Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Human Act

Can Laurens Loewe

Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Human Act
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
24 August 2023
Pages
239
ISBN
9781108986533

Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Human Act

Can Laurens Loewe

This book offers a novel account of Aquinas's theory of the human act. It argues that Aquinas takes a human act to be a composite of two power-exercises, where one relates to the other as form to matter. The formal component is an act of the will, and the material component is a power-exercise caused by the will, which Aquinas refers to as the 'commanded act.' The book also argues that Aquinas conceptualizes the act of free choice as a hylomorphic composite: it is, materially, an act of the will, but it inherits a form from reason. As the book aims to show, the core idea of Aquinas's hylomorphic action theory is that the exercise of one power can structure the exercise of another power, and this provides a helpful way to think of the presence of cognition in conation and of intention in bodily movement.

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