The Rested Soul — The Soul That Aristotle Missed

7 min readJan 31, 2024

A challenge to Aristotle’s Concept of the Four Souls

“The soul is analyzed into a connected series of capacities: the nutritive soul is responsible for growth and reproduction, the locomotive soul for motion, the perceptive soul for perception, and so on. The biological fact Aristotle makes use of is that human begins are the only species that has not only these lower capacities but a rational soul as well. The good of human being must have something to do with being human; and what sets humanity off from other species, giving us the potential to live a better life, is our capacity to guide ourselves by using reason. If we use reason well, we live well as human beings; or, to be more precise, using reason well over the course of a full life is what happiness consists in. Doing anything well requires virtue or excellence, and therefore living well consists in activities caused by the rational soul in accordance with virtue or excellence.” — Kraut (2022)

I. What Makes it “Good?”

I particularly like this passage because it summarizes the three (3) primal characteristics that human beings share with other species, and highlights that the “ability to reason” separates humans from other species.

The ability to use logic, and to use it wisely, according to Aristotle, leads to happiness.

A. Organized.

The traits are explained in hierarchical order, from lowest to highest, namely: 1) Nutritive, the physiological level which is vital to growth, self-maintenance, and reproduction (Rivera-Martin, 2021); 2) Locomotion, the physical ability to move, to a place of safety/comfort, or to explore; 3) Intuition, the ability to understand something quickly, based on feelings rather than facts (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.); and 4) Reasoning, the process of thinking in a logical way in order to form a conclusion or judgment (The Britannica Dictionary, n.d.).

B. How It Works Together.

We can quickly follow that we first need food (nutrition) before we can move (locomotion). For that matter, we need food so that, within the body itself, the physiological movements of the heartbeat, the breathing process, the digestive process, and other bodily tasks work as designed.

Without nutrition, life ends, or never begins.

To add, the quality and the quantity of nutrition determines the distance and speed of human travel, which can be crucial for survivability. I can run faster and farther with a full meal that consists of carbohydrates and protein, than on a bag of potato chips (my favorite).

Nutrition also determines the quality of intuition, or the ability to make decisions based on feelings. When hungry, we are not as intuitive, and not as adept at “feeling the room” because nutrients are being used to power the organs and the extremities — which leaves less for the brain.

II. What Aristotle Missed — The Rested Soul

In my view, Aristotle missed another aspect of the soul — the rested soul. Being at rest might seem inconsequential; however, it is a key part of survival and longevity.

A. Heartbeats.

Heartbeats, for example, circulate the blood through contraction and relaxation (Crumbie, 2023 and National Institutes of Health, 2022) and is considered one of the four vital signs (Johns Hopkins Medicine, n.d.).

Without the “relaxation” phase, there cannot be another contraction, and therefore, no continuation of life.

When it comes to the heart, the resting/relaxation phase is critical to furthering life.

B. Breathing.

Without realizing it, we breathe in and out about 22,000 times a day (Canadian Lung Association, n.d.). When we inhale our lungs expand. When we exhale our lungs contract.

If a rest cycle was not included in the design, the lungs would continue to expand after one breath — ending life. If the lungs exhaled without end, life would also end.

If the lungs exhaled or inhaled without stopping/resting, life would end.

C. Locomotion Begins From the “Rest Position.”

As another example, locomotion incorporates a rest cycle, some of which is caused by the limits of how far we can extend our extremities. When running, there is a forward movement and a rearward movement of the legs, that in combination, propel the body to the desired direction.

But, before each movement can occur, there is “rest.”
All activities start from a “position of rest.”

Additionally, each stride has limits. There is a moment of “rest” to prevent “hyperextension.” Without that “limit”, the legs, the feet, and the hips can get injured.

D. Wake-Sleep Cycle

During the 24-hour day, we generally spend 16 hours awake and eight hours asleep.

Without sleep, the body and the brain degrade quickly. Decision-making becomes impaired. Mundane tasks become more difficult. Reactions times become slower.

Lack of sleep leads to an early death.

E. Seven.

On a larger scale, nature has “cycles of rest.” The seventh day (part of the weekend) is accepted as the “chosen day of rest.”

Without a “rested soul”, life becomes boring, without punctuation from the mundane tasks of life.

Then, there is the cycle of fallowing fields every seven years. If the soil is not rested, the productive capability of the ground is reduced.

Even in academia, we have the Sabbatical, rooted in the number seven, where a teacher rests, or travels for an entire year.

A rested soul is key to longevity.

F. Writer’s Block.

To overcome writer’s block, many suggest to “do something unrelated for a while” (Neumann et al., 2017, p. 59). Their advice is a form of “rest.”

Patrick Hanlon came up with the concept of the Seven Elements of Branding while working in his backyard.

There are many examples where life-changing/life-improving ideas appeared spontaneously during “rest.”

III. Possible Rebuttal

One can argue that being rational incorporates “rest.”

But, hasn’t man rationalized continuous work without rest?

How many examples have we seen where death was the direct result of “overwork.” Death from overwork is an epidemic in the Japanese workforce.

During the rise of the Industrial Period, humans “rationalized” that children should work in factories, without breaks, and without safety equipment, instead of learning in school.

Rationalization could be Aristotle’s highest form of the soul, but as demonstrated throughout history, rationalization is full of flaws.

Rationalization is full of flaws.

IV. Conclusion.

In my view, Aristotle’s views are incomplete. He missed one aspect of the soul.

Aristotle’s fourth element of the human soul is neither 1) attainable, nor 2) sustainable without the fifth element, the “rested soul.”

Rest, is reason refined.

About the author:
Leonard Casiple is the founder of Public Value LLC, a multidisciplinary company that provides intellectual capital for the public sector.
Leonard spent much of his 21-year career in the US Army as a PSYOP Specialist and as a Green Beret. During his service, Leo became the only Green Beret in the Special Forces Regiment with a multi-year, simultaneous, full professional proficiency rating in Arabic and Tagalog. After his military service, Leo learned to read Classical Hebrew.
Leonard is currently enrolled in Northeastern University’s Doctor of Law and Policy program. He earned his education from California Lutheran University (Master of Public Policy and Administration), ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management (Master of Business Administration in Global Management), Excelsior University (BS in Liberal Arts, Ethnic and Area Studies), Academy of Competitive Intelligence (Master of Competitive Intelligence™ and Competitive Intelligence Professional CIP-I Certificates), Defense Language Institute and Foreign Language Center (18-month Arabic Language Course), and the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (Special Forces Qualification Course and Psychological Operations Specialist Course).

For more information about the author, see Leo’s LinkedIn Profile

References

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Intuition. Cambridge Dictionary | English Dictionary, Translations & Thesaurus. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/intuitionLinks to an external site.

Canadian Lung Association. (n.d.). Breathing. https://www.lung.ca/lung-health/lung-info/breathing

Crumbie, L. (2023, October 30). Cardiac cycle. Kenhub. https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/cardiac-cycleLinks to an external site.

Hanlon, P. (2006). Primalbranding: Create belief systems that attract communities. Simon & Schuster.

Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Vital signs (Body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure). https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/vital-signs-body-temperature-pulse-rate-respiration-rate-blood-pressure

Kraut, R. (2022). Aristotle’s Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=aristotle-ethicsLinks to an external site.

National Institutes of Health. (2022, March 24). How the heart beats. NHLBI, NIH. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart/heart-beats#:~:text=Your%20heart%20has%20a%20special,to%20contract%20and%20pump%20bloodLinks to an external site.

Neumann, Jr., R. K., Margolis, E., & Stanchi, K. M. (2017). Legal reasoning and legal writing (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Rivera-Martin, I. D. (2021, September). Nutrition and nutritive soul in Aristotle and Aristotelianism. The Review of Metaphysics. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/804552Links to an external site.

The Britannica Dictionary. (n.d.). Reasoning. Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/reasoning#:~:text=%5Bnoncount%5D,form%20a%20conclusion%20or%20judgmentLinks to an external site.

The Writing Center. (2019). Guiding legal readers through your legal document. Georgetown Law. Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://www.law.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Guiding-Legal-Readers-Through-Your-Legal-Document.pdfLinks to an external site.

For more information about the author, see Leo’s LinkedIn Profile