The faculties of the soul are the individual characteristics attributed to a
soul
The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
. There have been different attempts to define them over the centuries.
Plato, Aristotle and their followers
Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
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 (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
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 (; ; ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French Christian theology, theologian, pastor and Protestant Reformers, reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of C ...
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 (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...
produced a
faculty psychology Faculty psychology is the idea that the mind is separated into faculties or sections, and that each of these faculties is assigned to certain mental tasks. Some examples of the mental tasks assigned to these faculties include judgment, compassion, m ...
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]
See also
*
'Aql (rational faculty in Islamic philosophy)
*
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Alan Fodor ( ; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modularity of min ...
*
Phrenology
Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the Human brain, brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific ...
*
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
*
Rational animal
The term rational animal (Latin: ''animal rationale'' or ''animal rationabile'') refers to a classical definition of humanity or human nature, associated with Aristotelianism.
History
While the Latin term itself originates in scholasticism, it r ...
*
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.
In philosophy, Thomas's disputed ques ...
*
Trichotomy
References
External links
Neuroscience and Thomas Aquinas
Metaphysics of religion
Souls
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