Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:12:07.937Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - The Ontology of Mental Human Acts

from Part III - Act Hylomorphism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2021

Can Laurens Löwe
Affiliation:
Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities ‘Human Abilities’, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin
Get access

Summary

This chapter applies the hylomorphic framework to the second general type of human act that Aquinas countenances, namely, mental human acts. In keeping with the general hylomorphic account, it argues that a mental human act is a composite of a volitional act of use and a mental commanded act. There are various mental powers that we can exercise at will, Aquinas thinks, including memory and the intellect. Aquinas’s most detailed account of a mental act performed at will concerns the act of “reminiscing,” by which Aquinas understands the deliberate attempt to retrieve a piece of information that has fallen from memory. The chapter argues that, in this human act, the component of use and the commanded component, which is an exercise of the power of memory, are both immanent. However, like the components of the bodily human act, they differ in their temporal unfolding. Use is intrinsically instantaneous, whereas the act of memory that it causes is temporally extended. The last section of this chapter considers Aquinas’s view that mental agency can be impeded by obstacles internal to the agent, such as mental illness.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×