The Interaction of Noetic and Psychosomatic Operations in a Thomist Hylomorphic Anthropology
Journal Title: Scientia et Fides - Year 2018, Vol 6, Issue 2
Abstract
This article, the second of a two-part essay, outlines a solution to certain tensions in Thomist philosophical anthropology concerning the interaction of the human person’s immaterial intellectual or noetic operations with the psychosomatic sensory operations that are constituted from the formal organization of the nervous system. Continuing with where the first part left off, I argue that Thomists should not be tempted by strong emergentist accounts of mental operations that act directly on the brain, but should maintain, with Aquinas, that noetic operations directly interact with psychosomatic operations. I develop a Thomist account of noetic–psychosomatic interactions that expands upon the first part’s rapprochement between the new mechanist philosophy of neuroscience and psychology and hylomorphic animalism. I argue that noetic–psychosomatic interactions are best understood as analogous to the way diverse higher and lower order psychosomatic powers interact by actualizing, coordinating, and directing the operations of other psychosomatic powers. I draw on James Ross’s arguments for the immateriality of intellectual operations as realizing definite pure functions in order to elucidate the way noetic operations uniquely actualize, coordinate, and direct the psychosomatic operations they interact with. I conclude with a conjectural sketch of how this presentation of Thomist philosophical anthropology understands the noetic and psychosomatic deficits brought about by damage to the nervous system.
Authors and Affiliations
Daniel De Haan
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP489126
- DOI 10.12775/SetF.2018.010
- Views 78
- Downloads 0
The Significance of Being Ethical: An essay on the case for moral realism and theism
William Irwin defends a form of moral anti-realism, according to which there are no objective moral facts. He contends that moral realism is objectionable because of its being more complex or not as simple as anti-realis...
Die Frage nach dem Handeln Gottes in der Welt als elementares Glaubensproblem
The Question of God´s Action in the World as one Fundamental Aspect of Crisis of Faith Christian religion is mainly based on the fact of God´s action in the world, as the Holy Bible expresses and testifies in many diffe...
¿Creare est unire? Esbozo de la metafísica de la unión de Teilhard de Chardin
Creare est unire? An outline of Teilhard de Chardin's metaphysics of union As underlying leitmotiv throughout all his work, Teilhard de Chardin develops the relationship between spirit and matter. Matter (multiplicity)...
On a productive dialogue between religion and science
Searching for common ground in philosophy, science and theology, it seems to us that it would be reasonable to maintain the position of realistic pragmatism that Charles Sanders Peirce had called pragmaticism. In the pra...
Razón práctica y primer principio de la ley natural en Suárez
Practical reason and first principle of the natural law in Suárez The aim of this paper is to examine the Suarecian theory of practical reason and its first principle, which is also the first principle of natural law. A...