Faculties of the soul


The faculties of the soul are the individual characteristics attributed to a soul. There have been different attempts to define them over the centuries.

Plato, Aristotle and their followers

defined the faculties of the soul in terms of a three-fold division: the intellect, the nobler affections, and the appetites or passions Aristotle also made a three-fold division of natural faculties, into vegetative, appetitive and rational elements, though he later distinguished further divisions in the rational faculty, such as the faculty of judgement and that of cleverness.
Islamic philosophers continued his three-fold division; but later Scholastic philosophers defined five groups of faculties:
opposed the scholastic philosophers, favoring a two-fold division of the soul, consisting of intellect and of will.

Faculty psychology

The secularisation of the Age of Enlightenment produced a faculty psychology of different but inherent mental powers such as intelligence or memory, distinct from the acquired habits.