Philosophy of Aquinas

Our society considers the work of Thomas Aquinas as early philosophy. However, his arguments and themes in one of his best known body of works, Summa Theologiae, draw heavily from that of former philosophical giants—ones such as Aristotle or Augustine. On that note, one of Augustine major accomplishments included defining mind-body dualism and materialism—an important distinction in philosophy. According to Augustine, Materialists believe that the mind exists as a part somewhere in the body; whereas dualists believe they are two wholly separate entities. In his Summa Theologiae, Aquinas pays homage to this philosophy by devoting an entire section to this concept. However, in this section entitled Treatise on Human Nature, Aquinas does not provide clearly whether or not he conforms to the Dualist or Materialist ideals defined by the philosophers before him. It can be inferred though, that Aquinas does in fact conform to a dualist perspective in his discussion of the essence of soul and the union of the and body, for he, as the title reveals, makes a clear distinction between the two. Aquinas first indicates his position regarding mind body dualism in his argument entitled “Is a soul a body?” Aquinas inconveniently defines what he means by a “soul” in the next passage, by stating it is “principle of intellectual operations”. Through this definition it becomes clear that the soul is an entity capable of almost all cognitive processes, concordant with Augustine’s definition of the mind. Because the two definitions correlate, the two terms—in regards to Aquinas—can be used interchangeably. Aquinas then states that “it is most surely and generally clear that the soul is not a body.” Since the soul is a principle, it cannot be a body. “Otherwise an eye would be a soul, given that it has the principle of seeing.” Either “each body would [exist] or would be a principle of life.” The two cannot be the same. This correlates exactly to the inherent nature of dualism. The