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Philosophy 3 Module I Lesson 3. SOME FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS Lesson Objectives: After studying this lesson on some fundamental questions, you shall be able to:
- discuss the questions or issues of knowledge, freedom and immortality with clarity and confidence;
- demonstrate appreciation of the breadth of Aristotelico-Thomistic view of the Human being;
- respond to the Self-Tests with enthusiasm and honesty. Knowledge We will do some epistemology here. If you still remember, epistemology comes from the Greek word, episteme, which means knowledge. Thus, epistemology is the branch of philosophy which deals wtih the theory of knowledge. How confident are you about your understanding of Aristotle's psychology as discussed in Lesson Two? If you have learned it well, this new lesson should not pose any difficulty at all. The question we will ask is, HOW DO WE KNOW? The basic epistemological principle here is a well-known one: There is nothing in the mind which has not first passed through the senses. The knowing process starts with the senses. For example: There is an object that has caught my attention. Let us call it X. I do not know X. But, right now, I can see its color. I can smell its odor. I can feel its texture. I can even try to taste it and listen if it makes any sound. In other words, I get first acquaintance about this object through my external senses. All these data of the external senses are now received by the internal senses. The common sense collects all the same impressions in order to form a common object. An image is registered in the imagination. Hopefully, this will remain in the memory, even if only the sense-memory. As a final result of this work of internal sense, a kind of universal image is formed, what Aristotelico-Thomistic philosophy calls phantasm. With the animal the process of cognition ends here. This is why what the animal knows is limited to sensitive cognition. On the basis of this knowledge, the animal acts. It is drawn toward or away from the subject. This is what is called sensitive appetition.
But man does not stop here. The phantasm is now sent to the rational faculty. Here starts the intellectual work which is called abstraction. This is the mental process by which the intellect denudes the phantasm of its individuating notes in order to reach for the essence of the thing. This essence, which is the product of this process, is known as the idea. Hence, this entire work of the intellect is called ideogenesis, the formation of ideas. There is one thing you should take note of. The phantasm is still an image. Thus, it still possesses all the qualities that individuate it. It is these individuating notes, like color, shape, size, locus, etc. which the intellect discards in the process of abstraction. Without all these qualities that individualize the object, the object is no longer concrete. We now attain the universal essence. This is the idea. And, since this idea is no longer concrete, it is called an abstract idea. Now, this is precisely the reason why this process of ideogenesis is also called abstraction. As an end project, we have the abstract idea. Let us give an example. The idea of the human being as a "rational animal" is abstract. The concrete human being is Pedro or Juan or Maria; s/he is either short or tall, rich or poor, good or bad, friendly or unfriendly, brown or yellow, etc. But the human as such or "rational animal" is none of this. And yet, it is this "rational animal" which is the definition of the human being. Even if not tall, one still is a human being. Even if not rich, one is still a human being. Even if not friendly, one still is a human being. One is no less human by having no hands or feet; nor is one more of a human being if one is an American. The essence, the idea, is not concrete. According to Aristotle and St. Thomas, the idea is abstract. Do you agree with him? Immortality Will you be able to guess how Aristotle's abstract ideas can become the basis for accepting the immortality of the soul? Now let us look at this. Aristotle starts very well as a biologist. Like any scientist, he finds himself obliged to explain the phenomenon of life. And so he postulates the soul as the principle of life. So far so good. But what happens to the soul when the body dies? The natural reaction is to consider the soul as co-terminus with the physical life. Indeed, this is precisely the case with the soul of either the plant or the animal. When the plant dies, the soul goes, too. The reason for this is that the vegetative soul is responsible for such functions as nutrition, growth, and reproduction. These are functions which require the body. It is the body which nourishes itself, grows and reproduces. Thus, when the body dies, all these functions cease. This is why the vegetative soul cannot operate without the body. When the body dies, the plant's soul has no more excuse for being.
People sometimes think that it is easy to be free. This is not so. Freedom can be a burden. To be free carries with it the burden of responsibility. A human being is a responsible being. S/He owns her/his act; s/e he is not simply a creature of instincts. This is the reason why only a human being can be moral or immoral. You are Special What Aristotle and St. Thomas show us is how special a human being is. S/He is at the top of the hierarchy of beings. S/He is a microcosm. S/He is not simply an animal, but a thinking animal. In short, s/he is a rational animal. With her/his reason s/he is able to exercise her/his intelligence. And on the basis of such intelligent decision, s/he chooses freely. But freedom is not license. Since the human owns her/his act, s/he should be responsible for it. S/He should try her/his best to do only the most reasonable thing. This is the concern of ETHICS, and you have already finished the courses a term or so ago. There is another reason why the human is special. Not only is s/he the only one endowed with reason, but, above all, if we believe Aristotle and St. Thomas, the human's rational soul is immortal. The mind lives on even as the body disintegrates. For the human, life does not end at the grave. Is this something to rejoice about? Only if we have lived well!
Readings on Immortality Summa Theologiae, Part I, LXXV, Article 6** I answer that: It must be said that the intellectual principle which we call the human soul is incorruptible. For a thing may be corrupted in two ways -- through itself and by accident. Now it is impossible for any subsistent being to be generated or corrupted accidentally, i. e., by the generation or corruption of something else. For generation and corruption belong to a thing in the same way that being belongs to it, which is acquired by generation and lost by corruption. Therefore, whatever has being in itself cannot be generated and corrupted except through itself; while things which do not subsist, such as accidents and material form, are said to acquire being or lose it through the generation or corruption of composition. Now it was shown above that the souls of brutes are not self-subsistent, but only the human soul. Thus the souls of brutes are corrupted, when their bodies are corrupted, while the human soul could not be corrupted unless it were corrupted through itself. This is altogether impossible, not only as regards the human soul, but also regards anything subsistent that is a form alone. For it is evident that what belongs
to a thing by virtue of the things itself is inseparable from it. But being belongs to a form, which is an "act," by virtue of itself. And thus, matter acquires being in act according as it acquires form; while it is corrupted so fast as the form is separated from it. But it is impossible for a form to be separated from itself; and therefore it is impossible for a subsistent form to cease to exist. Granted even that the soul were composed of matter and form, as some pretend, we should nevertheless have to maintain that it is imperishable. For corruption is found only where there is contrariety, since generation and corruption are from contraries and into contraries. Therefore the heavenly bodies, since they have no matter subject to contrariety, are incorruptible. Now there can be no contrariety in the intellectual soul: it is a receiving subject according to the manner of its being, and those things which it receives are without contrariety. For the notions even of contraries are not themselves contrary; rather, contraries belong to the same science. Therefore it is impossible for the intellectual soul to be corruptible. Moreover, we may take a sign of this from the fact that everything naturally desires being after its own manner. Now in things that have knowledge, desire follows upon knowledge. The senses indeed do not know being, except under the conditions of here and now, whereas the intellect apprehends being absolutely, and for all time; so that everything that has an intellect naturally desires always to exist. But a natural desire cannot be in vain. Therefore every intellectual substance is imperishable. On Free Choice Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question LXXXIII, Article 1 I answer that: Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain. In order to make this evident, we must consider that some things act without judgment, as a stone moves downwards; and in like manner all things which lack knowledge. And some act from judgment, but not a free judgment; as with brute animals. For the sheep, seeing the wolf, judges it a thing to be shunned, from a natural and not a free judgment; because it judges, not from deliberation, but from natural instinct. And the same thing is to be said of any judgment in brute animals. But a human acts from judgment, because by this cognitive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought. But because this judgment, in the case of some particular act, is not from a natural instinct, but from some act of comparison in the reason, therefore he acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various alternatives. For reason in contingent matters may follow opposite courses, as we see in dialectical syllogisms and rhetorical arguments. Now particular
Philosophy 3 Module I Lesson 3 SELF-PROGRESS CHECK TEST (Answer the following questions as best as you can from what you have understood of Lesson 3. Be fair with yourself. Make this test a real gauge of what you know of the course.) A. On the blank before each number, write True if the statement is correct; otherwise, write False. TRUE 1. The human, like an animal, is capable of sensitive cognition. FALSE 2. The human, like an animal, is capable only of sensitive cognition. FALSE 3. Cognition means knowledge. FALSE 4. The branch of philosophy that studies knowledge is Ethics. FALSE5. Epistemology comes from the Greek episteme which means "desire." TRUE 6. There is nothing in the mind which does not first pass through the senses. TRUE7. Since all knowledge has to pass through the senses, knowledge is always concrete. TRUE 8. The intellect is the rational faculty responsible for the formation of ideas. TRUE 9. Ideas, to Aristotle, are already in the mind. TRUE 10. Ideas, to Aristotle, are formed through a process called abstraction. TRUE11. Abstract ideas are universal. TRUE 12. In abstraction the mind disregards the essence and focuses the individuating notes. FALSE 13. In abstraction the mind disregards the individuating notes and retains the essence. TRUE 14. The essence is what belongs to the very nature of the object. TRUE 15. By means of abstraction the mind is able to get to the very meaning or definition of a thing. TRUE 16. The meaning or nature of a thing is apprehended by the mind and translated into a concept or idea. FALSE 17. The idea is concrete. FALSE 18. Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas use the abstract ideas to show that the human soul is not immortal. FALSE 19. Like all other souls, the human soul dies.
TRUE20. Since ideas are abstract, they are not affected by the death of the body. TRUE 21. The human soul is immortal. TRUE 22. Reason, which distinguishes the human from beast, is the seat of freedom. FALSE 23. Even an animal is capable of cognition and appetition, and hence of free choice. FALSE 24. Even an animal has a free will. TRUE 25. Only humans have free wills, because only humans have reason. TRUE 26. Human freedom has to do with the human power to choose. FALSE 27. The human being, like every animal, has no capacity to choose. FALSE 28. Freedom and license are the same. FALSE 29. Humans enjoy freedom, so they can do everything they please. TRUE 30. Freedom and responsibility go together.
