HISTORY AND SYSTEMS CIA 3B

Done By- Mukul Adhikari(1633207)

Rajat R Rao(1633211)Shivaashish Sabesan(1633212)

Kirti Doshi(1633241)Mehar Mutchall(1633247)

Vrinda Dimri(1633279)

THOMAS AQUINAS

St. Thomas Aquinas is considered a great contributor to psychology with his focus on the reconciliation of supernaturalism with rationalism. In addition to being a great scholar, Aquinas was also a Christian saint. It is reported that his sermons were marked by simplicity and sobriety. St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican theologian. He studied at the University of Naples (1239-1244) in liberal arts. He then joined the Dominican Order in (1244). He went to Paris to study under Albertus Magnus, commonly called Albert the Great. Thomas also began to study at the University of Paris and began his career as a teacher. He received a Bachelor's degree in Theology from the University of Paris in 1256.

It is reported that Aquinas was even smarter than his teacher, Albert the Great. His intellectual output was incredible. He wrote and published many articles, commentaries and treatises, including commentaries on the Bible, and on the work and views of Aristotle.

Other works written by Aquinas include: "On Being and Essence," "Principles of Nature," "On Power," "On Evil," "On the Unity of the Intellect," "On the Eternity of the World," "On Truth," "Commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius," “Quodlilbets."His most famous works are the "Summa Contra Gentiles," or the summation of learning, where he thinks through the wisdom of the Greek world; and the "Summa Theologiae," which represents his mature views with a heavy emphasis on moral theology. His summa theologiae was an attempt to show what the world looked like to God.

Between 1261 and 1264, Aquinas wrote the "Summa Contra Gentiles." The treatise was designed for use in the church's missionary workThe Summa Contra Gentiles talks about faith and reason. a key point that Aquinas makes in the 4 Books is that faith has nothing to fear from reason. In Book I: Of God As He Is In Himself, he discusses such subjects as the function of the wise man, the nature of good and evil, the nature of truth and knowledge, the nature of love and happiness. In Book II: God The Origin of Creatures, he discusses such subjects as the nature of free will, wisdom, subsistent intelligences, the intellectual soul, the mind of Aristotle, the immortality of the human soul, the souls of animals, and more. In Book III: God The End of Creatures, he discusses such subjects as divine goodness, human happiness, pure and created intelligence, the motion of the will, the nature of miracles, guidelines for men, the institution of marriage, human sexuality, punishment, and more. In Book IV: Of God In His Revelation, he discusses such subjects as sin and immortality, among other subjects.

Theology can be interpreted as teaching from divine revelation. Reality comes from revelation. Theology for Aquinas is a faith-based opportunity. For Aquinas, theology is also an act of love and pulls everything together in the context of God. He believed that theology is the noblest of the sciences because of the worth of its subject matter. In the Summa, he states that "the knowledge that we arrive at from the evidence of our senses is not enough to know the essence of God, but what we sense does come from God and this permits us to know that He exists" (Aquinas, 1266, First Part, Q.12). He said often that the reason for his writing was to understand and know more of what the world must have looked like to God. Therefore, this was the purpose of the Summa.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN THE WORK OF AQUINAS

1.NOUS: The Immortal Soul

Nous, or active reason is a primary feature of Aquinas's view of the individual in general and relative to psychology in particular. Nous was capable of a separate existence. Therefore, it was considered to be the counterpart of Aristotle's immortal soul. Aquinas followed Aristotle in much of his psychology.

SOUL AND BODYHuman beings have one substantial form - the rational soul. The individual is neither soul or body alone, but a united or composite substance. The person is a unity, and this rational soul encompasses the vegetative and sensitive functions. The rational soul is united and operates as a totality to carry on its natural functions.

Aquinas believed that the soul is neither imprisoned in the body or carrying out a sentence of punishment. It resides in the body because this is natural and good. Its union with the body is not to the detriment of the soul but to its enrichment. The soul completes human nature and confers the incidental benefit of allowing the achievement of knowledge through the senses

SOUL AND ITS FACULTIESThe soul consists of faculties: the rational faculty, the sensitive faculty and the nutritive faculty.

The rational faculty is higher than the sensitive faculty and the sensitive faculty is higher than the nutritive faculty.

The interior sense pertains to operations at the level of sensitive life and to psychological functioning not involving reason. This sense includes estimative powers for animals and cognitive powers for humans. Animals are dependent on it because they can not reason. Humans us it through their instinctive estimating because they can reason. This sense in humans leads to imagination and sensory memory.

The senses also involve appetites or emotions. Aquinas indicates that the power of appetite is twofold and involves sensitive appetite at the sensitive level and volition or will at the rational level. Sensitive appetite desires objects that are sensed. The two major kinds of sensitive appetites are: 1) the concupiscible, because they desire the objects of sensible pleasure, and 2) the irascible, whose function is to urge a fight for the objects in questions when there are difficulties securing them. The concupiscible emotions include love, desire, joy, hatred, aversion, and sorrow. The irascible includes, hope, despair, courage, fear, and anger. Aquinas calls the act of a sensitive appetite a passion.

Aquinas also attempted to describe free will. He says that it arises from freedom of the intellect. For him free choice is free judgment. Free will is evidenced in voluntary activities about which judgments are made. We desire happiness, which is found in the good, by our very nature, proceeding from the will. The desire comes from the will itself and is not imposed on us from without, as is the case of violence. Aquinas believes that we can not help desiring because we are the creatures that we are. In comparing intellect and will, Aquinas believes that will is subordinate and intellect is dominant.

Aquinas also attempted to describe free will. He says that it arises from freedom of the intellect. For him free choice is free judgment. Free will is evidenced in voluntary activities about which judgments are made. We desire happiness, which is found in the good, by our very nature, proceeding from the will. The desire comes from the will itself and is not imposed on us from without, as is the case of violence. Aquinas believes that we can not help desiring because we are the creatures that we are. In comparing intellect and will, Aquinas believes that will is subordinate and intellect is dominant.

According to Aquinas, sense experience provides the stimulus for setting into operation the "agens intellectus - the fact that human beings alone possess the power of abstraction. He believed that for any person possessing the ability for abstract thinking was an act of God. Therefore, the intellectual process resulting from abstraction becomes an aspect of revelation. Aquinas also believed, similar to John Locke, that prior to man having sensory experience the possible intellect is like a "tabula rasa," a blank slate, devoid of ideas.