Aquinas' conception of the nature of the soul consists of two main elements. Firstly, that as the first principle of life which is the form of the human being, it is necessarily incorporeal. Secondly as the principle of all intellective activity in human beings it must be described as subsistent. The first element can be described as thoroughly Aristotelian; the second element is Aquinas' way of reconciling the Aristotelian notion of what it is to …showed first 75 words of 6027 total…

…showed last 75 words of 6027 total…the soul he uses Aristotle's definitions. With this Aquinas avoids any form of dualism, (the notion of complete separateness of the soul and the body) yet retains the possibility of the souls immortality. In conclusion then one might say that Aquinas uses Aristotelian notions to explain his Christian conception of the soul as defined in the prologue of question 75, "man must be considered in his nature a compound whose substance is both spiritual and corporeal"