Phl 303
Lecture 5: Aquinas's Conception of Human Nature

Today's Lecture: Aquinas's Conception of Human Nature

I. The Natural and the Supernatural
II. Theory of Mind and Knowledge
III. Glossary of Concepts: Happiness
IV. Siger of Brabant -- Double Truth

I. The Natural and the Supernatural

Natural	Supernatural
Imperfect happiness -- can be attained by our natural powers	Perfect happiness ---- requires God's "grace"
Can be understoodby the general powers of the human mind	To be understood requires special revelation through history, prophets
Philosophy (Aristotle)	Sacred Theology (Bible, Fathers)

Human nature encompasses both levels.

We are made for a "supernatural" end -- we cannot be satisfied by a merely "natural" one. We are naturally "supernatural".

II. Theory of Mind and Knowledge

Aquinas is a developmental empiricist: all human knowledge begins with the use of the 5 senses, understanding our physical environment.

We start with the natural sciences, and then move to metaphysics and theology. Not an absolute empiricist:

1. Mind is not a blank slate: it brings specific, pre-determined powers and potentialities to the business of learning through the use of the senses.
2. Knowledge is always the product of the joint operation of the senses and the intellect.
3. Ultimately, we can attain knowledge of things beyond the range of our senses.

• The senses give us information about the environment.
• The appetite propels us to certain apparent goods or away from certain evils: anger and fear (irascible) and desires for food, water, warmth, sex (concupiscible).
• The theoretical intellect strives toward truth and understanding. It begins with the information delivered by the senses, and "abstracts" universal laws from this data.
• The practical intellect deliberates about what is the best course of action. It begins with inclinations provided by the appetites, but corrects and supplements them from a rational assessment of a plan of life.
• The will (rational appetite) receives its direction from the practical intellect -- but the will is needed to effect the transition from thought and feeling to action.

• Act/potency (and actuality/potentiality): what a thing is or does in fact, versus what it is supposed to do or be.
  A fetal heart (or an injured heart) is potentially a healthy, adult heart -- a pound of hamburger is not, even though the hamburger could be eaten, digested and formed into a fetal heart.

• Activity: a purely internal, self-contained process, like digesting, growing, thinking, perceiving, choosing.

• Ends (versus means): the ultimate goal or purpose for which one acts. One attempts to achieve one's ends by choosing appropriate means.

• Essence/accident: what a thing is most fundamentally, versus what a thing just happens to be.
  An oak tree (essence) vs. a hammock hanger (accident)
  A human being (essence) vs. a source of household income (accident)
  The signs or criteria of essences:
  
  1. Essences correspond to a shared nature, that can be the subject of scientific investigation. We can investigate the nature of humans or oak trees, not of hammock-supports or income-sources.
  2. Essences provide a non-arbitrary principle for dividing the world into distinct, countable individuals. Contrast: how many human beings are in the room? vs. how many income sources are in my brokerage account?
  3. Essences provide a non-arbitrary principle for identity through time.
  If I disassemble and re-assemble a wooden hammock support, is it the same support? Who cares?
  Is X the same person as Y? This matters.

• Function/use: the function of a thing is part of its essence, the use we put it to is an accident.
  The dog's function is to be loyal and trainable, its use is to herd sheep.

• Genus (plural: genera):: a category of things, wider or more general than a species.
• Moving, motion: any kind of change. Change of place is only one kind: locomotion.
• Notion: the fundamental, underlying concept associated with a word (like "happiness"), shared by everyone, as opposed to the variable ideas or conceptions of happiness that different individuals have.
  We all have the same notion of happiness (our complete, ultimate good), but we have very different ideas about what happiness consists of (power, wealth, virtuous activity, etc.).

• Object: something toward which an action is directed, what the action is immediately about. For example, the object of vision is a scene made up of shapes and colors, the object of hunger is food, the object of thought is the truth.
• The use or possession of an object: the state of having obtained one's object.
  • The object of hunger is food; the possession of this object is a state of satiation.
  • The object of thought is truth; the possession of this object is knowledge.
  • The object of the desire for happiness is God; the possession of this object is the knowing and loving of God.
• Species ( a species, to be specified): a kind of thing (which cannot be broken down into further sub-categories). The members of a species share exactly the same nature or essence. Each thing in nature belongs to exactly one species. Not just organisms -- actions also belong to species. An action is specified (classified) by its object.

Religious truth vs. scientific/philosophical truth.

Beginnings of fact/value, science/meaning distinction.

Aquinas vigorously opposed this distinction: philosophy and theology give us two ways of knowing the truth. Truth itself is one, indivisible.

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