Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma

The idea of a self-organized system brings both political and biological dis-courses together, for they both aim at explaining how a certain compound can achieve self-unity out of plurality. Whereas biological metaphors in politics have been much examined, political metaphors in biology have not. In...

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Autor: Grassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Navarra
Repositorio:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/62503
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/62503
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Self-organization
System
Government
Circulation
Autarchy
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spelling Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and PneumaGrassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10Self-organizationSystemGovernmentCirculationAutarchyThe idea of a self-organized system brings both political and biological dis-courses together, for they both aim at explaining how a certain compound can achieve self-unity out of plurality. Whereas biological metaphors in politics have been much examined, political metaphors in biology have not. In this paper I intend to show how political metaphors can enlighten biological discourses, taking the work of Aristotle as a case-study. The relationship between the main elements of a living-body could be better understood within a political scheme: the soul rules over the body through pneuma, its prime minister. This scheme entails, thus, to re-examine Aristotle’s defini-tion of soul in the light of the key concept of pneuma, and to replace the hylemorphicexplanation with a triadic one. On the one hand, soul is the entelecheia of the body as it keeps both the form and the end of the organism, which is its unity. On the other hand, the moving-efficacious principle that performs unity by circulating through the body, and by linking the body to its environment is pneuma. Therefore, the political formula: “the king does not govern” could shed light upon the structure of the living body: whereas the soul rules the body, pneuma governs it. Although Aristotle does not build his biology upon political concepts, metaphors are already there, shaping his explanations, within the bio-theo-political paradigm of autarchy.Uniwersytet Mikołaja KopernikaDadun. Depósito Académico Digital Universidad de Navarra20212021-11-1020202020-01-0120202020-01-01journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/62503reponame:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarrainstname:Universidad de NavarraInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/625032026-06-21T12:47:57Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
title Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
spellingShingle Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
Grassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10
Self-organization
System
Government
Circulation
Autarchy
title_short Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
title_full Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
title_fullStr Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
title_full_unstemmed Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
title_sort Self-organized bodies, between Politics and Biology.A political reading of Aristotle’s concepts of Soul and Pneuma
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Grassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10
author Grassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10
author_facet Grassi, M. (Martín)|||/items/362535e1-71d3-4645-828f-a0c59c941f10
author_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital Universidad de Navarra
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Self-organization
System
Government
Circulation
Autarchy
topic Self-organization
System
Government
Circulation
Autarchy
description The idea of a self-organized system brings both political and biological dis-courses together, for they both aim at explaining how a certain compound can achieve self-unity out of plurality. Whereas biological metaphors in politics have been much examined, political metaphors in biology have not. In this paper I intend to show how political metaphors can enlighten biological discourses, taking the work of Aristotle as a case-study. The relationship between the main elements of a living-body could be better understood within a political scheme: the soul rules over the body through pneuma, its prime minister. This scheme entails, thus, to re-examine Aristotle’s defini-tion of soul in the light of the key concept of pneuma, and to replace the hylemorphicexplanation with a triadic one. On the one hand, soul is the entelecheia of the body as it keeps both the form and the end of the organism, which is its unity. On the other hand, the moving-efficacious principle that performs unity by circulating through the body, and by linking the body to its environment is pneuma. Therefore, the political formula: “the king does not govern” could shed light upon the structure of the living body: whereas the soul rules the body, pneuma governs it. Although Aristotle does not build his biology upon political concepts, metaphors are already there, shaping his explanations, within the bio-theo-political paradigm of autarchy.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2020-01-01
2020
2020-01-01
2021
2021-11-10
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10171/62503
url https://hdl.handle.net/10171/62503
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
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dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
instname:Universidad de Navarra
instname_str Universidad de Navarra
reponame_str Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
collection Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
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