«Mens sana in corpore sano» («healthy mind in healthy body»), well-known Latin judgment coming from a line of poet Juvenal, means that there is a strong relation between the mind (understood also as soul) and the body. As Juvenal says, you can’t live in peace with your soul if you aren’t in harmony with your body, and vice versa.

This statement could be meant in different ways; for example, in nowadays society, where appearing is more important than being, if you look beautiful you are a beautiful person, so the body is considered the most important part of our being because it is the observable expression of our soul.

However, if we make a jump in the past, there are other opinions. Greek philosopher Plato is the first net supporter of a dualistic position: soul and body are two distinct substances, completely independent. In particular, the soul is immortal and it not only continues to live after the death of body, but it has existed even before it. The soul is the essence and the center of the intellectual and ethical life of human beings.

On the contrary, Aristotle rejects the Platonic dualism: while focusing on the meaning of soul as life, he believes that it can’t be separated from the body, because it identifies with specific skills of the body, that permit life.

In conclusion, I support an Aristotelian point of view; I think that mind, soul and body have the same importance: they are the pieces of a unique machine that doesn’t work without one of them.