From Fundamental Particles to Living Beings
THE HYLOMORPHIC DOCTRINE OF PRESENCE BY POWERS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE François F. Savard Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy Faculty of Philosophy Dominican University College 96 Empress Ave. Ottawa, Canada © François Savard, 2010 Acknowledgements I would like to thank, first of all, my thesis directors, Professors Eduardo Andujar and Jean-François Méthot, for their wisdom and patience throughout this project. I would also like to acknowledge Father Lawrence Dewan and the rest of the teaching staff at Dominican University College, along with the Dominican community, for their fine collegial spirit. Special thanks go to Professor Steven Baldner at Saint Francis Xavier University, and Professor Thomas De Koninck at Université Laval, who provided vital encouragement at critical times in the process. Finally, I am grateful for the fraternal encouragement of fellow graduate students, as well as the support of friends and family, without whom this project would not have come to term. Dedication À la mémoire de mon père, Pierre Savard, MSRC (1936-1998). ii ABSTRACT Aristotle’s hylomorphic doctrine of presence by powers, adopted by Thomas Aquinas, states that the substantial forms of the parts of natural wholes are not present in act, but rather by their powers. Over the past century and a half, scholars have attempted to relate this doctrine to experimental scientific knowledge. Major issues include the relation between philosophy and science, the unity or plurality of substantial form, outdated elemental powers, and questions of translation. Building on the work of Jacques Maritain, William Wallace, Terence Nichols and other Thomists, I propose that the mediated inherence of the powers of the soul, as presented by Thomas Aquinas, provides a satisfactory means of applying the doctrine of presence by powers to the contemporary biological, chemical and physical understanding of the human being.
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