Conjoined Twins and personhood

[Aloysium]

There is a continuum of thought, from sensations at the skin surface to the highest poetry. Some can possibly be shared; some not.

ICXC NIKA

Perhaps like an hallucination or compulsion?

 

[Wesrock]

That is strange to me that a Catholic believe that consciousness is the result of material process. Anyway, are thoughts processed by soul knowing the fact that intellect is faculty of soul? If the answer to this question is yes then the above evidence is an obvious counter example otherwise intellect is the result of material process either.

The immaterial intellect doesn’t just operate fully independent of the material processes of consciousness. I already explained why the conjoined twins example is not a counter example to Thomist thoughts on how the mind works. The intellect, in part, “reads” the neural processes responsible for consciousness, and is able to grasp universals from them (Thomism holds that universals are real). We are not substance duelists.

 

[Wesrock]

Matter does not generate consciousness, but rather is a major factor influencing its phenomenology. And, the soul is not simply an observer.

Animals are conscious but do not have the immaterial intellectual powers we do. Their brains are responsible for their conscious experience. It’s rational thinking that a Thomistic would say the brain cannot fully explain.

 

[STT]

The immaterial intellect doesn’t just operate fully independent of the material processes of consciousness. I already explained why the conjoined twins example is not a counter example to Thomist thoughts on how the mind works. The intellect, in part, “reads” the neural processes responsible for consciousness, and is able to grasp universals from them (Thomism holds that universals are real). We are not substance duelists.

Then why Thomas assigned intellect as a faculty of soul and not soul and body?

 

[STT]

Animals are conscious but do not have the immaterial intellectual powers we do. Their brains are responsible for their conscious experience. It’s rational thinking that a Thomistic would say the brain cannot fully explain.

Animal also have the power to abstract hence they have intellect. Think of a cat who feel danger for her kitty and she move all of them to another place. Think of a lioness who chases a pray. She know how to move her body and she make decision based on how the pray moves or evade. The pray is going that way so I should go another way, etc. This requires power of intellect.

 

[Wesrock]

Then why Thomas assigned intellect as a faculty of soul and not soul and body?

The intellect is a faculty above animal consciousness, in which we move from understanding in an individuated sense to grasping a universal, which is potentially infinite in scope.

Animal also have the power to abstract hence they have intellect. Think of a cat who feel danger for her kitty and she move all of them to another place. Think of a lioness who chases a pray. She know how to move her body and she make decision based on how the pray moves or evade. The pray is going that way so I should go another way, etc. This requires power of intellect.

Nothing in there is what a Thomist would consider requiring an intellectual power.