Soul (Scholastic)
Soul (Scholastic)
With few exceptions (e.g., Tertullian) already the Fathers were agreed that the soul is a simple spiritual substance. Some held that it derived from the souls of the parents (Traducianism), others that it is created individually by God (Creationism), the latter view being generally accepted and made an article of faith. Regarding the union with the body, the early Middle-Ages, following St. Augustine, professed a modified Platonic Dualismthe body is a substance in itself to which the soul is added and with which it enters a more or less accidental union. With the revival of Aristoteleanism, the hylemorphic theory became generalthe soul is the substantial form of the body, the only origin of all vital and mental performances, there is no other form besides. This strictly Aristotelian-Thomistic view has been modified by later Scholastics who assume the existence of a forma corporeitatis distinct from the soul. (See Form) — The soul is simple but not devoid of accidents; the “faculties” (q.v.) are its proper accidents; every experience adds an accidental form to the soul. Though a substance in itself, the soul is naturally ordained towards a body; separated, it is an “incomplete” substance. It is created in respect to the body it will inform, so that the inheritance of bodily features and of mental characteristics insofar as they depend on organic functions is safeguarded. — As a simple and spiritual substance, the soul is immortal. It is not the total human nature, since person is the composite of niatter informed by the soul. — Animals and plants too have souls, the former a sensitive, the latter a vegetative soul, which function as the principles of life. These souls are perishable, they too are substantial forms. The human soul contains all the powers of the two other souls and is the origin of the vegetative and sensitive performances in man. — R.A.