Rationality and Human Fulfilment Clarified by a Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2022.009Keywords
teleology, hylomorphism, philosophy of mind, Aquinas, nonreductive physicalismAbstract
A Thomistic metaphysics of participation in being offers an account of rationality that is more complete and coherent than that of nonreductive physicalism. It is a reasoned understanding of how an embodied intellectual subject shares in being and intellectual life. This metaphysical framework supports an understanding of rationality as a participated power, and an essential property of human nature empowering persons to know reality and make choices accordingly. Human fulfilment in truth and love is a consequence of the grounding of the transcendentals of truth and goodness in being. In contrast, nonreductive physicalism reduces rationality to processes and subjective experiences and can offer no priority between human material and spiritual fulfilment. Although a Thomistic metaphysics of participation in being has been effectively absent from Anglo-American hylomorphic philosophy of mind, this paper suggests it is time to reassess the benefits it offers.
References
Aertsen, Jan A. (2007) ‘Is truth not a transcendental?’ In (ed. Peter A. Kwasniewski) Wisdom’s apprentice. The Catholic University of America Press.
Annice, M. (1952), ‘Historical sketch of the theory of participation’, The New Scholasticism, XXVI pp. 49-79.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. De potenciaDei (reprint of 1932), edited by Joseph Kenny OP. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/SubstSepar.htm
Aquinas, St. Thomas. De substantiis separatis, edited by Joseph Kenny OP. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/SubstSepar.htm
Aquinas, St. Thomas. Quaestiones disputatae de anima, edited by Joseph Kenny OP. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/QDdeAnima.htm
Aquinas, St. Thomas. Questiones disputatae de veritate, edited by Joseph Kenny OP. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/QDdeVer.htm
Aquinas, St. Thomas. 1955–1957. The Summa Contra Gentiles, edited by Joseph Kenny OP. New York: Hanover House. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/ContraGentiles.htm
Aquinas, St. Thomas. 2017. The Summa Theologica, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online edition. Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/summa/
Aristotle, Metaphysics, translation by W.D. Ross. Available at: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.8.viii.html
Bazán, B. C. (1997). ‘The human soul: form and substance? Thomas Aquinas' critique of eclectic Aristotelianism’. Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, 95-126.
Carreño, Juan Eduardo. (2015). ‘From self movement to esse: the notion of life and living being in Thomas Aquinas’ Angelicum, 92:3, pp. 347-376.
Damasio, A. (1996). ‘The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex.’ Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological sciences, 351, (1996): 1413-1420.
Fabro, Cornelio. (1950). ‘La nozione matafisica di partecipazione secondo san Tommaso d'Aquino.’ Soc. Ed. Internazionale. pp 272-273.
Fabro, Cornelio ‘Premessa’ in Esegesi Tomistica, Libreria Editrice della Pontificia Università Lateranense, Roma, 1969.
Fabro, Cornelio. (1961). ‘The problem of being and the destiny of man’ International Philosophical Quarterly 1 pp, 407-36.
Fabro, Cornelio. (1966). The Transcendentality of ens-esse and the Ground of Metaphysics. International Philosophical Quarterly, 6(3), 389-427.
Feser, Edward. (2005). Philosophy of mind: A short introduction, Oneworld Publications Limited, London.
Haldane, J. (1998). A Return to Form in the Philosophy of Mind. Ratio, 11(3), 253-277.
Hauser M. (2006). Moral minds. New York: Harper Collins.
Horvat, S. (2017). ‘Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being’. Scientia et fides, 5(2), 127-153.
Koterski, Joseph W. ‘The Doctrine of Participation in Thomistic Metaphysics’, in D. Hudson and D. Moran, (1992) The Future of Thomism, University of Notre Dame, South Bend.
Mitchell. Jason A. (2012). ‘Being and Participation: The Method and Structure of Metaphysical Reflection according to Fabro.’ Dissertation. Pontificii Athenaei Regina Apostolorum.
LeDoux, J.E. (1998). The Emotional Brain. London: Phoenix.
Madden, J. (2013). Mind, Matter, and Nature: A Thomistic Proposal for the Philosophy of Mind. Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC 2013.
Mullins, A. (2016). ‘Philosophical prerequisites for a discussion of the neurobiology of virtue’. Ethical perspectives, 23(4), 689-708.
Norris Clarke, W. (1981). ‘The natural roots of religious experience’. Religious Studies, 17(4), 511-523.
Norris Clarke, W. (1992). ‘Person, Being, and St. Thomas’. Communio, 19(4).
Norris Clarke, W. (1994). ‘Participation in Being: essence and existence’. In Being, God and Person. UND Press
Pepperberg, I. M. (2006). ‘Intelligence and rationality in parrots’. In S. Hurley & M. Nudds (Eds.), Rational animals? (p. 469–488). Oxford University Press.
Pontifical Academy of Sciences. ‘Neurosciences and the human person: new perspectives on human activities’ (Battro A, Dehaene S, Singer W, eds), Scripta Varia 121. Vatican City: Pontifical Academy of Sciences. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_ id2280500
Schindler, D. C. (2005). ‘What’s the difference? On the metaphysics of participation in a Christian context’. The Saint Anselm Journal, 3(1), 1-27.
Scruton, Roger. (2014). The Soul of the World Woodstock: Princeton University Press.
Sweeney, Michael J. (1999), ‘Soul as substance and method in Thomas Aquinas’ anthropological writings’. AHDLMA, 66 pp. 143-187.
te Velde. Rudi, (2015). ‘Aquinas's Aristotelian science of metaphysics and i`ts revised Platonism’, Nova et Vetera 13/3 (2015), 743-764.
Tiehen, J. (2019). ‘How Counterpart Theory Saves Nonreductive Physicalism’. Mind, 128(509), 139-174.
Westen, D., Blagov, P. S., Harenski, K., Kilts, C., & Hamann, S. (2006). ‘Neural bases of motivated reasoning: An fMRI study of emotional constraints on partisan political judgment in the 2004 US presidential election.’ Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 18(11), 1947-1958.
Williams, T. D. (2004). ‘What is Thomistic Personalism?’ Alpha Omega, 7(2), 163-197.
Wippel, John F. (2003) ‘Metaphysical foundations for Christian humanism in Thomas Aquinas’ Congresso Tomista Internazionale (21-25 September 2003), Roma, pp. 4-18.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Scientia et Fides
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.
- The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
- Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
- The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.
FULL TEXT License Agreement
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 1528
Number of citations: 0
