The faculties of the soul are the individual characteristics attributed to a

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

. There have been different attempts to define them over the centuries.

Plato, Aristotle and their followers

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

defined the faculties of the soul in terms of a three-fold division: the intellect (''noûs''), the nobler affections (''thumós''), and the appetites or passions (''epithumetikón'')

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

also made a three-fold division of natural faculties, into vegetative, appetitive and rational elements, though he later distinguished further divisions in the rational faculty, such as the faculty of judgement and that of cleverness (). Islamic philosophers continued his three-fold division; but later Scholastic philosophers defined five groups of faculties: * dunámeis, the "vegetative" faculty (threptikón), concerned with the maintenance and development of organic life * the appetite (oretikón), or the tendency to any good * the faculty of sense perception (aisthetikón) * the "locomotive" faculty (kinetikón), which presides over the various bodily movements * reason (dianoetikón)

Calvin

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

opposed the scholastic philosophers, favoring a two-fold division of the soul, consisting of intellect and of will.

Faculty psychology

The secularisation of the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

produced a

faculty psychology Faculty psychology is the idea that the mind is separated into faculties, or sections, and that each of these faculties are assigned to certain mental tasks. Some examples of the mental tasks assigned to these faculties include judgement, compassion ...

of different but inherent mental powers such as intelligence or memory, distinct (as in Aristotelianism) from the acquired habits.R. Gregory, ''The Oxford Companion to the Mind'' (1987) p. 253-4

References

External links

Neuroscience and Thomas Aquinas
Metaphysics of religion {{metaphysics-stub

Plato, Aristotle and their followers

Calvin

Faculty psychology

See also

References

External links