What is a person? Aquinas' Treatise on human being - AFSV00373

• Title: What is a person? Aquinas' Treatise on human being
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2022
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=12221
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Anna Tropia, Ph.D.
• Class: Exchange - 08.1 Philosophy

Annotation

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (11.09.2021)

FALL TERM 2021
BA module+Erasmus
e-mail me for consultation or questions: [e-mail]

What is a human person? What are her distinctive features, and what are not? Thinking and, more generally, what pertains to the sphere of intellection is usually considered as the distinctive mark of humanity. But what about the body? Are human beings determined by their material bodies and features or not? Revolving around the most famous definition of the human soul as the “form of the body”, in this course we will target the make-up of a human being (and of a human person) in the tract that Thomas Aquinas devotes to human nature in the Sum of Theology.

Aim of the course

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (11.09.2021)

The principal aim of the course is that of providing the students with an introduction to the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, one of the most influential medieval thinkers. 

Course completion requirements

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (11.09.2021)

In Class Active Participation.

Literature

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (12.09.2021)

Primary Literature 

 

Thomas Aquinas, Selection of quaestiones from Sum of Theology (Part I) and from Summa contra gentiles (Part II)

 Latin text (for the Summa): Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera omnia iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita, Romae, 1889-, vols. V and 13. Both are accessible at the UFAR library as well as online: 

 https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/repedleo.html

 English Translation by Alfred Freddoso available online: 

 https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa-translation/TOC-part1.htm

 Another English Translation (provided by the teacher) is Thomas Aquinas. The Treatise on Human Nature, Translated, with Introduction and Commentary, by Robert Pasnau. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002

 Thomas Aquinas, Selection of quaestiones from Summa contra gentiles, Part II 

 English Translation by James Anderson available online: 

 https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/ContraGentiles2.htm

 

 

Secondary literature (a selection: all on Moodle)

 B. Bazán, “The Human Soul: Form and Substance? Thomas Aquinas’ Critique of Eclectic Aristotelianism”, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 64 (1997), 95-126.

 R. Pasnau-Ch. Shields, The philosophy of Aquinas. Oxford University Press, 2016.

 R. Pasnau, Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature: A Philosophical Study of Summa Theologiae Ia 75-89. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

 E. Stump, Aquinas, Routledge 2003.

Requirements to the exam

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (11.09.2021)

Active in-class participation and final oral exam. 

Syllabus

Last update: Anna Tropia, Ph.D. (11.09.2021)

Introduction: What is a human being? What is a person? 

 

Module I: Soul as substance

 

Module II: The powers of the soul

 

Module III: Cognition as experience

 

Module IV: Challenging I. Comparisons and difficulties