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Aristotle: materialist or a dualist

Im studying the A-level OCR Religious Studies course and we are currently working on Philosophy - Soul, mind and body. I am confused to whether Aristotle was a dualist or a materialist or neither (i find it hard that he could be a combination of the two?) My teacher has taught us that he was materialist however most resources online argue that he is a dualist which further adds to my confusion. If anyone can clarify that would be great, thanks :smile:
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Joe312
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Aristotle is a materlialist. His conception of the material/physical world is quite different from modern materialism though, most notably in that Aristotle thinks the material world contains purpose and form.

What websites say he is a dualist..?
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GEL18
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Original post by Joe312
Aristotle is a materlialist. His conception of the material/physical world is quite different from modern materialism though, most notably in that Aristotle thinks the material world contains purpose and form.

What websites say he is a dualist..?

Thankyou so much for your response here are two of several articles that i read;

https://search.proquest.com/openview/d70858daad7f84f43fd5c456a1f2bf03/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817886

https://philpapers.org/rec/ROBAD-2

We also received a paper booklet in class which argued similarly to one of the articles and suggested that Aristotle argued that reason would survive death of the body (although this was never included in any formal writings.) I also read an article which suggests that Aristotle believed that a part of the soul/mind - intellect- is eternal and can therefore live beyond the death of the body.

I am just really confused so I apologise if i have gotten anything wrong or misinterpreted anything. :smile:
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Joe312
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Original post by GEL18
Thankyou so much for your response here are two of several articles that i read;

https://search.proquest.com/openview/d70858daad7f84f43fd5c456a1f2bf03/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817886

https://philpapers.org/rec/ROBAD-2

We also received a paper booklet in class which argued similarly to one of the articles and suggested that Aristotle argued that reason would survive death of the body (although this was never included in any formal writings.) I also read an article which suggests that Aristotle believed that a part of the soul/mind - intellect- is eternal and can therefore live beyond the death of the body.

I am just really confused so I apologise if i have gotten anything wrong or misinterpreted anything. :smile:

It's true Aristotle did have a belief that rational thought could live on after death. This doesn't mean he has to be a dualist though. It just means his ancient conception of the material world included the potential for that. However this is a debatable issue and you could argue he is best classified as a dualist. Honestly aristotle and plato lived before the idea of dualism was invented, the labels don't really apply well to either of them. It's even hard to call Plato a dualist since he thought the 'physical' wasn't really real but the result of an ignorant way of looking at the world.
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GEL18
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Original post by Joe312
It's true Aristotle did have a belief that rational thought could live on after death. This doesn't mean he has to be a dualist though. It just means his ancient conception of the material world included the potential for that. However this is a debatable issue and you could argue he is best classified as a dualist. Honestly aristotle and plato lived before the idea of dualism was invented, the labels don't really apply well to either of them. It's even hard to call Plato a dualist since he thought the 'physical' wasn't really real but the result of an ignorant way of looking at the world.


Thank you for all of your help, i now have a better understanding 😁

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