Corporate Spirituality, Anthropogenesis, Corporeality, and Death

Posted on Nov 29, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

ITEM 7: Corporate and Spirituality of Men

7.1 Unity and Duality of Man

  • Materialistic/Mechanistic Posture (Monism): The human being is uniquely and exclusively made up of matter. We are more complex than other beings, but still just matter.
  • Dualistic Stances: Man is not only matter.
    • Accidental Union (Plato, Descartes): Two elements are together, but each maintains its entity and identity. Three substances exist:
      • Res cogitans (soul)
      • Res extensa (matter/body)
      • Res infinite (God)
    • Substantial Union (Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas): Body and soul form one substantial being. For Aristotle, body and soul are essential principles of man:
      • Body
      • Psyche/Soul/Spiritual/I

7.2 Anthropogenesis and Biogenesis

Fact of Evolution:

  • Scientific developments: Evolution is an empirically supported theory.
  • Material evolution: A hypothesis stating everything arises from the evolution of matter by chance. Assuming matter’s eternity is philosophically absurd, and empirically meaningless, as matter has an end point.
  • Creationism: A speculative theory affirming creation by a higher being.

Explanations:

  • Finalism (Causation): Evolution is an orderly process with an efficient cause; finalism implies causality, not just chance.
  • Chance: Absence of a known cause. It doesn’t mean causelessness, but rather our ignorance of the cause.
    • Natural Selection
    • Synthetic Theory (genetic mutations + natural selection)

7.3 Human Corporeality and Its Meanings

Do I have a body? Or am I a body? The fact is, I am a body (we are one). The human body expresses a unique person and intimacy.

Basic Claims of Anthropology about Human Corporeality:

  1. The body is an essential principle of man: This implies ethical considerations; the human body deserves respect.
  2. The body is constitutive of human perception: We exist within space-time coordinates.
    1. Allows being, existing, and acting in the world.
    2. It is a principle of individuation.
    3. It expresses and manifests an interior or intimacy.
  3. The body is a limiting principle and instrument of the soul/self: The body is subject to disease, aging, and death. The soul’s activities require the body’s help.

Perspectives on the Study of Embodiment:

  1. Objective Exteriority: Studying the body as an external object (empirical science).
  2. Subjective Intimacy: Each person’s unique experience of their corporeality (phenomenology).
  3. Objective Privacy: Examining the body as objective reality with an intimate interior (philosophy of man).
  4. Subjective Exteriority: Artistic and cultural expressions of corporeality (e.g., painting).

Intelligence develops concepts from sensory images.

7.4 Limitations, Desire for Infinity, and Death as a Philosophical Problem

Intelligence seeks truth (we desire to know everything, but it’s impossible). The pursuit of happiness is natural, but our awareness of death makes perfect happiness unattainable. Man is the only being conscious of death.

What is Death?

  • Biological: Living beings develop, mature, decline, and die. Death also means losing loved ones.
  • Medical: Criteria for determining death have changed (breathing, heartbeat).
  • Philosophical: The separation of body and soul.

We have theoretical and practical awareness of death. Existentialists see death as external; others see it as part of the human condition. Death is related to immortality.

Epicurus sought serenity by eliminating the fear of gods and death: when we are, death is not; when death is, we are not.

TYPES OF IMMORTALITY

METAPHORICAL IMMORTALITY

Immortality through memory and works (e.g., Beethoven’s music, Cervantes’ books).

PANTHEISTIC IMMORTALITY

All reality is divine; the soul merges back into the whole (e.g., the sun).

REINCARNATION

The soul undergoes multiple lives, but without retaining conscious identity.

REAL AND PERSONAL IMMORTALITY

Personal, conscious immortality beyond death’s boundaries.

Evidence for the Soul’s Immortality:

  • Phenomenological Test: Universal consensus; humans across cultures think beyond death (e.g., funeral rites).
  • Psychological Test: Natural desire for happiness, which seeks fulfillment.
  • Moral Test: Natural moral law; we should do good and avoid evil.
  • Metaphysical Test: Subsistence and immateriality of the soul; the soul is a substance.
    • Ente (Being)
    • Substance = essence + being
    • Accidents related to essence + being

Arguments for the Soul’s Existence:

  • Direct Test (Duplex Cognito): The act of thinking reveals the existence of the self.
  • Indirect or Discursive Test: Immaterial effects (e.g., thoughts) imply immaterial causes.

Basic Features of the Soul:

  • Substantial: Exists autonomously (e.g., a board is a substance; green color is an accident).
  • Intangible: Not composed of matter.
  • Simplicity: Results from immateriality; no divisible parts.
  • Uniqueness: The soul is one, despite multiple functions (intellective, sensitive, vegetative).
  • Spirituality: Endowed with intelligence and will.
  • Immortality: Immunity from corruption.