Is there a difference between the Mind and the Soul in Catholic Philosophy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheAtheist
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

TheAtheist

Guest
Straightforward question. When i refer to the Mind (not the Brain), would Catholic theologians and philosophers identify that with the Soul?

Or is the Soul something completely different?
 
Well, yes and no. It sort of depends.

According to the most-accepted Catholic philosophers, there are different levels of “soul.” There is the animating principle that just converts matter into something living, like a blade of grass. There is the level of soul that enables one to receive sense impressions, like a worm has. This goes up to the intellective soul, which enables one to ponder, deliberate, choose, think on abstract principles. This type of soul makes you a person rather than a thing. This is a human soul, or a rational soul. How close some other creatures are to having such a soul, I personally am not sure. Being a person gives something certain rights, which is why I eat chicken eggs, but am completely against embryonic stem-cell research.

It seems that only this last type of soul would be what we call a “mind.” So I guess for humans the intellective mind and rational soul are pretty much the same thing: it is the non-physical part of a human, that which MAKES one a human and provides the form for the human embodiment.
 
TheAtheist said:
Straightforward question. When i refer to the Mind (not the Brain), would Catholic theologians and philosophers identify that with the Soul?

Or is the Soul something completely different?
Click to expand...
The mind isn’t identified with the soul, but is considered to be one of the faculties of the soul. The faculties of the spiritual soul are commonly considered to be intellect and will. By use of the intellectual faculty, the soul can extrapolate the essence of an idea from the material (name removed by moderator)ut that accompanied it through the sensory system. In other words, it can know. By the faculy of will, the soul can decide, or love, or hate.
 
JimG said:
The mind isn’t identified with the soul, but is considered to be one of the faculties of the soul. The faculties of the spiritual soul are commonly considered to be intellect and will. By use of the intellectual faculty, the soul can extrapolate the essence of an idea from the material (name removed by moderator)ut that accompanied it through the sensory system. In other words, it can know. By the faculy of will, the soul can decide, or love, or hate.
Click to expand...
Good answer—more precise than mine.
 
*Thomistic Psychology *by Robert Brennan. But it’s a little hard to find, so any good study of Aquinas will usually have a section on the soul or the “Treatise on Man.” But I agree with the previous poster: the intellective powers of the mind are a feature of the soul, but not completely the soul. They are both, however, considered to be non-material by most Christians.
 
Avoid: Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature by Robert Pasnau. Not reliable.
 
You might try Philosophical Psychology, by J. F. Donceel.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read it, but it’s still around in paperback.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top