Article/Publication Details

The Human Being as ‘Compound’: Aquinas versus Descartes on Human Nature

(Original title: The Human Being as ‘Compound’: Aquinas versus Descartes on Human Nature)
Filozofia, 2024, vol. 79, No 9, pp. 955 - 969.
File to download: PDF
BibTex EndNote Tagged EndNote XML RIS
The intuitively right answer to the question ‘What am I?’ is not ‘an incorporeal spirit’, but ‘a human being’. Aquinas reflects this common-sense view when he says that ‘the human is no mere soul, but a compound of soul and body.’ And Descartes, despite his notorious dualistic thesis that I am a substance that does not need anything material in order to exist, insists nevertheless that the human mind-body compound is a genuine unity in its own right, not a mere soul making using of a body. This paper argues for the enduring philosophical importance of this notion of our ‘compound’ nature as human beings, and explores its significance across three principal dimensions – the psychological, the phenomenological, and the moral.

Upcoming events

Rethinking Gaia's Critical Zone: From Bruno Latour to Chinese Thought
02.12.2024

Filozofia - current issue

Charlesworth, S. Customary Morality and the Concept of Environmental Citizenship
Abstract: Whatever the nature of the contemporary climate crisis, its status has become an aspect of global politics. Whether the nature of this necessity is natural or political is the...
Boteva-Richter, B. Migration and Environment or about the Human as Climatic Being: Tetsurō Watsuji’s Dialectical Concept and How It Can Be Applied to the Issue of Migration
Abstract: The interaction between migration and the environment is essential, but it is not usually the focus of philosophical reflection. In this article, the author explores the nexus of...
Mendes, J.Ribeiro The Environmental Toll of Digital Technologies
Abstract: his study delves into the complex connection between digital technologies and environmental sustainability in the face of the worsening climate crisis. It presents two different...
Önkal, G. Reconsidering the Paradigm Shift from Environmental Philosophy to Global Environmentalisms
Abstract: The Earth has arrived at such a point that the speed of human change has had effects that are now irreversible. This picture tells us that the crises in nature are not the crises of...
Cottingham, J. The Human Being as ‘Compound’: Aquinas versus Descartes on Human Nature
Abstract: The intuitively right answer to the question ‘What am I?’ is not ‘an incorporeal spirit’, but ‘a human being’. Aquinas reflects this common-sense view when he says that ‘the human is...
Vydrová, J. Approaches to historicity in phenomenology: the Czechoslovak experience
Abstract: In the paper I examine selected local phenomena related to the history of phenomenology in Central-Eastern Europe and especially in the former Czechoslovakia during the communist...
Šedo, M. The complicated relationship between the philosophy of Claude Romano and Martin Heidegger
Abstract: The study attempts to interpret the work of the French phenomenologist Claude Romano in the context of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. The text tries to point out the differences...
more -->

Filozofia - previous issue

Pattison, G. Death, Poetry, and Hope
Abstract: The paper revisits the question of immortality with Dostoevsky’s reference to ‘eternal memory’ as a leitmotif. Starting with Agamben’s discussion of Hegel, language, and death, the...
Rojas, F. Ineffable Tongues: An Analysis of the Notion of Ineffability in Pentecostal Glossolalia
Abstract: In this text I will analyze the notion of ineffability present in one of the most common practices of Pentecostalism, which is known as glossolalia: speaking in strange or non-...
Bravo, N. Human First and then Christian: Grundtvig’s Anthropology as a Pluralist Alternative
Abstract: In this article, I would like to suggest that the anthropological proposal of Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the famous nineteenth-century Danish author, offers a model that...
López-Farjeat, L.Xavier Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd’s Use of Classical Theological and Philosophical Islamic Sources in His Qurʾānic Hermeneutics
Abstract: Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd (1943 – 2010) is one of the most controversial contemporary Egyptian scholars in the Islamic intellectual context. One of his main concerns was to apply textual...
Junco, E. Poetic Reason: Identity in the Midst of Mysticism and Philosophy
Abstract: The irrationalist and vitalist options in the philosophy of the early twentieth century find in María Zambrano a liminal proposal. The author proposes a double movement: archaizing...
Esparza, G.Adolfo Urz The Perception of the Divine: Myth, Art, and Religion in Ernst Cassirer
Abstract: According to the philosophy of religion proposed by Ernst Cassirer, myth and religion are two symbolic forms whose goal of representation is the idea of the sacred; to achieve this,...
Vašek, M. Christian Humanism and Christianity-Inspired Atheistic Humanism
Abstract: The aim of this study is to focus on two forms of humanism: atheistic humanism (or humanistic atheism) and Christian humanism. The first type is represented by Czech philosopher...
more -->

Contact

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: sekretariat.fiu@savba.sk
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Journal Filozofia

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Filozofia Editorial Office
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: redakcia.filozofia@savba.sk
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
Filozofia Editorial Office
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Journal Organon F

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Organon F Editorial Office
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: organonf@gmail.com
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
Organon F Editorial Office
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Links

Slovak Academy of Sciences
Slovak Philosophical Association
Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Comenius University
Institute of Philosophy, Prague
FISP