Abstract

Analyzing Homer and Aristotle, the Author faces the ancient Greek origin of the organicist model presenting its features. In Homer there is still no term to indicate the living body as a whole, but is present the idea of a principle capable of giving “shape” to body elements and to counteract the natural tendency to disintegration: the soul. Only with Aristotle the living body begins to be understood as “organism,” thanks to a hylomorphic and non-dualistic vision of the relationship of the soul with matter, which explains the living organism. The soul itself, in Aristotle, has the characteristics of a system. From this analysis, the organicist model seems to be enriched by the indispensable notion of “form” which, in turn, calls for the need for an efficient cause outside the system.