PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Body Plan, Human Nature, Summum Bonum
Document Summary
They are subsistent souls souls that exist in their own right. Capable of intellectual acts (thinking and willing) Brutes (non-human animals) have souls, but their souls are not subsistent . They cannot survive the death of their bodies. Capable of material acts (nutrition, mobility, sense-perception) Humans are capable of intellectual acts (thinking and willing) and material acts like nutrition, mobility, and sense-perception. They are rational animals (to use aristotle"s definition) Nutrition, mobility, and sense-perception all depend on bodily organs. Sense-perception occurs in virtue of particular organ being impressed with a certain material form. It must be neutral with respect to those forms. E. g. , the eye receptive to color because it is colorless. Human beings possess an intellect in virtue of which they are capable of understanding material objects (bodies). If the intellect depended on a particular bodily organ, it would not be receptive to knowing other bodies.
