St.

Thomas
Aquinas
Group II
Magculang M.
Franco K.
Hornilia A.
Reyes H.
Bangsal C.
Taguinod T.
Destajo H.
Bayas J.
Gonzalvo C.
Marasigan, M. R.
Roldan D.
Abis N.

Faculty of Arts and Letters,

University of Santo Tomas.
Introduction
 Aquinas followed Aristotle’s main line
that the soul is not a body but an act
or property of the body
 He also wrote the Summa
Theologica, where he quotes some
authority from the bible, the church
fathers, and/or Aristotle for his own
position, and gives philosophical
arguments for it.
 The soul is an act of the
body
 SOUL – defined as the principle of life in those
things which we live
 ANIMATE (SOULED) – living things
 INANIMATE (SOULLESS) – things which have no
life
 Two actions where life is shown: KNOWLEDGE
and MOVEMENT
 Philosophers of the old who are not imaginative
thought that ACTIONS are something
CORPOREAL (physical/material)
 They also claim that only BODIES were REAL
things
 They also say that what is not corporeal is
NOTHING so they maintained the SOUL is
 This opinion is proved FALSE
 Based on the universal and certain principles, the
soul is NOT a body
 Not every principle of vital action is a soul
 First principle of life is called SOUL
 Nothing corporeal can be the first principle of life
 To be a living thing or to be a principle of life does
not belong to a body since if that will be the case
everything corporeal would be a living thing or a
principle of life as such a body
 Body- owed some principle which is called ACT
 Therefore, soul which is the first principle of life is
not a body but the ACT of the body
 Summa Theologica:
 The Soul is not a body, but an act or
property of the body.
 Intellectual principle is “self-subsistent”
could, like Plato’s soul, exist apart from
the body.
 Resurrection of individual people-since
future life is necessary if true and
complete happiness is to be possible.
 Resurrected body is the SAME PERSON as
he died-resurrection consists in joining the
same separated soul to the same body.
 BUT!!! It can exist
separately
 intellectual operation (Soul) is both
incorporeal and subsistent
 everybody has a determinate nature
 the intellectual principle has an
operation apart from the body
 only a self-subsisting thing can have
an operation of its own
The freedom of the will
 MAN HAS FREE WILL
 having such freedom of the will (free
will) makes man different and
distinct from other beings and things
 *Act without judgment
 Lack of knowledge of the thing, itself
(pertaining to non-living things)
Act from judgment
 a. Not a free judgment
 acting from natural judgment
 not from reason
 from natural instinct
(pertaining to brutes; animals)
 b. free judgment
 through apprehensive power
 not from natural instinct
 from reason
(pertaining to man as a rational
animal)
 HUMAN ACTIONS
 ACTIONS DONE BY MAN
 PROPER TO MAN AS MAN
 makes man distinct from irrational
animals
 man is the master of his actions
 free will as the faculty of will and
reason
(must be directed towards an end
which is good)
CONCLUSION- On the freedom
of the will
According to St Thomas Aquinas,
every man has his own free will
which makes him higher and distinct
from other things. The actions that
are the products of man's free will is
called Human Actions that which are
proper to man as man. Through the
faculty of will and reason, man is
evidently rational.  Since, human
actions are caused by the power of
 The Purpose of the
Human Life
 Happiness: man’s last end (St.
Agustine)
 Aspect of last end
 Thing which the aspect of last end is
realized
 End is twofold:
 End for which-thing itself in which is
found the aspect of good.
 End by which-use or acquisition of that
thing.
 Happiness is not possible for animals
bereft of reason (St. Agustine)
 Man and other rational creatures
attain to their last end by knowing
and loving God.

 Twofold consideration of happiness:

 General notion of happiness.
 Consideration of the specific nature of
happiness.
 Only a certain participation of
Happiness can be had in this life: but
perfect and true happiness cannot be
had in this life.
 Happiness is a perfect and sufficient
good, it excludes every evil – but in this
life, every evil cannot be excluded.
 The specific form of happiness cannot
be obtained. Therefore, none can attain
true and perfect happiness in this life.
 The Resurrection of the
Body
 Whom I myself shall see . . . and not
another. (Job. Xix. 27)
 Augustine (De Trin. vii. 5), “to rise again
is naught else but to live again”
 THE END!

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