Aristotle's concept of the soul differs significantly from that of Plato and Descartes. Contrary to Plato, who often viewed the soul as an entity distinct from the body and from a higher realm, Aristotle sees the soul as the 'actuality of a body that has life,' implying an inseparable connection where the soul is the form of a living body. This conception grounds the essence of the soul in its biological functions, such as growth, nutrition, and perception, leading to a hierarchy of living beings from plants to humans. Descartes' dualism, which posited a separation between mind and body, contrasts sharply with Aristotle's integrated approach, where the soul represents the functional capacities within a living organism. This perspective impacts our understanding of human experience by framing the body and soul as a unified entity, thereby shaping how we consider mental and physical processes as interconnected rather than distinct .

In Aristotle's theory of the soul, cognitive faculties include the senses, imagination, and intellect. The sensory faculties, encompassed by the five traditional senses plus a 'central sense,' are responsible for processing sensory inputs, while imagination deals with images formed in the mind. Intellect differentiates humans by allowing abstract reasoning. Affective faculties include the locus of spontaneous feeling, which comprises desires and passions. This affective part, though irrational, can be controlled and aligned with reason to cultivate moral virtues such as courage. The hierarchy places the sensory and affective faculties at a lower level, with intellectual faculties at the top, indicating a progression from basic perceptual experiences through emotional responses to rational judgment .

Interpretations of Aristotle's active intellect reflect differing philosophical perspectives by revealing contrasting views on the nature and role of intellect in human and cosmic contexts. Some philosophers, particularly among Arab commentators, identified the active intellect with an external divine or superhuman intelligence, suggesting a link to broader cosmological principles. In contrast, many Latin philosophers understood it as part of human cognitive architecture, distinguishable between conceptual formation (active intellect) and knowledge retention (passive intellect). These differing interpretations underline varied emphases on whether intellectual processes are primarily intrinsic to human cognition or intertwined with universal intelligence, thus impacting beliefs about the autonomy and capabilities of human thought .

Aristotle's assertion that the soul is 'the form of a natural body that has life' holds profound implications for both biology and philosophy. It signifies that the soul is not an independent entity but an intrinsic principle that actualizes the life potential of a body, positioning life as a unified whole. This view influenced biological philosophy for centuries by rooting life's essence in its functional operations rather than metaphysical abstraction. Philosophically, it challenged notions of dualism by integrating mind and body, promoting an understanding of living beings where consciousness and corporeal functions are interdependent, thus offering a framework that underscored both empirical investigation and metaphysical inquiry about life and existence .

Aristotle distinguishes between the active intellect, which 'makes all things,' and the passive intellect, which 'becomes all things.' In antiquity and the Middle Ages, interpretations varied significantly. Some Arab commentators linked the active intellect to a divine or superhuman intelligence, seeing it as separate from individuals. Conversely, Latin commentators tended to view it as two faculties within the human mind, with the active intellect responsible for forming new concepts and the passive intellect serving as a repository of knowledge. This distinction underscores debates about the nature of human intellect and, by extension, our capacity for understanding and creativity, reflecting differing philosophical traditions regarding the separability and immortality of the intellect, which carries implications for the scope of human intellectual potential .

"Common sensibles" in Aristotle's theory are qualities like motion, number, shape, and size, which can be perceived through multiple senses rather than being unique to a single sensory modality. Unlike proper sensibles that are exclusive to particular senses (e.g., colors to sight, sounds to hearing), common sensibles can be detected through different senses—such as motion felt through touch or seen with the eyes—indicating a coordination of sensory inputs. This concept supports Aristotle's understanding of perception as a composite process involving multiple senses synthesized by what he refers to as a "central sense," leading to unified perception of objects .

In Aristotle's view, reason occupies the highest level in the hierarchy of soul faculties, distinct from other faculties such as perception and emotion due to its unique capability for abstract thought and understanding of universals. While other faculties deal primarily with particular and immediate sensory experiences or reactive emotional states, reason involves judgment, deliberation, and the pursuit of wisdom, categorized into practical and theoretical reasoning. This enables humans to engage in moral decision-making and philosophical contemplation, setting human life apart by allowing a pursuit of higher virtues and intellectual fulfillment, which Aristotle sees as crucial for achieving eudaimonia, or flourishing .

The "central sense" in Aristotle's theory of perception functions as a unifying faculty that integrates inputs from various sense organs to form coherent perceptions of single objects. It does not correspond to a particular organ but serves as a mechanism by which individual sensory data, such as sight, sound, or touch, are synthesized into an overall perception, enabling someone to comprehend the entirety of an object—like a horse—through multiple modalities. This integration highlights Aristotle's view of perception as an active and comprehensive process involving coordination among different senses, potentially pointing towards early ideas of cognitive synthesis .

Aristotle's concept of "inner senses," which includes faculties such as imagination and memory, contributes to his broader theory of the soul by providing links between sensory perception and rational thought. These faculties are thought to process and retain sensory data beyond immediate perception, enabling functions like imagery creation and recall, which are crucial for cognitive processes that involve reasoning and informed decision-making. By positing such internal faculties, Aristotle extends the scope of the soul's functions beyond mere biological processes to include complex mental activities, thereby offering a comprehensive framework that covers all aspects of conscious life and its interaction with the external world .

The 17th-century philosophical traditions, notably through Rene Descartes' dualism, laid groundwork for ongoing debates in psychology regarding the mind-body problem by proposing a separation between mind and body that interacts. This dualistic view incited explorations into the nature of consciousness and opened inquiries about how mental states could affect physical ones and vice versa. Additionally, this period saw growing interest in applying empirical scientific methodologies to study human thought and behavior, as seen in early physiological research on brain and behavior. This shift laid the foundations for psychology to emerge as a scientific discipline, emphasizing the need for systematic observation and experimentation in understanding psychological phenomena .