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Scientia et Fides

Soul or Brain: A False Dilemma? The Thomist Perspective
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Soul or Brain: A False Dilemma? The Thomist Perspective

Authors

  • Jörgen Vijgen Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

Keywords

Thomas Aquinas, anthropology, soul, body

Abstract

In this article I will claim that from a Thomist perspective the question “Soul or Brain: What makes us human?” presents us with a false dilemma and hence must as such remain an unanswerable question. In order to corroborate this claim I will do two things. First, I present the framework of a Thomistic anthropology in so far as it relates to the unity of soul and body in the human person. Next, I deal with the question that immediately results from this unity, i.e. the subsistence of the soul. From a Thomist perspective this question can be answered apart from any findings from neuroscience.

References

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Aquinas, Thomas. 2001. S. Thomae de Aquino Opera omnia, edited by Enrique Alarcón, Pampilonae: Ad Universitatis Studiorum Navarrensis. http://www.corpusthomisticum.org

Augustine, Aurelius. 1986. De quantitate animae, edited by Wolfgang Hörmann. Vindobonae : Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 89).

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Bazan, Bernardo C. 1997. “The Human Soul: Form and Substance? Thomas Aquinas' Critique of Eclectic Aristotelianism.” AHDLMA 64:95–126

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De Boer, Sander. 2013. The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De Anima, c. 1260 – c. 1360. Leuven University Press: Leuven.

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Elders, Leo. 1997. The philosophy of nature of St. Thomas Aquinas. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main.

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Emery, Gilles. 2007. Trinity, Church, and the Human Person. Thomistic Essays. Naples (FL): Sapientia Press.

Gondreau, Paul. 2008. “The inseparable connection between procreation and unitive love and Thomistic hylomorphic anthropology.” Nova & Vetera. (English Edition) 4:731–764.

Hasse, Dag N. 2000. Avicenna's De Anima in the Latin West. Warburg Institute: London.

Jonas, Hans. 1981. Macht oder Ohnmacht der Subjektivität? Das Leib-Seele-Problem im Vorfeld des Prinzips Verantwortung. Frankfurt am Main: Insel. (Das Prinzip Verantwortung. Erster Teilband: Grundlegung, edited by Dietrich Böhler and Bernadette Herrmann, 421–510. Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach (Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke von Hans Jonas I,2a).

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Scientia et Fides

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Published

2017-07-18

How to Cite

1.
VIJGEN, Jörgen. Soul or Brain: A False Dilemma? The Thomist Perspective. Scientia et Fides [online]. 18 July 2017, T. 5, nr 2, s. 71–86. [accessed 22.3.2023].
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Vol. 5 No. 2 (2017)

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