Is There Dualism in Man's Ontic Structure? (St. Thomas Aquinas' Standpoint)

Abstract

From the very beginning European philosophical thought seems to be intuitively aware that man consists of two components: a material and a spiritual one. As a consequence of this arises the problem of the „double-ness” of human nature, a question which has lately been lively discussed in philosophical works. On the one hand, man as such seems not to be divided into a material soul and an immaterial body, but on the other hand he transcends the material world and the laws it is ruled by. That is why man is supposed to have something apart from his material body, viz. an immaterial soul. Taking a limited view neither materialists nor spiritualists need to defend the inner unity of man. Thus they think that man is either a material body and nothing more, or a spiritual body and nothing more. Nevertheless, dealing with philosophical works we cannot help observing time and again that conclusions derived from material or spiritual theories are, like it or not, simplifications. − Is dualism the only way to avoid oversimplifying the nature of man? The answer Thomas Aquinas gives us sets out from a view of man reduceable neither to dualism, nor materialism, nor spiritualism. Man is a soul existing in itself as in a subject. The soul is depending on the matter it organizes in its action. Soul and matter constitute a substantial and real unity. Thomas Aquinas' standpoint is not based on prejudices which would make it difficult to create an adequate theory of the real being. Soul and body are not different substances, neither are they mere features. They are realized by one and the same act of existence within essentially one being. To explain man's unity and transcendence of the material world a substructural theory has to be applied. Substructural elements − as e.g. essence, existence, form, matter, act or potence − and their mutual relationships must be taken into account. No other way to successfully explain such a complicated being as man seems to be has yet been discovered.