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Scientia et Fides

Rationality and Human Fulfilment Clarified by a Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation
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Rationality and Human Fulfilment Clarified by a Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation

Authors

  • Andy Mullins University of Notre Dame Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1540-3796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2022.009

Keywords

teleology, hylomorphism, philosophy of mind, Aquinas, nonreductive physicalism

Abstract

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.

Author Biography

Andy Mullins, University of Notre Dame Australia

Adjunct Associate Professor 

School of Theology and Philosophy

References

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Scientia et Fides

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Published

2022-03-03

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1.
MULLINS, Andy. Rationality and Human Fulfilment Clarified by a Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation. Scientia et Fides. Online. 3 March 2022. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 177-195. [Accessed 20 May 2025]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2022.009.
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