scholarly journals Survivalism, Corruptionism, and Mereology

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Oderberg

Corruptionism is the view that following physical death, the human being ceases to exist (until resurrection) but their soul persists in the afterlife. Survivalism holds that both the human being and their soul persist in the afterlife, as distinct entities, with the soul constituting the human. Each position has its defenders, most of whom appeal both to metaphysical considerations and to the authority of St Thomas Aquinas. Corruptionists claim that survivalism violates a basic principle of any plausible mereology, while survivalists tend to reject the principle, though without as much detail as one would like. In this paper I examine both the key exegetical issues and the mereological question, arguing (i) that Aquinas cannot be shown to have supported the principle in question, and (ii) that the principle should be rejected on independent grounds. If correct, some key planks in support of survivalism are established, with others to await further examination.

Philosophy ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 25 (92) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick C. Copleston

I. In the early part of the sixth century a.d. Boethius defined the person as “an individual substance of rational nature” (rationalis naturae individua substantia). This definition, which became classical and was adopted by, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas, obviously implies that every human being is a person, since every human being is (to employ the philosophical terms of Boethius) an individual substance of rational nature. If one cannot be more or less of a human being, so far as “substance” is concerned, one cannot be more or less of a person. One may act as a human person ought not to act or in a way unbefitting a human person; one may even lose the normal use of one's reason; but one does not in this way become depersonalized, in the sense of ceasing to be a person. According to St. Thomas, a disembodied soul is not, strictly speaking, a person, since a disembodied soul is no longer a complete human substance; but every complete human substance is always and necessarily a person.


2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-412
Author(s):  
Tereza-Brindusa Palade

This paper intends to question the conventional wisdom that philosophy should limit its endeavours to the horizon of modern transcendentalism, thus rejecting the presuppositions of faith. By reappraising Edith Stein's views of faith and reason, which are also shared by the magisterial document of John Paul II, Fides et ratio, an argument for the possibility of “thinking in faith” is put forward. But why would it be important nowadays to engage in rational research in philosophy in a quest for truth which also draws its inspiration from faith? First of all, as I shall argue, because the two great modern transcendental projects, namely the Kantian and the Husserlian one, which were both in tune with Spinoza's project to liberate philosophical reason from theology, have failed. Secondly, because “faith” (fides) is not based on “irrational sentiments,” but is “intellectual understanding,” as Edith Stein argues. Third, because the natural light of the created intellect is, as was shown by St. Thomas Aquinas, a participated likeness of the supernatural light of the uncreated divine intellect. Therefore, even the natural philosopher gets their own light from the eternal Truth of faith. Finally, by following another Thomistic stance, one may argue that the end of human life is an intelligible one: the contemplation of God. In order to attain this end, the human being should endeavour to attain as much as is possible, in an intelligible way, the thing desired. Even if the philosophical inquiry has its own limits, it may however sustain such progress towards the end of human life.


Diogenes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stoyan Buchvarov ◽  
◽  
◽  

This article discusses the problem of education according to E. Fink and E. Levinas. In Fink’s opinion, education should acquaint young people with basic phenomena of human being, and introduce them to the problems of the being as a whole, immortality, culture and history. The basic method that should be used in education is the game method. According to Levinas, education should acquaint young people with The Other, with its uniqueness and originality. Respect and preservation of otherness is the basic principle in his philosophy. Moral education can only be realized as religious education, and communication with The Other can be achieved though prayer. Religious education is what can introduce a person to the history and culture of the world.


Author(s):  
Michael Potts ◽  

This paper considers the possibility of a disembodied conscious soul, arguing that a great deal of current research converges in a direction that denies the possibility of a bodiless consciousness for human beings. Contemporary attacks on Cartesianism also serve as attacks on the view of some hylomorphist Catholics, such as Thomas Aquinas, that there can be a disembodied consciousness between death and resurrection, a view that violates the Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, there may be a way out for the Catholic hylomorphist which was suggested by Dante—the possibility of a temporary body. The first section of the paper will summarize the contemporary attack against both the Cartesian soul and physicalist systems that reduce the mind to the brain. The alternative position proposed is that the human being is a psychosomatic unity at the level of the organism as a whole, and that both mind-body and brain-body dualism should be avoided. Such a position, I will argue, supports the notion that a disembodied soul, including a disembodied consciousness, is not possible for human beings. Finally, I will discuss Dante’s views on temporary bodies and explore three ways of understanding a temporary body, any of which can preserve a conscious intermediate state between death and resurrection.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-294
Author(s):  
J. David Moser

AbstractThis article examines how Thomas Aquinas used reduplicative propositions (e.g. ‘Christ suffers insofar as he is a human being’) to explicate Christ's saving mysteries, or events that Christ did and suffered that produced states of affairs only God can do. Following scripture's focus on Christ as one acting subject, Aquinas argued that we should use the adverbial modifiers ‘authoritatively as God and instrumentally as a human being’ to speak well of Christ's saving mysteries as actions of a single subject. This approach is theologically beneficial because it avoids the pitfalls of thinking of Christ's natures as agents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-431
Author(s):  
Zakki Adlhiyati ◽  
Achmad Achmad

Justice is a principle that should be existed in every part of human life. It should be taken as a basic principle in human relation, such as in business, political, or private matter even in marriage relationship. How marriage relationship maintained in justice based, is justice still be existed when husband do polygamy, both are the issues that will be analysed in this article through philosophical studies. Marriege Law stated that husband and wife have the obligation to respect and stay faithfull to each others. Based on Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and John Rawls theory, husband and wife positions are the same and in balance. These three philosophers stated that justice must be based on the equality (equality on position, equality on the right and obligation etc). Nevertheless, injustice founded in Marriage Law, first, the marriage law only give the chance to polygamy for husband, and second, polygamy prerequarement only focused on women physical uncompetency. There should be a revision to the marriage law to give equality rights between husband and wife. Abstrak Keadilan adalah sebuah nilai yang diharapkan selalu ada dalam kehidupan manusia, mulai dari politik, bisnis, sampai hubungan perkawinan. Dalam perkawinan, nilai keadilan harus menjadi salah satu dasar hubungan lahir batin ini. Bagaimana keadilan dalam poligami, apakah UU Perkawinan telah adil mengatur poligami, merupakan permasalahan yang akan dianalisis dalam artikel ini melalui kacamata filsafat. Undang-undang perkawinan menyebutkan bahwa suami dan istri mempunyai kewajiban untuk saling menghormati dan saling setia. Posisi suami dan istri jika dianalisis berdasarkan teori keadilan yang diutarakan oleh Aristoteles, Thomas Aquinas, dan John Rawls adalah sama dan seimbang. Ketiganya mendasarkan nilai keadilan sebagai sebuah bentuk persamaan hak dan kewajiban, persaman status, persaman kedudukan. Meskipun demikian ketidakadilan ditemukan dalam Undang-undang Perkawinan. Setidaknya ada dua hal terkait poligami yang menjadikan UU Perkawinan tidak adil. Pertama, UU hanya memberikan peluang poligami kepada suami, dan kedua, alasan poligami bermuatan gender karena hanya menitikberatkan ketidakmampuan atau cacat fisik istri. Agar adil maka seharusnya ada perubahan yang dilakukan terhadap Undang-undang Perkawinan, perlu ada kesetaraan antara suami dan istri.


1975 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-80
Author(s):  
Jens Kruuse

Andreas Haar der: Beowulf. The Appeal of a. PoemReviewed by Jens KruuseDr. Jens Kruuse’s review of this doctorate, which was defended with great distinction at Aarhus University in March 1975, consists partly of a brief characterization of the poem itself, and partly of a summary of Haarder’s interpretation seen in relation to the highly divergent assessments of the poem by recent English and French critics. The doctorate is shown to be particularly relevant in its debt to Grundtvig’s repeated discussions of the poem. Beowulf is not just a museum piece but a mythical picture of a philosophy of life that still concerns both researchers and readers of tne poem to a considerable degree.The life of man is presented as a well-ordered room with fixed limits, surrounded by a chaotic world in which inhuman monsters play their foul tricks. There is a risk that a monster can take control over human life; even worse, a human being may become a monster. But it is always possible for the hero to defeat, wound and kill the monster – in the end losing his own life, however.The basic principle of the doctorate is that the poem came into being as a living expression of the interplay between the creating poet and the listening audience, a consideration that immediately recalls Grundtvig. The book, according to Jens Kruuse, is »a rare thing - a piece of solid humanistic research sustained by a spiritual integrity«.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Andrzej Maryniarczyk

In this article, the author notes that Thomas Aquinas, in his brief work entitled De Ente et Essentia, proved that at the base of understanding the world, the human being, and God in particular, there is our understanding of being and its essence. When we make a small mistake at the beginning (parvus error in principio) in our understanding of being and its essence, it will turn to be a big one in the end (magnus in fine). And what is “at the end” of our knowledge is the discovery of the First and Ultimate Cause of all things, known as: Ipsum Esse, God, the Absolute, The Most Perfect Substance, on whom everything depends, and who depends not on anything else. These present inquiries about the proper understanding of being and its essence are aimed at formulating proof of the necessity of existence of a Being that is the First Cause, and which, existing as Ipsum Esse, is the source and reason of existence of all beings. Without these inquiries, the proof itself would be incomprehensible, and more importantly it would be a purely a priori one (i.e., ontological). Furthermore, without the existential conception of being, which Thomas first formulated, one could not discover the First Cause which, as Ipsum Esse, is the source of the existence of every being. This issue seems to have escaped the attention of the author of the book Aquinas’s Way to God. The Proof in “De Ente et Essentia.”


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-51
Author(s):  
Mary Christine Ugobi-Onyemere ◽  

In the quest to understand the meaning of existence, the human being is torn between many choices, exposed to individualism of all forms, especially atheistic perspectives. John Paul II’s personalism in the light of Thomas Aquinas’ personalistic notion of mercy suggests an alternative of meaningful living, co-existence, and holistic transcendence. John Paul’s search for the basis on which individual and social rights may grow and enhance human dignity demonstrate the ontological human worth. Following Aquinas’ model, John Paul shows that human dignity takes precedence over all options and needs preservation. Similarly, Aquinas’ classification of the human person as “rational subsistent” portrays this dignity in “effective mercy” that allows one to thrive in all kinds of existential vicissitudes. This essay explores John Paul’s personalist notion of mercy reflecting Aquinas’ model in the contemporary milieu in view of holistic existence.


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