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Give Boethius/Aquinas' definition of the person. State the definition in Latin and English, and explain the meanings of each term.
"INDIVIDUAL SUBSTANCE OF A RATIONAL NATURE" Individual: uniqueness. Substance: in and out of itself. Rational: ability to will/reason. Nature: the characteristics of a living being. "INDIVIDUA SUBSTANTIA RATIONALIS NATURA"
What does "Persona est sui iuris et alteri incommunicabilis" mean?
"person is the master of himself and it is incommunicable to another." Meaning: As a human person, we self-determine both our action and ourselves. God is our primary creator, but we are also co-creators as we move through life molding our person as a whole through: action, thought, reflection, and reasoning. Our self mastery is inalienable and cannot be given or taken away. Self-determination is a key element of human experience, which includes our natural ability to self-possess and self-govern. Each of these self-mastery elements reveal the unique composition that is proper to a human being as a person.
According to Wojtyla, upon what is the dignity of the human person founded? How is this foundation revealed? In your answer, reference Aquinas.
Dignity of the human person is founded upon our superiority derived from our ability to transform/change the natural world. Our ability to transform the natural world comes from our ability to rationalize/understand the world. This reveals our rational freedom, so "what are we?" We are rational and free which determines our dignity. Human dignity indicates a value that is "without the possibility of measurement. It is also inalienable because it is not something we have but it is something we are of.
According to Aristotle, in what three ways is the soul the cause of the living body? Briefly explain each.
FORMAL CAUSE: the soul is the ground of the being of the body- gives being, unity, life to the body- its the form/actuality of the living body/life of body. EFFICIENT CAUSE: The soul is the source of all movement/change in the body- location quantity, and quality. FINAL CAUSE: The soul is that for the sake of which the body is a living body- the end of the body.
According to Aristotle, how is life displayed?
Life is displayed by the various activities of life: vegetative life, sensitive life, and rational life. VEGETATIVE LIFE: (all living things) self nutrition, growth/decay, and reproduction. SENSITIVE LIFE: (animals and humans) local movement, desire, 5 senses, imagination, and common sense. RATIONAL/INTELLECTUAL LIFE: (humans) ability to think and will things.
In your own words, explain the "mutual indwelling" of love, as described by Aquinas.
Mutual Indwelling is to understood in three different ways: Apprehensively, Appetitively, and by the Concupiscence. APPREHENSIVELY: the beloved dwells within the lover based on a insufficient understanding of the beloved, and desires a deep/intimate understanding of the beloved. APPETITE: the beloved is within the lover because of the desire for more goodness caused by the beloved. The lover is satisfied by the beloved's dwelling within him. CONCUPISCENCE: the lover is in the beloved due to a deep desire to see the beloved flourish. It is known through a strong friendship that bonds the beloved and the lover through the similarities between the two in regards to what is good for one is good for the other and what is bad for one is bad for the other. It goes so far as if they were one in the same because of how the lover acts and wills for the goodness of the beloved more than he does for himself.
"Person signifies that which is most perfect in all nature" Why does Aquinas say this?
PERSON IS IN THE IMAGE OF GOD OUR CREATOR: God is the most perfect person, and we are created in his resemblance- WE STRIVE FOR HIS PERFECTION: we are instilled with rationality which allows us to know and understand. PERFECTION IS IN GOD'S ESSENCE: person in this sense is referring to more than the human person.
How does Wojtyla describe the relationship between the human person and natural law? Explain why there is no real contradiction between personal freedom and natural law.
Person is an individual substance of a rational nature, law is an ordinance of reason for the sake of the common good, promulgated by one who has care for the community, and natural law is the participation of the rational creature in the eternal law. This shows that reason is incorporated within the person, law, and natural law. Law is for reason: it is from reason, to reason, and for reasonability. For this reason, Natural law not only corresponds to the person, but it establishes persons in their proper place in the whole objective order of the world. Next, it places them in a special relation to the source of law and reason... God. Through Natural Law, human beings participate in God, in God's reason, and in God's relation to the whole of reality created by God. There is no real contradiction between personal freedom and natural law because there is only a conflict when the human being does not accept their honorable subordination to God. Human freedom, in accord with the objective order of the world, is meant to lead us to God, and Natural Law works analogously.
What is the essence of friendship? Give a comprehensive answer. Explain why Aristotle considers friendship so important? quote his text twice.
RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP OF HUMAN BEINGS: based on shared love of common good. its is to love and to be loved (to love is of greater delight). Two Dimensions of Friendship: Structural and Content Based. STRUCTURAL: friends turn towards eachother because of recognition of good between them. CONTENT BASED: determined by shared common good. FRIENDS: recognize and affirm the good in one another. FRIENDS: are categorized by the type of good that is shared: PLEASURABLE, USEFUL, and HONORABLE. TRUE FRIENDSHIP: virtue is present- honorable good in itself, takes time and trust, lasting. VIRTUOUS FRIENDSHIP: the pinnacle of human life, greatest of all earthly things, greater than procreation and life itself. TWO QUOTES: (1.) "it is the same people that are good men and friends" (2.) "without friends no one would choose to live"
Based on his understanding of the intellect, how does Aquinas argue that the human soul is both subsistent and incorruptible?
SUBSISTENT: (1)Whatever knows certain things can't have them in its own nature because that which is in it naturally would impede the knowledge of anything else. (2) if the intellectual principle contained the nature of a body it would be unable to know all bodies, and every body has its own determinate nature. Therefore, it is impossible for the intellectual principle to be a body or a bodily organ. (3) Therefore, the intellectual principle has an operation "per se" from the body, and only something that subsists can have an operation "per se." (4) For nothing can operate but what is actual, so this concludes that the intellectual principle called the mind is subsistent. INCORRUPTIBLE: (1) since the intellectual soul is subsistent, it does not rely on the body and has activity/being after separation of from the matter. And therefore the intellectual soul is immaterial. (2.) Corruption is found only where there is contrariety; since generation and corruption are from contraries and into contraries. (3) Since the intellectual soul have no matter subject to contrariety, are incorruptible.
Explain how Aquinas understands the nature of the intellect, and the act of understanding. Make reference to Aristotle.
The intellect and the act of understanding are the highest powers of the soul. It includes the ability to calculate, measure, know, and become one with the world. The truth of our origin and the truth of of our end is only found through the use of reason. Joy is a proper accident of discovering the truth of reality. Intellectual reasoning and understanding are actions of immortality, which means they must come from an immaterial source (the soul). Rationalizing a material object causes you to become one with that object, which indicates that the act of understanding is an immaterial act of reason. Just as the senses sense what is sensible, the intellect thinks what is intelligible. The intelligible form of an object is retained in the possible intellect s a potential object for recall. The intellect is then said to have the enduring habit called knowledge, and is thereby perfected in its being.
How does Aquinas show that the contemplation of God is the ultimate purpose of human life, and that which essentially constitutes happiness? In your answer, you can also make reference to Aristotle's understanding.
Understanding wisdom and knowledge brings growth and joy when they're directed towards God. Truth defines human life. All things with life and intelligence are imitative of God, both through their kind and their activity. All activity is attempting to accomplish a greater state of being, by imitating God. The only way to imitate God's being is to understand it through contemplation. This contemplation of a higher being perfects the intellect, soul, and body. Through contemplation of God is the perfection and growth of virtues. This is a proper operation of man, whom becomes united with things above him, by becoming like them. In this way, contemplating God brings us closer to his being, which stands as our ultimate purpose as humans seeking truth/happiness.
According to Augustine, what three kinds of questions reveal the mind? Briefly explain.
WHETHER A THING IS: we retain images of sounds, but what they signify cannot be obtained through bodily sense. WHAT IS IT: stored in the memory is not the image, but the truth itself. WHAT SORT IS IT: he ponders how these truths come to be in his mind (doorway) they were not learned, yet we recognize them when they are spoken and know it to be true. (memory- unconscious knowledge). CONCLUSION: the mind can store facts without first experiencing them as images.
What does Wojtyla say is "always an infallible sign of a person?" and what is "most characteristic of a person?"
Within thought, the human person has a creative ability, which is what's most characteristic of a person. It is the basis of creativity and the source of culture. Our thought has a very realistic and objective characteristic, which allows us to derive new truths from existing reality and to control our reality. Our rational nature makes us creators, through action. When we act in a manner proper to a person, we always create something: either outside ourselves or within ourselves. Creating as derived from thinking is so characteristic of a person that it is always an infallible sign of a person. It is proof of a person's existence or presence.
Is the body essential to the human person? why?
Yes, the body is essential because a human person is more than an intellectual/rational being. The bodily aspect of the human person fulfills the soul's natural state. The soul is the form of the body and without a body the soul is no longer the form of anything. Our animality as humans gives us the freedom to separate ourselves from other animal forms due to our ability to rationalize. The body allows a person to be both personal and human.
What is the virtue most apt to reveal the dignity of the human person?
piety/reverence in light of God is not only a virtue, but a gift of the Holy Spirit that truly reveals the dignity of the human person.
What twofold determination happens in every human action? What enables the human person to make a gift of self?
the person is the source and the subject of the ethical actions in which he takes.
What is the Soul? And its relation to the body? Define and explain by making use of the Hylomorphic Principle
the soul (anima) means life. PRINCIPLE OF ANIMAL LIFE: the being of a living being is to live. SOUL IS THE PRINCIPLE OF: its being- that it is and what it is. its living- life itself and all operations of life. THE FORM OF ALL NATURAL LIVING SUBSTANCES: "the form of the living body" "first grade of actuality of the natural organized body having life potentially" ACTUALIZES THE BODY: gives structure and shape to an ordered/organized body. ACTUALIZES LIFE IN THE BODY: actualization of manifestations of life found in organs of the living body. THEORY OF HYLOMORPHISM: natural substances are composed of form and matter. MATTER (body): "that out of which" the thing is being composed. FORM (soul): "that through which" it is what it is. determines being as a specific kind of substance. Actualizes the matter to make an individual whole. Unity of both form and matter is of the highest form of unity.
