Aristotle’s Ontology of Death

Is it natural for living things to die? According to most interpreters Aristotle considers death to be unnatural: it is a failure of the living thing’s form to completely master the inherent tendency of all matter to disintegrate into the elements. On this reading death conflicts with a living thing’s formal nature—it follows from its material nature alone. I argue that this standard story about Aristotle’s ontology of death is incorrect. While it is true that death is inevitable on account of material necessity, an organism’s species-typical life cycle is an expression of its formal nature as well. This life cycle is limited by a natural lifespan and concludes in what he terms “natural death.” Paradoxically, Aristotle considers natural death to be an intrinsic good for living beings, for the completion of its life cycle is a way in which mortal life imitates the immortal life of the heavenly bodies.