MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 8

AQUINAS, BODY AND SOUL

later Latin phil., universities, Aristotle’s rediscovery, influx of Islamic thought

Aquinas:

Body and Soul:

between Plato and Aristotle
soul: that in virtue of which smt is alive, is the human soul immortal?
first principle of life, Anima
3 kinds of souls: vegetative/nutritive, sensory/animal, rational/intellect (Aristotelian, all prior layers needed for higher ones, etc., etc.)
Plato: the soul is immaterial and seperable from the body (problematic because of reincarnation)
Augustine: the soul is immaterial, immortal, the body uses it, and it’s what defines us

Aquinas’ issues:

why even have a body, and not just a soul?
the body cannot be simply an accident
if this was the case death would not be substantial, yet it is
for Aquinas this link is not accidental, but substantial
having a body is part of our animal essence
in Aristotle soul+body is what gives us life
first kind actuality of a natural organized body
first kind actuality vs second: disposition vs activity; the disposition is that fundamental structure which allows the activity (disposition to play guitar vs actually playing it)
the soul gives the body potentiality for all our capacities
and the body is what can turn first order actuality into second order actuality
so you need both; the structure of action and the actual tools to act, etc.
HYLOMORPHISM: everything is made up of matter & form

Aquinas’ Balancing Act:

Soul as Entity:

entity is simply first substance, unqalified substance
exists on its own, is complete, is individual and primary
the human soul is only a substance by reduction (can exist as an individual, but an incomplete one, longing for the body when without it)

The Argument:

each being achieves its species via its essential form; ours is a rational one
so we realize our species/differentiate via the intellect
via understanding the soul’s operations, we can understand the soul itself
its function is netierh material nor biological
its function is thinking, intellectual cognition
and since its operation is immaterial, then it can exist immaterialy
intellect is interly un-embedded and immaterial, so it must be capable of persisting
this is now too close to Plato, we must return to Aristotle
the body is necessary for thought, via the objects of thought → actual material individuals (rather than universalists schemas)
mind is a tabula rasa, then computes but needs input via the body
phantasm, phantam, intelligible species, agent intellect

Argumentation Proper:

intellect is immaterial/incorporeal, so it can subsist on its own
through it we can grasp the nature of things
and since the intellect cognizes universally, it cannot be in a corporeal individual
the body is essential due to sense perception’s input of individual perceptions
impossible for the soul to think without phantasms
[remember first and second kinds of actualities]

The Soul, concluded:

Problems:

Scotus: if the intellect needs bodily input, how exactly can it exist on its own without the body? (since the intellect is only an ability, not an activity)
the separated soul must be punished for the body, and yet that soul is not the body, they’re two individuals, yet the body is not punished, so this is absurd

?? notes