Publication Details

Abstract

The article sheds light on how Thomas Aquinas philosophically explained and founded the unity of human being as the center of the created universe, establishing the continuity between the spheres of nature and intellect. Thomas’ conception is explored with respect to older doctrines drawing on Aristotle’s hylemorfic approach, especially to human soul, showing at the same time the development of Thomas’ conception itself. In Thomas the traditional problem of a possible uniting the soul as a form with the soul as a founding principle of thinking is successfully eliminated by transposing the psychological problematic as a whole to metaphysical level (especially in his later writing De substantial separates). This shift enabled him to explain the continuity of universe as well as the unity of human being thanks to the distinction between essence and being taken from Avicenna.