interpreters, to know the true Aristotle, to ascertain the difference between him and Plato, between him and the doctrine of the Christian faith. The Italian Aristotelians, who agreed with Alexan der, were on their way back to the true Aristotle. There was no point in which all these oppositions could so dis tinctly and actively appear, and at the same time so eagerly arouse and hold the attention of the age, as in the question concerning the immortality of the soul. Aristotle had taught that the soul is the individual organic purpose of a living body ; that the mind, or reason, is imperishable and immortal. He had made a distinction between passive and active reason, and affirmed immortality of the latter. prev next |