Università Roma Tre

The class will focus on the notions of soul, intellect, and body in medieval and late medieval thought, and particularly on the discontinuity/continuity with the Cartesian mind-body dualism. The course will address the accounts of Thomas Aquinas, Sigier of Brabant, Duns Scotus, and Francisco Suárez, whose views and doctrines will be analyzed in light of their metaphysical/theological premises and analyzing their texts.

Selected texts by Thomas Aquinas, Siger of Brabant, Duns Scotus and Francisco Suárez
• S. Guidi, L’angelo e la macchina. Sulla genesi della res cogitans cartesiana, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2018 (just chapters 1-2, pp. 41-214).
• M. Lenzi, Alberto e Tommaso sullo statuto dell’anima umana, «Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge», 74 (2007), pp. 27-58.
• Ch. Bazán, The Human Soul: Form and Substance? Thomas Aquinas’ Critique of Eclectic Aristotelianism, «Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age», 64 (1997), pp. 95-126.
• R. Cross, Philosophy of Mind, in Th. Williams (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus, Cambridge 2006, pp. 263-284.
• R. Cross, Plurality of Forms, in Id., The Physics of Duns Scotus. The Scientific Context of a Theological Vision, Cambridge 1998, pp. 47-76.
• J. South, Suárez, Immortality, and the Soul’s Dependence on the Body, in C. Leijenhorst, Suárez on Self-Awareness, in Hill B., Lagerlund L., The Philosophy of Francisco Suárez, Oxford 2012, pp. 121-136.

Non-attending students must study an additional work from the Bibliography, to be chosen between:
• R. Pasnau, Thomas Aquinas on human nature: a philosophical study of Summa Theologiae I, 75-89, Cambridge 2008.
• M. Lenzi, Anima, forma, sostanza. Filosofia e teologia nel dibattito antropologico del XIII secolo, CISAM, Spoleto 2011.
• A. Petagine, Aristotelismo difficile. L’intelletto umano nella prospettiva di Alberto Magno, Tommaso d'Aquino e Sigieri di Brabante, Milano 2004.