Lecture 8Lecture 8

• Introduction to Aquinas– Nature and Supernature– Structure of the Soul– Essences

• Aquinas on Happiness

• Introduction to Dante

The Natural and the SupernaturalThe Natural and the Supernatural

• Natural– Imperfect happiness (“felicity”)– Can be attained by our own, natural powers– Can be understood scientifically

• Supernatural– Perfect happiness (“beatitude”)– Requires God’s “grace” (special assistance)– Can be understood only by “faith”

Natural Philosophy & Natural Philosophy & Supernatural (Revealed) TheologySupernatural (Revealed) Theology

• Philosophy (including “natural theology”) is competent to understand the natural order. So, Aristotle is a reliable guide to imperfect happiness, and the structure of the cosmos.

• Understanding the supernatural requires special revelation (through prophets, inspired Scriptures).

Human NatureHuman Nature

• For Aquinas, human nature (the essence of humanity) encompasses both levels.

• We are “naturally supernatural”. We cannot be fully satisfied with any natural good.

• Our capacity to grasp the idea of infinity or perfection bears witness to our supernatural end. (Cf. Boethius)

Tension in Aquinas’s ViewTension in Aquinas’s View

• Pull to left: imperfect happiness just is our final cause (since it results from the full realization of our natural faculties). Beatitude is an arbitrary imposition.

• Pull to right: perfect happiness is our scientifically discernible final cause. Sacred theology is just a branch of philosophy; no room for faith.

Aquinas’s Attempted Middle Aquinas’s Attempted Middle WayWay

• Philosophy reveals both that our natural human faculties are organized for felicity (eudaemonia) as their natural end, and that this form of happiness leaves human beings ultimately unsatisfied.

• Philosophy can infer that there must be something more (beatitude) but cannot define it or find adequate means to it. That is the job of faith.

The Structure of the SoulThe Structure of the Soul• Rational

– Intellect• Speculative

• Practical

– Will (rational appetite)

• Sub-rational– Senses– Bodily appetites

• Concupiscible & Irascible

The Sub-rational SoulThe Sub-rational Soul

• 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).

Rational SoulRational Soul• The theoretical (or "speculative") 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 receives its direction from the practical intellect -- but the will is needed to effect the transition from thought and feeling to action.

Essence vs. AccidentEssence vs. 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 essencesThe 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.

• Essences form a nested structure of kinds: species-genus-family-….category.

• 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.

Aquinas on HappinessAquinas on Happiness

• The Existence of Happiness: Question 1

• What Happiness is Not: Question 2

• The Nature of Happiness: Question 3

The Existence of HappinessThe Existence of Happiness

• Question 1: Human action has a single, ultimate end that is shared by all people. This end we call "happiness".

• Key Articles:– 1. Human action has an end (purpose).– 3.Human action has an ultimate end.– 4. Human action has a single ultimate end.– 7. This end is shared by all people.

Article 1: Article 1: Human action has an end.Human action has an end.

• An action is human not just because it is performed by a a human being: it must involve the exercise of peculiarly human powers.

• These peculiarly human powers are the reason and the will.

• The object of the will is called an "end".• Hence, all properly human actions are performed

for an end.

Article 3: All human action has Article 3: All human action has an ultimate end.an ultimate end.

• Suppose that a human action occurred for an end (by article 1), but not for any ultimate end.

• This would mean that every end for which the action is performed is itself merely the means for some further end.

• This would further mean that the human action was performed for the sake of an infinite regress of reasons.

• An infinite regress of reasons cannot move the will to action (basic metaphysical principle).

• Hence, every human action is performed for some ultimate end.

Article 4: Article 4: all human action is performed for all human action is performed for

a single ultimate end.a single ultimate end.3 arguments are given (in Response, pp. 10-11):

– 1. Every things’ desires can be satisfied by nothing but the complete fulfillment of its nature.

– The ultimate end of any action is that thing which would satisfy every desire.

– Hence, there is but one ultimate end of human action (i.e., the complete fulfillment of human nature).

2nd argument2nd argument2. The fundamental principle of human life is the

will.• The fundamental principle of every kind of thing

tends toward a single thing (since, otherwise, the individual members of this kind would not be unified as substances).

• Hence, the human will tends toward a single thing.• The human will tends toward the ultimate end of

human action.

Article 4, 3rd argumentArticle 4, 3rd argument

• Human actions are classified into species according to their ends (article 3).

• Therefore, things belong to the genus human action by virtue of their sharing a common end or purpose.

• Therefore, all human actions have the same ultimate end.

Article 7: this ultimate end is Article 7: this ultimate end is shared by all human beings.shared by all human beings.

• This follows from the 3 arguments for article 4: all human actions share the same ultimate end: the complete fulfillment of human nature.

• Aquinas answers the obvious objection: people seems to strive for a variety of ultimate ends: money, power, pleasure, honor, virtue, knowledge, etc.

Explaining the apparent diversity Explaining the apparent diversity of endsof ends

• Aquinas distinguishes between the notion of happiness (the common concept, shared by all) and our ideas of what this happiness consists in.

• We share a common ultimate end --- but we differ in our opinions of how to reach it.

What Happiness is Not: What Happiness is Not: Question 2Question 2

• Happiness is not Power (4th article)

• Happiness is not Pleasure (6th article)

• Happiness does not consist in any created (finite) thing. (8th article)

Article 4: Not PowerArticle 4: Not Power

• 2 reasons:

• 1. Power is a means, but happiness is an ultimate end.

• 2. Power can be used for good ends and for bad ones. Therefore, power by itself is not sufficient for happiness.

Article 6: Not PleasureArticle 6: Not Pleasure• Distinction: bodily delight (pleasure) and

intellectual delight. • Even delight is not the same thing as

happiness: it is rather the result or symptom of happiness.

• Moreover, bodily delight is even more clearly not happiness, since humans have a rational soul, whose existence does not depend on the body.

• In addition, this rational soul is of greater value than the body, since it is capable of knowing an infinity of things (through knowing universals), while the body is finite in its capacities.

• For these 2 reasons, Aquinas concludes that the body exists for the sake of the soul, not the soul for the body.

The Useful vs. the UselessThe Useful vs. the Useless

• Like Aristotle, Aquinas affirms the superiority of the useless over the useful.

• The useless is what the useful is useful for.

• Friendship, philosophy, art, sport, as opposed to money-making or other necessary activities.

Happiness does not Consist in Happiness does not Consist in any created good (art. 8).any created good (art. 8).

• The ultimate end must bring human desire to rest.

• Human desire (in its rational aspect, i.e., the will) cannot be brought to rest by anything finite or limited.

• Any created good is finite and limited.• Hence, happiness does not consist in any

created good.

What Happiness Consists in What Happiness Consists in (Question 3)(Question 3)

• In a nutshell: perfect happiness consists in the perfect speculative knowledge of God's essence (the "beatific vision").

• Imperfect (earthly) happiness consists in the full range of activities that Aristotle would have described as "eudaemonia".

• 1. Happiness is an activity. (article 2)

• 2. Perfect happiness is an activity of the intellect, not the senses or the will (article 3, 4)

• 3. Perfect happiness is an activity of the "speculative", rather than the "practical", intellect. (article 5)

• 4. Perfect happiness consists in the knowledge of God, not of the material world (articles 6, 8)

Infinite CuriosityInfinite Curiosity• We have a natural desire to know things (the sense

of wonder, curiosity).• If we know something, but do not know fully know

its cause, then we desire to do so.• Hence, our natural desire of curiosity can be fully

satisfied only by fully knowing the ultimate cause of everything, which is God.

• A creature can know God in this way only if God gives himself to the creature individually. This individualized gift (grace) cannot be anticipated by natural reason.

Introduction to DanteIntroduction to Dante

• Dante Aligheri (1265-1321), of Florence, Italy.

• One of the 4-5 greatest poets of the Western tradition (with Homer, Virgil, Milton, Goethe).

• His masterpiece (The Divine Comedy) embodies the Thomistic synthesis of Greek philosophy & the Biblical worldview.

Structure of the Divine ComedyStructure of the Divine Comedy

• Three Parts:– The Inferno (Hell). A depiction of the consequences of

unchecked evil.

– The Purgatorio (Purgatory). A representation of human nature in this life (of which purgatory is an extension): the conflict between good and evil.

– The Paradiso (Heaven). The ultimate, supernatural end of human life. The vision of God.

Issues to ConsiderIssues to Consider

• Love as the source of both good and evil.

• The paradox of free will: is it compatible with a scientific (Aristotelian) picture of the workings of human nature?

• The relationship between body and soul.