Philosophy of the Human Person According to Saint Thomas Aquinas

Philosophy of the Human Person is the first semester of a two-part course on anthropology and ethics. This course is a philosophical examination of the nature of the human person according to Saint Thomas Aquinas. The course elucidates Saint Thomas’s key principles, including: (1) the human person as a body–soul composite, and (2) the powers of the soul—vegetative (growth, nourishment, reproduction), sensitive (receiving and responding to sensations), and rational (thinking and freely choosing). Within the sensitive powers, students examine the external and internal senses, the emotions and passions, and locomotion. Within the rational powers, students explore the intellect (the capacity to know truth) and the will (the capacity to choose the good). Ultimately, this study leads to Saint Thomas’s theological understanding of the human person as a rational being capable of knowing and loving the Creator and, therefore, possessing an unsurpassed dignity within the created order.