ETH201H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Active Intellect, Quiddity, Moral Influence Theory Of Atonement
27 Apr 2018
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Questions: Is the world eternal?
• Aristotle’s position is unclear
• Aquinas argues that the world COULD be eternal but is not necessarily so
• Genesis says world was CREATED IN TIME
1. Bonaventure:
Must have Christian attitude towards pagan philosophers
Philosophical study is NOT an end in of itself
Wisdom (knowledge of God) vs Knowledge (science, of the created world)
Theology and philosophy as vain curiosity should be avoided, we should only learn things that
serve to make us more holy
Hierarchy of Infallibility—proper order of studies:
I.) Holy scripture
II.) Holy Fathers
III.) Summas
IV.) Philosophy
Exemplarism:
• All knowledge is imperfect except God’s
• Striving towards God’s knowledge is the only virtuous way to study
• God is the first order of study because
• God saw the light = God created the light to be seen
• God as the exemplar of everything
• Philosopher’s approach exemplars through reason and nature
• Bonaventure argues that rejecting exemplars leads to the following mistakes:
1. ???
2. Without exemplars there is no foreknowledge because then God does not know things are
particulars—this is a threat to God’s omnipotence
3. Disposition of the world is put aside because in the afterlife God would not have the ability to
judge punishment vs. glory
*eternal reasons are exemplars, our reason is our thinking capacity*
Divine Illumination:
Whatever we know for certain is known in the eternal reasons themselves
3 reasons:
1. evidence from God is the entire and only reason we know something for certain
1. Problem: no knowledge of anything except word of God, therefore no way to distinguish
word of God from other disciplines, this leads to skepticism
2. influence of eternal reason is ALL needed for certain knowledge so in knwing, the knower
comes in contact with the influence not with the eternal reasons
1. Problem: This is not in line with the definition of an exemplar and process of knowing
that which is greater than self, if this is true then the theory cannot support itself because
we cannot know for certain whether or not the theory is true***
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3. For knowledge to be certain the eternal reason must function as a regulative and motivating
factor along with created reason.
1. No certain knowledge except where there is immutability on the part of the knowledge
and infallibility on the part of the knower, no created being can have this without being
given these traits by God
Certain knowledge can only be created through divine illumination
Human relation to God:
1. footprint (vestiges)— compared to God as a principle
2. image—related to God as its object
1. To examine in order to understand the world, can be done while living
3. likeness—united to God as to an infused gift
1. Only in the afterlife can we see God directly, images of him are made available to us by
supernatural action on us during our lives
Illumination must illuminate THINGS, cannot illuminate if you have not seen or do not know
anything. That which is an image, God moves reason to create certain knowledge. That which
are image of him can come to know exemplars to a degree but never clearly, fully or distinctly
Illumination necessary to acquire certitude
The more likeness to God the more attainment of eternal reasons
We are always somehow connected because soul is image of God
2. Thomas Aquinas
Subsistence of the soul: the soul is non bodily and subsistent
subsistent means that it is a real being that is existent
Arguments against:
1. soul is not particular thing but composite with body
2. the soul is not subsistent because all subsisted things engage in an operation
3. if soul were subsistent then some operation would belong to it outside the body—not even
understanding occurs without influence of the body
Aquinas’ reply:
Intellectual operation makes up the soul of a human being
Intellect =cognition of all bodies
—> That which can cognize certain things must have none of those things in its nature
If an intellectual principles contain within itself the nature of a body it could not cognize all
bodies
Every body has a determinant nature therefore intellectual principle could not be contained to a
body
This is the same reason it cannot operate through a bodily organ, because then it would not be
able to comprehend that body
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find more resources at oneclass.com
This is why Aquinas argues that the soul is fully separated from the body: nothing can operate
on its own unless it subsists on its own, operations beloing to things that exist and the intellect
belongs to the soul!
Hylomorphism - material objects composed of matter and form where...
Matter is like the body; subject to change
Form is like the soul; not subject to change
Plants, animals, and humans are all animated matter; humans have intellective soul that sets us
apart
Substance of a thing: necessary qualities
Accidents: Qualifiers of substitutes that are optional
All of this vs Plato and Avicenna who are dualists: soul superior to, different from, body
The Intellective Soul
The individual soul contains the active and potential intellects
We need principles to transform sense into knowledge
Soul’s Union with the Body
Aquinas does not believe that the soul is united with the body
1. Intellect is separate and the actuality of no body
2. Forms are determined by the nature of the matter whose form it is—if intellect had same
nature as body it would not be able to cognize all things because that would be against its
nature. Therefore it is not the same form as the body.
3. Bodies receive things materially and individually but the intellect receives immaterial and
universal too because otherwise it would not be able to cognize those things
4. Capacity and action belong to the same thing because that which is capable of acting is that
which acts. Intellective action does not belong to any body therefore intellective capacity
does not belong to the body. No power can be more simple then the essence from which a
capacity is derived. Substance of intellect cannot be the form of the body.
5. Intellective capacity is subsistent therefore not united with the body at its form
6. A form cannot exist without its proper matter but intellective capacity is incorruptible and
remains when it is not united with the body. Soul lives when body is dead.
*does this mean the soul is eternal?
No physical restriction of the intellect because it is not connected to an organ that could be
corrupted
The Incorruptibility of the Soul
How do things corrupt?
a.) corrupts accidentally
b.) A property destructs when separate from the body
c.) Since not an organ, cannot be corrupted by ??? (my handwriting is bad)
d.) As one grows older, they essentially change, matter decays - WE change, SOUL must
change
But...
a1.) Soul is subsistent, not dependent, on matter, no essential corruption
b1.) Knowledge sought w/ soul is eternal, incorruptible; so also is the soul
c1.) Nature does nothing in vain: the soul allows us to complete our teleological end: to think
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Questions: is the world eternal: aristotle"s position is unclear, aquinas argues that the world could be eternal but is not necessarily so, genesis says world was created in time, bonaventure: Philosophical study is not an end in of itself. Wisdom (knowledge of god) vs knowledge (science, of the created world) Theology and philosophy as vain curiosity should be avoided, we should only learn things that serve to make us more holy. Without exemplars there is no foreknowledge because then god does not know things are particulars this is a threat to god"s omnipotence. Disposition of the world is put aside because in the afterlife god would not have the ability to judge punishment vs. glory. *eternal reasons are exemplars, our reason is our thinking capacity* Whatever we know for certain is known in the eternal reasons themselves. Certain knowledge can only be created through divine illumination.
