Philo TEST 4 Basics

• The immortality of the soul

  • senses
  • uses a bodily organ and has a measure of immateriality
  • (1) for not becoming the thing
  • (a) as becoming hot
  • (b) which is what material things do
  • (2) but become aware
  • (3) but still (a) immaterial only in that this particular quality is not present materially
• Intellect

  i. Knows all material things

  (1) so must be immaterial in every respect

  ii. knows immaterially

  (1) knows material things, such as dogs and birds, but in an immaterial manner

  iii. uses no organ

  (1) to know without the material conditions of things

  (a) the intellect must not have these material conditions

  (i) can be material in no respect
• Usually, soul ceases to be at death
• In human beings

  i. the soul is more than what makes you to be a human being

  (1) it includes an element (intellect) that is independent of any material part being a human being. It functions independently of the body

  (2) so the soul must have a principle of existing, and acting, apart from the body
• The will

  1. appetite
  2. i. was a certain kind of inclination
  3. ii. that followed upon knowledge
  4. iii. the object or goal of the will
  5. (1) the emotions follow upon sense knowledge
  6. (2) the will follows upon intellectual knowledge
  7. (i) which does not know merely this or that thing, but the nature of things
  8. (ii) so while the senses
  9. always know this wolf to be dangerous or this wolf that was seen to be dangerous
  10. (iv) the intellect knows what it is to be good and what it is to be evil
  11. (b) so will’s object (what it seeks) is not merely some particular good but goodness itself
• Some acts of the will

  (1) the emotions

  (a) had different movements for good and evil

  (b) and for the presence or absence of the object

  (2) so the will (a) will have impulse, movement, and rest

  (i) for both good and evil (ii) but Aquinas only analyzes the good

  (b) good is twofold for the will (for our understanding in reason is twofold)

  (i) good as an end

  (ii) good as useful

  (c) and so we have the different acts of will

  (i) for the ultimate good

  1. will (love) 2) intention 3) rest (ii) for useful 1) consent 2) choice 3) use
• We also love with the will, but what we might call the love of friendship and revealed in conflict situations
• The freedom of the will

  i. different kinds of causes

  (1) efficient or agent cause

  (2) final cause (a) is the end that is sought in an action or thing

  (3) material – what something is made of

  (4) formal (a) this is like the soul (b) and makes something to be what it is

  (5) example of clay vase

  (a) agent — potter

  (b) final — the vase itself, or to make money, etc.

  (c) material — the clay

  (d) formal — the shape
• The will is determined

  (1) not by agent cause

  (a) which Aquinas calls the necessity of coercion

  (b) because (i) the will is an inclination FROM WITHIN

  (ii) but an agent cause is EXTERNAL

  (2) but by end

  (a) hypothetical necessity

  (b) as when there is only one way to attain some end that we desire

  (3) material does not apply

  (4) and by form

  (a) will is an inclination to goodness itself
• The different things that move the will

  (1) Reason

  (a) moves by presenting the object of the will

  (b) this is movement by final cause

  (c) two kinds of determination

  (i) what they are

  1. to act or not to act
  2. to do this or to do that (ii) the intellect moves the will
  3. by moving to do this or to do that
• The different things that move the will

  (2) the emotions

  (a) move according to final cause as well

  (i) but they draw the will by presenting some good

  (ii) the emotions always move by way of reason
• The different things that move the will

  (3)genes (heredity)

  (a) gives us certain dispositions

  (b) but this is material and formal cause of the emotions

  (c) which acts as final cause upon the will

  (d) genes do not affect the will directly because the will is not bodily
• The different things that move the will

  (4) environment — includes many things (a) often acts as final cause
• The different things that move the will

  (5)the will itself

  (a) moves itself to act or not to act

  (i) because the will first loves some end

  (ii) but then is presented ways of attaining the end

  (iii) and in this way the will moves itself to desire the means to the end
• The freedom of the will

  (1) the will is determined to love goodness itself

  (2) but anything less than complete goodness may be loved or not

  (a) as something that is partly colored and partly transparent may be seen or not by focusing on different aspects

  (b) so everything that is partly good and partly not good

  (i) may be loved or not loved by the will

  (ii) only God is goodness itself

  1. but he is the one thing that could completely satisfy our infinity desire
  2. so it is the will itself that moves itself to act or not to act (a) this is self-determination
• HUMAN PURPOSE

  • views on purpose or meaning to human life
  • i. Nihilism – there is no meaning
  • ii. Existent realism – we can give our lives meaning (1) meaning is not given to our lives (2) but we create it
  • iii. Aquinas – our life has meaning from something else besides ourselves (1) usually God (a) God made us with some purpose in mind
• HUMAN PURPOSE

  • two senses of purpose
  • i. the purposes that we set
  • ii. being for a purpose (1) not that I myself have set a purpose (though I might also have) (2) but that, apart from my desires, I am for the sake of some purpose (a) as with tools we make
• HUMAN PURPOSE

  • Some argue that being for a purpose is demeaning as if we are like a tool, but being for a purpose need not be useful
  • (a) it can be a sharing in what is good
  • (i) The members of a football team are given some purpose so that they all might share in the good of playing and winning
  • (ii) a painting has a purpose to reflect beauty, not just as if it were useful
• HUMAN PURPOSE- continued

  • iv. the insufficiency of purposes that we set (1) at some point our purposes must stop with incoherency (a) we must stop somewhere where there is no further reason, no further purpose (the ultimate reason for our action can have no reason)
• Aquinas on purpose

  i. we have some nature

  (1) created by God (2) which is to be for some activity
• ii. Aristotle on Purpose

  (1) it is what human beings alone do

  (2) which is not (a) mere living activity (b) nor sense life (c) but is life of reason

  (i) for we alone have reason and will
• (3) Aquinas on Purpose

  (a) purpose of creation is to reflect God’s goodness

  (i) God wished to share his goodness

  (ii) which we do by reflecting

  1. as an image does of the original (b) the role of human beings (i) while other material creatures are like God
  2. insofar as they exist 2) cause things 3) live 4) and even have some sort of knowledge (sense knowledge of animals)
• (ii) only human beings can be like God most fully a) knowing him

  i) as other creatures only can come to know sensible things

  ii) but with reason we can come to know the cause of it all, which is God b) and loving him

  2) so the rest of material creation is for man (c) the human activity or function (i) so we are for God by reflecting his goodness, namely through the activity of knowing God (ii) the purpose is also happiness or blessedness 1) good of the thing is found in fulfilling its purpose
• Useful acts of the will

  We have the different acts of will

  (i) for ultimate good

  1) will (love)

  2) intention

  3) rest

  (ii) for useful

  1. consent
  2. choice
  3. use