THE DEFINITION OF THE HUMAN SOUL IN THE "COMMENTARY ON THE SENTENCES OF PETER LOMBARD" BY PETER OF TARANTASIA, O.P
Abstract
Peter's main work is his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Peter was well acquainted with the Church Patrology, the Greek and Arabian philosophers and his contemporaries' opinions. His Commentary depends primarily on similar works of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. A master's commentary on the Sentences often-times served not only to elaborate the Lombardian text; it was used also as a springboard for other philosophical issues which were surfacing with the introduction of certain Aristotelian works in Western Europe. One of these issues concerns the human soul. Although Peter deals with the human soul, he fails to define it. The task of this thesis, then, is to construct from his work an adequate definition of the human rational soul. This dissertation has two parts: historical and doctrinal. The historical section deals with Peter's life, Commentary and the denounced propositions. The doctrinal part analyzes the human soul. The nature of the human soul is discovered by examining the soul's immaterial powers. Peter holds (1) man is not a pure intelligence, (2) a human being is composed of a rational soul and a material body, and (3) the body is a natural instrument of the human soul because it is through this soul that the body is human, and sanitas spiritualis sit causa sanitatis corporalis. In his philosophical anthropology Peter extols man's natural gifts; in his theological anthropology he emphasizes man's spiritual dimension. Peter is fairly systematic in his exposition concerning the psychological, philosophical and theological issues of man. When Peter's main sources disagreed among themselves, he often avoided the issue, since his aim was to present truth and not to defeat error. Peter presents a doctrine of the human soul in the traditional Christian philosophy of the Middle Ages.
Recommended Citation
BUTTIGIEG, EMANUEL CARMEL, "THE DEFINITION OF THE HUMAN SOUL IN THE "COMMENTARY ON THE SENTENCES OF PETER LOMBARD" BY PETER OF TARANTASIA, O.P" (1984). Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI8422817.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI8422817