Aristotle and AI
Brandon Booth
8/8/20265 min read
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Your Heart is Your Only Advantage Over AI
(And how to know if your job is at risk!)
Classical Philosophers thought about the human person as having three parts: head, heart, and gut.
My “head” represents my logical thinking ability, my reason. My head figures out what actions I should take in order to accomplish some goal.
My “heart” represents my desires and affections. This is that mysterious part of me that actually sets the guardrails and goals for my reason. It’s the real rudder of the human ship. (E.g. My head knows it is better to not drink another beer, but my heart says, “But I want it!” And the heart almost always wins an argument.)
My “gut” represents all the feelings and “gut-level” urges and desires I have. These are distinct from my heart’s desires. They bubble up from my creaturely nature. Examples are my desire for food, sex, and beer, or the for safety and human connection. My gut provides the raw data that the heart considers and cares about. Here’s a quick diagram:
Becoming a good human means training each of these parts to do its job well and to make them work together in a well ordered, harmonious way. Here’s a quick diagram:
My heart needs to learn what is proper and improper to want, so that it can set good goals. My head needs to learn to work critically and efficiently so I take the best and most efficient actions to accomplish my goals. And my gut mostly needs to learn to be patient.
When my head, heart, and gut are working together harmoniously, this “harmony” I am said to be acting according to reason. NOT, please be careful to note, according to my head’s logical, step-by-step processing, but according to a governing principle: that when my heart loves the right goals, my head can figure out how best to achieve those goals, and my gut will be cared for. In other words, I’ll flourish as a human being.
Using this model to understand AI (and how we should use it)
Using this classical model we can better understand what AI actually is. It’s a head without a heart or a gut.
AI is pure rationality. Pure logic. It’s pure “figuring out” power.
AI is good at doing any kind of thinking or tasks that require step-by-step, ordered planning and execution. If I give AI a goal, it can figure out what actions to take and in what order more efficiently than most humans. Perhaps soon it will be better at this than any human ever could be.
But that’s all it can do.
AI has no heart. It can’t set its own goals, it can’t set its own guardrails. And it has no gut.
Here’s a way to think about it. If AI is only a head, then the “system prompt” operates like the heart. Anthropics’ “constitution” is a great example [link]. It’s a giant system prompt that establishes guardrails for the head. It also tells the head what the overall goal of its existence is — what it’s for. For example, we might want AI’s overall goal to be “human flourishing.”
That leaves only the gut. And in this model that’s me, the user. I supply the raw wants that the AI works on.
Implications for how we should use AI
With all this in mind, it’s easy to see that using AI has the potential to destroy our critical thinking skills. That part of my brain can simply atrophy from lack of use. But that’s the least of our troubles.
Far more importantly, notice that because you play the role of the gut in this system, you are greatly tempted to let your heart as well as your head atrophy.
All you have to do is say what you want. It could be anything! (And, come on, no one is watching!) The system takes care of the rest! The superhuman find-the-best-way-to-get-what-you-want machine makes it happen.
What AI is, is a machine that finds the fastest most efficient way to get anything.
Just imagine the implications.
So what should I do?
Tend to your heart. Train it to want what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable as the Apostle says.
A good heart will be the single most important thing for humans to have in the age of AI.
What about my job? (And a further, horrifying implication)
AI is amazing at figuring out what actions to take in order to accomplish a goal. And, as it turns out, being able to figure out what actions to take can be the same as taking those actions when AI is given access to push the buttons and enter the text on a computer.
If your job is primarily planning, analyzing, ordering, structuring, managing, or anything like that then it’s entirely possible that AI will be better at doing it then you very soon, if it’s not already.
This is why AI is good at writing. A large part of writing is structuring and planning and arranging words and ideas. AI is great at that kind of thing.
But its lack of heart is why AI writing is often missing that inexplicable “spark.” It’s why it often writes sentences that sound good but often fall just short of actually meaning anything.
Its goal was to write a certain number of words, in a certain style, and arrange a certain number of ideas in a certain order. It did that perfectly. But it can’t love the reader. It can't feel what a good sentence feels like in the mouth. It doesn't want to make the reader’s life better by giving them wisdom.
This actually reveals an even deeper layer of the philosophical problem.
Humans aren’t actually made up of three different parts. No philosopher ever thought so. Dividing a person into three parts is always a way of analyzing a human. Of breaking them down in thought so that my reason can figure things out about them.
In reality a human person is a cohesive whole. It’s impossible for me to separate my thinking processes from my loves and desires. It’s literally impossible for a human to “just be rational.”
AI can.
AI can only “be rational.”
And rationality without being embedded and intertwined with good loves and tamed desires has the potential to become monstrous.
Just consider:
If the goal is a cleaner environment, and the primary polluter of the environment is human industry, what’s the most logical solution? (Hint: fewer humans.)
If the goal is to maximize health and comfort for the greatest number of people, what’s the most effective method? (Hint: eliminate anyone who consumes more than they produce.)
When profit is the only goal, what actions are off limits? (Hint: none.)
If you are thinking of nice, happy answers to these questions, then you are consulting your heart more than your head. Good job!
But AI doesn’t have a heart.
I hope we can give it good guardrails. I hope we can keep those guardrails in place. But all of that requires people with good hearts!
In conclusion: what do we do!?
I’ll say it again. Tend to your heart.
If we are actually able to live well with the power of pure rationality in our hands is an open question. But it’s a question it seems we have no option but to answer.
Tend to your heart!
© Brandon Booth, 2025
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