EDF 821-05/14

BRANCHES OF METAPHYSICS (II)

THEODICY AND RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

3. THEODICY

A. Introduction

1. Key concepts: Predicates, Equivocation, Univocal

2. Theodicy, also known as natural theology is the rational study of the existence, nature and activities of God

3. The scope of Metaphysics is broad enough to reach to God, but God transcends material substances, and the human mind cannot know him directly. Hence it can seek knowledge of him only as he is related to material things as their principle of first cause (or through natural theology).

B. Transition from Natural Philosophy to Natural Theology

 The basic steps whereby by natural philosophy transforms itself into natural theology is as follows:

a.       The discovery of being as intelligible value of experienced reality(metaphysics).

b.      With this initial discovery come the realization that things need to be evaluated as they are existent.

c.       Through the study of the ways in which things are being, the mind discovers composition, imperfection and limitation and with them comes the knowledge that such things are not self explanatory.

d.      At this juncture the enquiry  for explanation leads to  the affirmation of their dependence on a firsts cause.

It is in the analysis of the dependence of contingent being upon a first cause that philosophy becomes natural theology. In fact this very dependence demands that the first cause be free of the same dependence; as a cause, it must be a being not composed of essence and existence as really distinct   principles.

C. Content of Natural Theology

Natural theology then works out proofs of God's existence and attempts to say something about his essence and attributes. Finaly it studies divine causality and the nature of evil.

a)      Proofs of God's existence 

b)      Essence and attributes of God.

c)      Divine causality

d)     The nature of evil.

1. Proofs of the Existence of God:  The Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas

i)        Prima Via: The Argument of the Unmoved Mover

Summary

In the world, we can see that at least some things are changing. Whatever is changing is being changed by something else. If that by which it is changing is itself changed, then it too is being changed by something else. But this chain cannot be infinitely long, so there must be something that causes change without itself changing. This everyone understands to be God.

    

ii)      Secunda Via: The Argument of the First Cause

Summary

In the world, we can see that things are caused. But it is not possible for something to be the cause of itself because this would entail that it exists prior to itself, which is a contradiction. If that by which it is caused is itself caused, then it too must have a cause. But this cannot be an infinitely long chain, so, there must be a cause which is not itself caused by anything further. This everyone understands to be God.

 

iii)    Tertia Via: The Argument from Contingency

Summary

In the world we see things that are possible to be and possible not to be. In other words, perishable things. But if everything were contingent and thus capable of going out of existence, then, given infinite time, this possibility would be realized and nothing would exist now. But things clearly do exist now. Therefore, there must be something that is imperishable: a necessary being. This everyone understands to be God.

 

iv)    Quarta Via: The Argument from Degree

Summary

We see things in the world that vary in degrees of goodness, truth, nobility, etc. For example, sick animals and healthy animals, and well-drawn circles as well as poorly drawn ones. But judging something as being "more" or "less" implies some standard against which it is being judged. Therefore, there is something which is goodness itself, and this everyone understands to be God.

 

v)      Quinta Via: Argument from Final Cause or Ends

Summary

We see various things would not behave with predictable results. So their behavior must be set. But it cannot be set by them since they are non-intelligent and have no notion of how to set behavior. Therefore, their behavior must be set by something else and by implication something that must be intelligent. This everyone understands to be God.

2. Essence and Attributes of God (The nature of God)

Thomas Aquinas in his natural theology raised the question whether we can know something about the nature of God, besides his existence. He posited his answer by means of three approaches namely.

a)      Via negativa(the negative way)

b)      Via positiva(the postive way)

c)      Via analogica(the way of of nalogy)

a.Via negativa

Though we cannot obtain a clear idea about gods nature, we can attain some notion of his nature by the negative way, that is by a succession of negative differentiations. For example if we say that God is not an accident we distinguish him from all accidents; if we say he is not corporeal we , we distinguish him from some substances and thus we can proceed until we obtain an idea of GOD which belongs to him alone and which suffices to distinguish him  from some substances, and thus we can proceed until we get  an idea of God which belongs to him alone and which suffices  to distinguish from all other beings. .Through via negativa Thomas shows that God is not corporeal, is simple(ie he possesses the fullness of his being and perfection  in one undivided and eternal act), is infinite and perfect, pure act eternal and one.

b. Positiva

These are predicates or names which are predicated of the divine substance affirmatively, such as wisdom, life, goodness, truth..... However none of the ideas by which we conceive of God represents God Perfectly. When we say God is good or living, we mean that he contains, or rather is the perfection of goodness of life, but in a manner which exceeds and excludes all the imperfections and limitations of creatures. This means that we cannot in this life know the divine essence as it is in itself, but only as represented in creatures, so that the names we apply to  God signify the perfections manifested in creatures. from this fact several important conclusions can be made:

a. The names we apply to God and to creatures are not to be understood in a univocal sense

b. Yet the names we apply to God are not purely equivocal

c. So the concepts derived from our experience of creatures and men when applied to god are used in an analogical sense

c. Via analogica

We can know something of God from creatures, creatures effects of God must, must manifest God, though they can do this only imperfectly. According to Aquinas the most appropriate name for God is the name he gave to Moses "he who is'. In god there is no distinction between essence and existence, he does receive his existence, but he is his own existence. His essence is to exist. Existence itself is the essence of God and the name which is which is derived from that essence is the most appropriate to old. To say that god is ipsum esse (being itself) is to give his inner nature. Every other name is in some way inadequate. Beyond that, natural theology cannot go.

D. Implications of theodicy to Education

a)      Curriculum: Generally, theodicy is the basis of reasoned belief about God; as such it is the foundation of theological and religious Educations as well as apologetics.

b)      Aims of Education : Theodicy envisions an education that aims at unfolding the spiritual religious potency in the learner. When such Education is individuated it becomes a sure ground for reasoned belief in only one God and acts as sure foundation for morals.

c)      Method: Theodicy unlike most of the Philosophical activities is scientific because it proceeds from observation of nature (here in called creatures) and infers inductively the existence and the nature of God. It therefore acts as the link between science (Empirical) Education and Religious education. It purports that Faith and Reason are not contradictory but complementary. It also means that religious Education should heavily invest on observation, excursions, field trips experimentation

d)     Emerging issues: Theodicy also rectifies religious fundamentalism which is normally manifestation of stifled religiosity.

e)       The via negativa  is the basis for the proof of the unknowability of God and  as such indicates that even after religious education and theological formation God is still unknowable

4. RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (PHILOSOPHIOCAL PSYCHOLOGY)

A. GENERAL NOTES ON RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

1.      It is the Philosophical study of the body-mind (body-soul) relationship

2.      It studies the soul as the principle of life and investigates into man's spiritual   nature.

3.      The soul studied by rational psychology is a special type of form which so informs the primary matter as to render it not only corporeal but also animated-that is living- in a specific way.

4.      Life is defined as self movement or the capacity of an organism to move itself from potentiality to activity.

5.      Vital (or life) activities are immanent (they originate from within).

6.      In plants, these immanent activities include nourishing, growing, maturing, reproducing.

7.       Animals in addition to these activities posses powers of cognition and appetition that enable them to be aware of their environment and respond to it through movements that likewise maintain self identity and are even more  distinctively self perfective.

8.       Man as the highest form of living organisms, possesses also intellection and volition which define his soul as a very special type of substantial form.

9.      Life activities presuppose not only soul but also organized body i. e with various bodily parts ordered to diverse functions. Functionally ordered parts are organs, and a body with such parts is said to be organized body or organism.

10.  Therefore the soul is the first actuality or entelechy of a natural body having life potentially in it. Hence soul is the primary principle whereby we live sense, move and understand.

11.   Of these vital activities understanding is by far the most notable and complex. Understanding describes the knowledge that properly belongs to man.

12.  Philosophical Psychology studies human knowledge from the point of view of its being a life activity, an immanent operation that springs from one of the powers of human soul.

13.   It raises the question: How are we to explain the presence in us of the ideas which enable us to reason about things and which present things to us as Universal? Answer: Cognition in man is not doing something but becoming something. It is a self modification brought about by the objective possession of something other than oneself. The knower's being is expanded by the addition of a perfection previously not possessed, yet contributed by something else that has lost nothing in giving.

14.  In the act of knowledge the knower is modified and enriched by the immaterial presence of the form (species) of the object known. This ability of receiving  immaterially  the forms  of whatever exists makes the human intellect capable of becoming  intentionally everything  that is , or can b unintentionally' refers to the special way an object can be present in our mind, that is an immaterial way. The object becomes intentionally present to the intellect by means of abstraction.

15.   In sensation, the concrete individual forms of an object impress themselves through physical stimuli on the subject.

16.  From these concrete data the mind through the process of abstraction, attains the abstract and hence the universal ideas of the objects.

17.  Our intellect in the point of fact is not purely passive in forming the idea but exercises also an active role. The active power of the intellect is called 'agent intellect' and its passive power is denominated the 'passive' or 'possible intellect. Through sense knowledge man comes to posses the phantasm or the intentional image of an object, By a process of illumination, the agent intellect mind extracts from the phantasm the nature or essence of the object.

18.  This process results in intelligible species which the agent intellect impresses on the possible intellect and so gives rise there to the abstract, universal idea or concept of the object.

19.  The concept is a formal sign of the essence grasped in the object, like the senses,: like the senses, the intellect does not know the concept as such, but rather knows and understands the object  as it is in reality through the concept.

20.  The phenomenon of Abstraction points to the fact that man is spirit in a body,  as a spirit he is capable of abstraction  i.e. producing  immaterial ideas , but in so far as  it is in a body, our ideas cannot  be formed except  by means of sensation and images, which necessarily  suppose bodily organs.

21.  Psychology is also concerned with other human faculties as appetition, volition, love. It develops into Philosophical anthropology and analyses the nature of human soul n ad its immortality.

22.  Finally it examines the mystery of personality and the individual differences

B. THE BODY AND THE SOUL

1. The human body

a)      It is the first and the most obvious dimension of man. Human reality however does not constitute the body alone.

b)      A Marvelous spectacle with internal vs external structures e. g chromosomes

c)      Microscopic and macroscopic systems and organs

d)     Brain most ingenious (9billion nervous cells)(homo sapiens)

e)      Human body is not specialized at birth but  man is able to manage it, train it, render it  capable of performing movements of admirable perfections e.g. musicians playing piano, acrobats, dancers, sports

f)       Man's domination of body through medicine, surgery, orthopedic, . Man constructs hospitals nursing clinics homes , gymnasium to  etc

g)      Vertical position'...(homo erectus)

2. Rapport between the soul and the body

There is an essential distinction between the body and the mind and at the same time a profound bond.  Distinction because the soul belongs to the spiritual sphere and the other to the material sphere. Profoundly united because they give origin to a single being-man.

3. Solution to the body mind problem:

I. Platonic solution

a)      Followed by Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza.

b)      The soul and the body are two complete substances, each to its own account and are therefore contingently and accidentally united during terrestrial life without effectively forming a single substance.

c)      The soul by itself constitutes the true essence of man. The elimination of the body is the sine qua non condition to re-conduct the soul to its original perfection and happiness.

II. Aristotelian solution (Par 2 238)

a)      Followed by Aristotle, Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Cajetan, Rosmini

b)      The soul and the body are two incomplete substances (Like matter and form)

c)      Together they give origin to a single  complete substance known as man

d)     Man is soul and body, therefore alone is not man, neither is body man

e)      The substantial union between the two is however maintained by the soul

III. Kantian Solution (Agnostic solutions)

a)      We cannot say anything definitive because man is bound to the sphere of phenomena

b)      All arguments devised by philosophers are or nothing but fallacies

C. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

1. Education is corporeal activity. It should involve Physical training and fitness, nutrition, health precautions. The body is an epistemic force

2. Education for the soul and spiritual nourishment man has a body and mind

3. The central part of the body used in Education, the brain performs well when the entire body is fit and so sports and Education and rest are imperatives of Educational praxis

4. Psychology is a premise for content areas like volition. (Will power)  and love. it is in the nature of the soul to comprehend  concepts like love which then informs the mind

5. Scientific education and empirics are only possible because man has a body with the senses to perceive reality.

6. Aims of Education dependent on how a society understands the relation between the body and mind e.g. Religions resurrection incarnation

7. Psychology advocators for mixed teaching methods so as to satisfy the corporeal and the incorporeal nature