The Metaphysics and Logos of Psuché and Psychoanalysis: An Aristotelian and Kantian Critique

The Ancient Greek category of Psuché has been mistranslated and thereby has been repressed as a categorical idea in Contemporary Philosophy. The closest correct translation of psuché would be "life-form", and Aristotle was the Philosopher par excellence who provided us with a Hylomorphic theory of life-forms, which are to be contrasted with inorganic forms of existence that belong essentially to the mineral world. Kant in his later work postulated both a metaphysics of nature and a metaphysics of morals which implied differing categorical frameworks for these different kinds of study (logos) that resist reduction to just one method or theory, unless, we argue, the theory is of a hylomorphic kind. Areté, diké, arché, phronesis and eudaimonia have also been problematically translated in a way that suggests either materialist or dualistic kinds of theorising that reject the form of hylomorphic theory, which contained decisive arguments against both materialism and dualism in all guises. Freud stated that his Psychology was Kantian but to the extent that it was Kant that reinstated hylomorphism, this in turn implies that Freud must be committed to some form of Hylomorphism. Our work looks at Freud's Political commitments insofar as they were a part of his Psychoanalytical Project and notes the close connection with both Plato's and Aristotle's accounts of the dangers of tyranny. Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism elaborates upon some of Freud's concerns from an existentialist standpoint and she coins the term "the new men" who certainly would qualify for a Freudian diagnosis. These new men possessed the capacity of mobilising the melancholic masses for the various purposes of their various agendas. Both Freud and Arendt would also share concern over the dropping of atomic bombs on civilian populations by these "new men" although Freud was in fact both spared from experiencing this "final solution" for the Japanese problem, as he was also spared from experiencing the "final solution” to the Jewish problem. Freud's analysis of Woodrow Wilson manifests the power of psychoanalytical theory to provide knowledge (epistemé) of cultural-political phenomena. Consciousness on Freud's Theory is a vicissitude of the Instincts (eros and thanatos) which are the formidable forces fighting for the future of civilised man and his cultural creations. The Greek oracles prophesied that everything created by man is destined for ruin and destruction and it is possible that this was also Freud's hidden fear and one of the reasons why mans discontentment with his civilisations might end in either ruin and destruction or the Kingdom of Ends suggested by Kant that lies one hundred thousand years in the future. We claim that Wittgenstein’s later work assisted in creating an arena in which both Aristotelian and Kantian Philosophy could once again become relevant cultural forces in future theorising. Aristotle in his work on Ethics claimed that all mans activities aim at the Good and he discovered a mechanism or principle of the "golden mean" which has helped to create an enlightened middle class in our modern political systems which is the main competing philosophical political vision contesting with Marxism for the title of "The Good". Freud's work is, we conclude, a significant elaboration upon both Platonic, Aristotelian and Kantian themes

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Release date

Audiobook: November 25, 2024
Ebook: November 25, 2024