A Philosophical Criticism of Augustine and Aquinas Essay -- Philosophy

A Philosophical Criticism of Augustine and Aquinas The Relationship of Soul and Body The relationship of the human instinct and physical body is a topic that has mystified philosophers, scholars, scientists, and mankind as a whole for centuries. Human beings, who are always concerned about their place as individuals in this world, conduct attempted to determine the precise nature or utter of the physical form. They are concerned for their well-being in this earthly environment, as well as their essenceual well-being and most have been perturbed by the suggestion that they cannot escape the wrongs they have committed while in their physical bodies. Throughout the evolution of philosophic thought, there have been many different views on the relationship of mind and body. The great philosopher Plato and the Neoplatonists held the belief that mans body is merely a prison of his soul, but St. Augustine afterwards refutes this with his idea of the disembodied soul. He distinguish es between the concept of the physical form and the spiritual soul, and he argues that humankind can be redeemed because of the God spirit contained in the intellectual soul. This intellectual soul is not an inseparable part of the body, as St. doubting Thomas Aquinas postulates. Instead, this soul is indeed the higher part of man, the state and well-being of man depends upon its stability. St. Thomas Aquinas adjusts this theory. He claims that the soul and body are inseparable, and he states that the soul is the form of the body. St. Thomas further believes that God creates the soul and matter (physical body) simultaneously, and the body affects the nature of that soul. His conception of redemption is distinctly different from Augustine he a... ...stine essays on some aspects of his thought written in commemoration of his fifteenth centenary. Sheed and Ward, Ltd., London 1945. Rev. D.J. Leary. St. Augustine on Eternal Life. Burns, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd., London 1939. W. An drew Hoffecker. Building a Christian World View, vol. 1 God, man, and Knowledge. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, New Jersey 1986. William S. Babcock. The Ethics of St. Augustine JRE Studies in Religion, no. 3. Scholars Press, Atlanta 1991. Armand Maurer. Being and Knowing Studies in Thomas Aquinas and Later Medieval Philosophers, Papers in Medival Studies, no. 10. Pontifical Institute of Medival Studies, Toronto 1990. Thomas Aquinas. Faith, Reason and Theology. Armand Maurer,translator. Medival Sources in Translation, vol. 32. Pontifical Institute of Medival Studies, Toronto 1987.