Newpower and Habittext2

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Newpower and Habittext2 Power and Habit Matthias Haase (Universität Leipzig) 1. Creatures of habit In the investigation of mind, Hegel complains, habit tends to be “passed over as something contemptible”.1 Of course, no one would deny that we are creatures of habit, in a way. But that fact about us is usually not regarded as the pride of creation. Hegel thinks that this is a mistake. In his Philosophy of Mind, the concept of habit marks the anthropological difference. As the culmination of the chapter on “Anthropology”, with which Hegel begins his investigation of mind, the treatment of habit is supposed to articulate the specific way in which the corporality of a rational animal is its own act, in a sense in which that of a mere animal is not. We are told that a thinking being is a being that gives itself its a nature which, for this reason, is “rightly called a second nature”. (E §410) Even though the talk of rationality as “second nature” has recently become a celebrated slogan in certain quarters, the thesis that having a second nature is distinctive of rational animals tends, in the same quarters, to be passed over. On the received view, the difference is a matter of what, in the course of a normal upbringing, comes to be second nature. After all, dogs can be habituated. Even the lone wolf in its natural habitat does things habitually. There are whole books about it – with entries entitled “eating habits”. Accordingly, it looks like the concept of habit can’t be that through which to understand what the translations of Hegel tend to render as “spirit” and what nowadays is often discussed under the title of the specifically “rational”, “self-conscious” or “autonomous” way of being minded that elevates us over the mere animals – the “brutes” or “beasts”, as the tradition calls them. The contemporary debates in the philosophy of mind tend to be organized around the assumption that if the anthropological difference is to come out as one kind or principle, rather than degree, then the powers characteristic of having a mind in the relevant sense must be shown to differ principally from what gets to be called “mere”, “pure” or “blind habits”. Against this background Hegel’s thesis appears bizarre. What he says might begin to sound less outlandish once one considers the possibility that what is meant 1 See Hegel, E §410. 1 by “Gewohnheit” and rendered in the translations as “habit” might be what Aristotle calls “hexis” and Aquinas translates with “habitus” and about which the latter says that, according to the philosopher’s teaching, neither the brutes nor God have it.2 But, of course, the mere fact that they say it too hardly makes it less strange. In the following I want to argue that this peculiar bit of Aristotelian orthodoxy should be saved from oblivion, since it is an intrinsic part of the proper definition of a rational power – a dynamis metalogue. (((Sadly, it turned out that I will focus on raising the problem to which it should, on another occasion, turn out to be the solution.))) The assumption that the concept of habit doesn’t capture what is distinctive of us is deeply rooted in modern approach to mind. Even Hume for whom it is all just habit would agree that since the “beasts” have habits too, the way in which “men surpasses the animals” doesn’t come into view as long as one just reflects on what it is to be in a habit; one has to look at what we are in the habit to do. Of course, when the line is drawn in the Humean fashion it is not all that elevating. As Hume has it, the bare notion of habit already introduces the concept of reason. We are told the animal’s “actions proceed from a reasoning that is not itself different, nor founded on different principles, from that which appears in human nature.” For: “From the tone of voice the dog infers his master’s anger, and foresees his own punishment.”3 So understood, the words ‘reason’, ‘mind’ or, if you will, ‘spirit’ describe something that can be found throughout the animal kingdom; it is just that some are, as it were, more ‘spirited’ than others. Whether we are considering how the refinement of a thinker exceeds the capacities of “animals” or those of “children” or the “common people” – all the same: it is just a matter of degree.4 Kant rejects this picture of human beings as vulgar. But, on the face of it, he shares Hume’s account of what a habit is. As Kant sees it, another’s habit rightly arouses “disgust in us”, since it is, as it were, like witnessing the brute within breaking through: 2 Aristotle, XX; Aquinas, Summa, XX That unanimity among the three is not an accident. In the introduction to his Philosophy of Mind Hegel claims that De Anima it is “still the only work of speculative interest on this topic” and that the “main aim of a philosophy of mind” must thus be to “make its lessons available again”. (E § 378). 3 David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part III, Section XVI, p. 177. 4 As Hume puts it in famous footnote in the Enquiries, the way “men […] surpasses the animals” is to be understood by first considering the way in which “one man surpasses another”. Once the latter is clear, “the difference between men and animals will be easily comprehended”. For it is difference of the same kind: a matter of degree. See David Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding, Section IX, p. 84 FN 1. 2 Habit (assuetudo) […] is a physical inner necessitation to proceed in the same manner that one has proceeded until now. It deprives even good actions of their moral worth because it impairs the freedom of the mind and, moreover, leads to thoughtless repetition of the very same act (monotony), and so becomes ridiculous. – Habitual fillers (phrases used for the mere filling up of the emptiness of thoughts) make the listener constantly worried that he will have to hear the little sayings yet again, and they turn the speaker into a talking machine. The reason why the habits of another stimulate the arousal of disgust in us is because here the animal in the human being jumps out far too much, and because here one is led instinctively by the rule of habituation, exactly like another (non-human) nature, and so 5 runs the risk of falling into one and the same class with the beast. Kant defines a habit is a mechanism of instinctive repetition that constitutes a “physical inner necessitation”. Given this assumption, the only way to reject Hume’s dictum that “reason is the slave of the passions” is to hold that reason is opposed to habit. A few of pages before the passage just quoted we are told that “virtue” should be entirely free of it: the “adherence to one’s duty […] should never become habit, but always emerge new and original from one’s way of thinking (Denkungsart)”. (BA 36) Excusable exceptions having to do with the frailty of old-age aside, all habits are branded “reprehensible”.6 The common judgment about habit is less austere. We all have some; and it is not that having one necessarily makes one bad person. So it might be agreed that it would be attractive to somehow steer between the two extremes just rehearsed. But why should the peculiar piece of Aristotelian orthodoxy be required for this purpose? One might think that all that is needed to prevent the Aristotelian wisdom that the virtues are acquired through habituation and are thus habits in the ordinary sense of the word from collapsing into Humeanism is a distinction between two species of the genus habit – as John McDowell would put it: the “bit of common sense” that the relevant kind of habituation is not adequately described in terms of “conditioning” or Wittgenstein’s unfortunate wording “Abrichtung”, but is properly characterized with the more tender talk of “Bildung” and “initiation”.7 The kind of habit that is acquired in this way is not exercised in blind, automatic and mechanical repetition; its proper actualization exhibits the appropriate sensitivity to what is called for by the specificities of the situation at hand.8 5 Ibid., BA 40. 6 Kant, Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht, BA 40. 7 See John McDowell, Mind and World, p. 88. 8 Once this picture is on the table it is tempting to think that something along these lines would also be the charitable reading of Kant. After all, what figures in the passage I quoted above under the title of “Denkungsart” is clearly supposed to be something in the order of a hexis or habitus – some 3 What is striking about Hegel’s treatment of habit is that his text resists this way of dissolving the issue. Hegel doesn’t deny that the characterizations that are emphasized when habit is spoken of “disparengingly” are on target. To the contrary, he says himself that a habit is constituted through “repetition”, that it is a kind of “mechanism”, that it is instantiated “without consciousness” and that the “form of habit” is, as such, “open to any accidental content”. (E §410) At the same time we are told that the element so defined is “indispensable for the existence of all intellectual life in the individual” and that it “encompasses all levels of the activity of mind”, including mastery of a language, knowledge, skill and virtue.
Recommended publications
  • Duns Scotus on the Common Nature and the Individual Differentia
    c Peter King, Philosophical Topics 20 (1992), 50–76 DUNS SCOTUS ON THE COMMON NATURE* Introduction COTUS holds that in each individual there is a principle that accounts for its being the very thing it is and a formally S distinct principle that accounts for its being the kind of thing it is; the former is its individual differentia, the latter its common nature.1 These two principles are not on a par: the common nature is prior to the individual differentia, both independent of it and indifferent to it. When the individual differentia is combined with the common nature, the result is a concrete individual that really differs from all else and really agrees with others of the same kind. The individual differentia and the common nature thereby explain what Scotus takes to stand in need of explanation: the indi- viduality of Socrates on the one hand, the commonalities between Socrates * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 26th International Congress on Medieval Studies, sponsored by the Medieval Institute, held at Western Michigan University 9–12 May 1991. All translations are my own. Scotus’s writings may be found in the following editions: (1) Vaticana: Iohannis Duns Scoti Doctoris Subtilis et Mariani opera omnia, ed. P. Carolus Bali¸cet alii, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanae 1950– Vols. I–VII, XVI–XVIII. (2) Wadding-Viv`es: Joannis Duns Scoti Doctoris Subtilis Ordinis Minorum opera omnia, ed. Luke Wadding, Lyon 1639; republished, with only slight alterations, by L. Viv`es,Paris 1891–1895. Vols. I–XXVI. References are to the Vatican edition wherever possible, to the Wadding-Viv`esedition otherwise.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St
    University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 4-16-2012 Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Krista, Hyde Dawn, "Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife" (2012). Theses. 261. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/261 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Krista Hyde M.L.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 2010 B.A., Philosophy, Southeast Missouri State University – Cape Girardeau, 2003 A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy April 2012 Advisory Committee Gualtiero Piccinini, Ph.D. Chair Jon McGinnis, Ph.D. John Brunero, Ph.D. Copyright, Krista Hyde, 2012 Abstract Thomas Aquinas nearly succeeds in addressing the persistent problem of the mind-body relationship by redefining the human being as a body-soul (matter-form) composite. This redefinition makes the interaction problem of substance dualism inapplicable, because there is no soul “in” a body. However, he works around the mind- body problem only by sacrificing an immaterial afterlife, as well as the identity and separability of the soul after death. Additionally, Thomistic psychology has difficulty accounting for the transmission of universals, nor does it seem able to overcome the arguments for causal closure.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemplation and the Human Animal in the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2011 Contemplation and the Human Animal in the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas Edyta M. Imai Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Imai, Edyta M., "Contemplation and the Human Animal in the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas" (2011). Dissertations. 205. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/205 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2011 Edyta M. Imai LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO CONTEMPLATION AND THE HUMAN ANIMAL IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY BY EDYTA M. IMAI CHICAGO IL DECEMBER 2011 Copyright by Edyta M. Imai, 2011 All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: CONTEMPLATION AND NATURAL APPETITES 30 CHAPTER TWO: SENSATION AND CONTEMPLATION 104 CHAPTER THREE: DESIRE AND CONTEMPLATION 166 CHAPTER FOUR: DELIGHT AND CONTEMPLATION 230 BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 VITA 303 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ST Summa theologiae SCG Summa contra gentiles QDV Quaestiones disputatae de veritate QDA Quaestiones disputatae de anima In Boetii de Trin. In Librum Boetii de Trinitate Expositio In DA Sententia libri De anima In NE Sententia libri Ethicorum In Met Commentarium in XII libros Metaphysicorum In Ph Commentarium in VIII libros Physicorum SENT Commentarium in quatuor libros Sententiarum iv INTRODUCTION In this dissertation I examine the manner in which – according to Thomas Aquinas - the operations of the sensitive soul contribute to contemplation.
    [Show full text]
  • Redalyc.Imagination in Avicenna and Kant
    Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía ISSN: 0188-6649 [email protected] Universidad Panamericana México Bäck, Allan Imagination in Avicenna and Kant Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía, núm. 29, 2005, pp. 101-130 Universidad Panamericana Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=323027318006 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Imagination in Avicenna and Kant Allan Back Kutztown University The intellect thinks time in the now^ In comparing the views of Avicenna and Kant on the imagination, we find a striking congnience of doctrine, Kant's doctrines of the syntheses of the imagination in his Transcendental Deduction (both A and B) have remarkable similarities with Avicerma's views. For both Avicenna and Kant, the imagination serves to connect the phenomenal and the noumenal. At the least this comparison has the dual use of placing Kant's doctrines in the context of the Aristotelian tradition and of illuminatiiig the modem r significance of the thought of Avicenna, Since Kant's thought is more familiar to us than Avicenna's (although perhaps not as evident in itself), we can use Kant also to help us understand the claims of Avicenna, On the other hand, tliis comparison may help to support the claim that an understanding of Kant lies to a large extent in his medieval and post-medieval roots -just as Copernicus, in his own "Copemican revolution", was following certain earlier traditions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Univocity of Substance and the Formal Distinction of Attributes: the Role of Duns Scotus in Deleuze's Reading of Spinoza Nathan Widder
    parrhesia 33 · 2020 · 150-176 the univocity of substance and the formal distinction of attributes: the role of duns scotus in deleuze's reading of spinoza nathan widder This paper examines the role played by medieval theologian John Duns Scotus in Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of expressive substance; more generally, it elaborates a crucial moment in the development of Deleuze’s philosophy of sense and difference. Deleuze contends that Spinoza adapts and extends Duns Scotus’s two most influential theses, the univocity of being and formal distinction, despite neither appearing explicitly in Spinoza’s writings. “It takes nothing away from Spinoza’s originality,” Deleuze declares, “to place him in a perspective that may already be found in Duns Scotus” (Deleuze, 1992, 49).1 Nevertheless, the historiographic evidence is clearly lacking, leaving Deleuze to admit that “it is hardly likely that” Spinoza had even read Duns Scotus (359n28). Indeed, the only support he musters for his speculation is Spinoza’s obvious in- terests in scholastic metaphysical and logical treatises, the “probable influence” of the Scotist-informed Franciscan priest Juan de Prado on his thought, and the fact that the problems Duns Scotus addresses need not be confined to Christian thought (359–360n28). The paucity of evidence supporting this “use and abuse” of history, however, does not necessarily defeat the thesis. Like other lineages Deleuze proposes, the one he traces from Duns Scotus to Spinoza, and subsequently to Nietzsche, turns not on establishing intentional references by one thinker to his predecessor, but instead on showing how the borrowings and adaptations asserted to create the connec- tion make sense of the way the second philosopher surmounts blockages he faces while responding to issues left unaddressed by the first.
    [Show full text]
  • Essentially Rational Animals
    Essentially Rational Animals The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Boyle, Matthew. Forthcoming. Essentially rational animals. In Rethinking epistemology, ed. Guenther Abel and James Conant. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Grutyer. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:8641838 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Essentially Rational Animals Matthew Boyle, Harvard University —Forthcoming in Rethinking Epistemology, ed. G. Abel and J. Conant— One may call this whole disposition of the human being’s powers whatever one likes: understanding, reason, awareness, etc. It is indifferent to me, so long as one does not assume these terms to name discrete powers or mere increased levels of the animal powers. It is the whole organization of all human powers; the whole domestic economy of his sensing and cognizing, his cognizing and willing nature… The difference is not in levels or the addition of powers, but in a quite different sort of orientation and unfolding of all powers. J. G. Herder, Treatise on the Origin of Languages I, §2 (2002, pp. 82-3) 1. Introduction 1.1 According to a tradition reaching back at least as far as Aristotle, human beings are set apart from other terrestrial creatures by their rationality. Other animals, according to this tradition, are capable of sensation and appetite, but they are not capable of thought, the kind of activity characteristic of the rational part of the soul.
    [Show full text]
  • John Duns Scotus's Metaphysics of Goodness
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 11-16-2015 John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13th-Century Metaethics Jeffrey W. Steele University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Medieval History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Scholar Commons Citation Steele, Jeffrey W., "John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13th-Century Metaethics" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6029 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13 th -Century Metaethics by Jeffrey Steele A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Thomas Williams, Ph.D. Roger Ariew, Ph.D. Colin Heydt, Ph.D. Joanne Waugh, Ph.D Date of Approval: November 12, 2015 Keywords: Medieval Philosophy, Transcendentals, Being, Aquinas Copyright © 2015, Jeffrey Steele DEDICATION To the wife of my youth, who with patience and long-suffering endured much so that I might gain a little knowledge. And to God, fons de bonitatis . She encouraged me; he sustained me. Both have blessed me. “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!!” --Psalm 34:8 “You are the boundless good, communicating your rays of goodness so generously, and as the most lovable being of all, every single being in its own way returns to you as its ultimate end.” –John Duns Scotus, De Primo Principio Soli Deo Gloria .
    [Show full text]
  • Avicenna's Flying Man Argument
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association () – © American Philosophical Association DOI:./apa.. The Thought Experimental Method: Avicenna’s Flying Man Argument* ABSTRACT: No argument from the Arabic philosophical tradition has received more scholarly attention than Avicenna’s ‘flying man’ thought experiment, in which a human is created out of thin air and is able to grasp his existence without grasping that he has a body. This paper offers a new interpretation of the version of this thought experiment found at the end of the first chapter of Avicenna’s treatment of soul in the Healing. We argue that it needs to be understood in light of an epistemological theory set out elsewhere by Avicenna, which allows that all the constitutive properties of an essence will be clear to someone who understands and considers that essence. On our reading, this theory is put to work in the ‘flying man’: because the flying man would grasp that his own essence has existence without grasping that he has a body, connection to body cannot be constitutive of the essence. KEYWORDS: Avicenna, self-awareness, dualism, essentialism, Islamic philosophy No argument from the Arabic philosophical tradition has received more scholarly attention than Avicenna’s ‘flying man’ thought experiment. It has recently been hailed as a major contribution to the theory of self-awareness (Kaukua : ch.), and in the past it has been compared to Descartes’s cogito argument. Though Avicenna alludes to the argument several times in his works (see the list in Hasse : –), the passage on which most scholarship has focused—and on which we will likewise concentrate here—is to be found on the last page of the first chapter of Avicenna’s() treatment of soul in his Healing (al-Shifāʾ) – we will subsequently refer to this section of the Healing as On the Soul.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Maimonides' Ideal Person Austerely Rationalist?
    Is Maimonides’ Ideal Person Austerely Rationalist? by Menachem Kellner Abstract: Maimonides is regularly thought to have seen the ideal human as nothing more than a rational animal. In this essay I show that this picture of Maimonides is insufficiently nuanced and reflects a notion of intellectualism thinner and more pallid than that actually held by him. But first I adduce evidence for the standard view from Maimonides’ positions on perfected and imperfected human beings, and from his discussions of immortality, morality, providence, prophecy, and the distinction between humans and animals. Maimonides’ universalism and his messianic vision are also shown to reflect his intellectualism. In the second half of the essay I argue that Maimonides holds that knowledge is transformative. Through an analysis of his discussions of human perfection, prophecy, and love of God, it is shown that learning carried out properly transforms the learner into a new kind of person. aimonides is regularly thought to have seen the ideal human in purely and austerely intellectualist terms, as nothing more M than a rational animal. In this essay I plan to show that this picture of Maimonides is insufficiently nuanced, reflecting a notion of in- tellectualism thinner and more pallid than that actually held by him.1 But this position is often attributed to him because Maimonides seems to adopt a view (held afterwards explicitly by Gersonides) according to which that which makes us human, and in consequence that which survives our deaths, is only what we know.2 On this view, the human subject counts for nothing, 1I would like to thank Jolene Kellner for first posing the question that prompted the writing of this essay.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue Itself
    THE GREAT IDEAS ONLINE Mar ‘15 Philosophy is Everybody’s Business No 811 THE UNIQUENESS OF MAN Mortimer Adler In The Descent of Man Darwin says, “The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.” n this concluding discussion on Man I want to sum up and assess I not only the evidence on both sides of the question but also the importance of the issue itself. Last time I began by reporting to you the experimental evidence in regard to animal intelligence, especially the perceptual insight of the chimpanzee. And to demonstrate some of the experiments that Köhler did with chimpanzees, I showed you how a chimpanzee made a crude tool to fetch bananas by fitting together two bamboo sticks to make a longer one. And as a matter of fact, I fumbled do- ing this last time and someone who saw the show told me during the week that I had fumbled and didn’t do it as well as the chim- panzee. Well, it’s hard to be an intelligent chimpanzee. And though I practiced, I didn’t quite succeed. 2 Then I went on to present the evidence to support the conception of man as distinct in kind from other animals on the ground that man and man alone is rational. I presented this evidence under three main heads. Let me remind you of what those were: first, that only humans make artistically; second, that only humans think discur- sively; and third, that only humans associate politically.
    [Show full text]
  • Being Towards Aristotle? Heidegger's Implicit Presupposition of Aristotle's Concepts of the Human Being in Being and Time
    Noesis¯ Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy Vol. 19, no. 1, 2018, pp. 11-23. NOESIS¯ XIX BEING TOWARDS ARISTOTLE? HEIDEGGER’S IMPLICIT PRESUPPOSITION OF ARISTOTLE’S CONCEPTS OF THE HUMAN BEING IN BEING AND TIME THOMAS BENSTEAD Richard Rorty hails Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time as “pow- erful and original”: the author of this paper seeks to scrutinize the latter claim. Heidegger starts his chef-d’oeuvre by aiming to dis- tance himself from the ontology of prior philosophers, and so he investigates the Question of Being through “Dasein.” The author argues that Heidegger’s concept of “Dasein” presupposes within itself the concept of Aristotle’s “Rational Animal,” which accord- ingly prevents Heidegger from actually separating his ontology from prior ontologies. The author’s assertion of a presupposition of “Rational Animal” within “Dasein” is supported not only by Heidegger’s familiarity with Aristotelian thought, but also that the key feature of “Dasein” (i.e. inquiry) necessitates a sort of ratio- nal capacity. Moreover, the author seeks to demonstrate that the presupposition of “Rational Animal” within “Dasein” results in a sustained Aristotelian influence within Heidegger’s work, such that Heidegger’s concept of the “They” resembles Aristotle’s “Po- litical Animal.” Key Words: Heidegger, Aristotle, Dasein, rational animal, political animal, inquiry 1 INTRODUCTION In Heidegger’s Being and Time, he aims to create an ontology separate from the ontologies of Plato and Aristotle in order to answer the question of Being: he examines the nature of Being from the perspective of “Dasein” (i.e. the hu- man being). I will demonstrate that in doing so, Heidegger implicitly presup- poses the Aristotelian concepts of the human being within his work, meaning 12 Being Towards Aristotle? that he does not actually establish an ontology separate from prior ontologies as he aims to do.
    [Show full text]
  • Incarnate Spirit Proper Lhomistic DeNition of the Human Being Or Merely a Description of the Human Soul?
    JAMES CAPEHART Incarnate Spirit Proper lhomistic Denition of the Human Being or Merely a Description of the Human Soul? 'gkz What a creature is man! He is spirit and matter together. He is not an imprisoned angel; he is by nature an incarnate spirit. This is the fact to ex plainwithout changing it and without explaining it away. But the more we are true to the fact of man as an incarnate spirit, to the fact of a subsis- tent and spiritual soul which is yet by nature a part ofman, the more we are driven to ask the why of such a being. And we are equally driven to exclude as impossible all explanations of man which render the facts impossible. What is, is possible; and man is. And because man is an observable reality, he poses the problem of the unity of his being and of his nature.1 As the great Thomistic philosopher Anton C. Pegis gives poetic testi- mony to in the above quotation, the nature of the human being is an awe inspiring mystery. Unlike the brute animals, human beings have a soul which subsists in its own right after death. The soul is indeed a spirit. How- ever, outside of anthropological poetry and hyperbolic rhetoric, is it justi- liable to call the whole human being a spirit, or even to dene it as an Incar nate Spirit? Furthermore, is it justiable to claim that St. Thomas Aquinas held to the defensibility of such a predication? In the following account, I hope to show that the answers to both ques tions are resoundineg in the negative.
    [Show full text]