(2018-03-20, 01:30 AM)Laird Wrote: “There are two different kinds of souls. One is the irrational soul, which is that of animals. The other is rational, belonging to human beings”.
Pray tell, how could an "irrational" soul survive in a complex natural world where generally it must not only fend for itself and avoid being preyed upon but attract a mate, reproduce, and then feed, teach, and protect its young, in the process solving a host of challenging problems?
In this is the template for all manner of supremacist thinking.
Well this is the Scholastic take, at least as much of it as I gathered from Feser. The rational soul refers to our grasp of Universals, IIRC this is an improvement upon the Affinity Argument Plato makes?
Because the Universals (Mathematical Truths, Syllogisms) are Eternal, and we can grasp them, we too share in the Eternal. Of course I don't think I am fully grasping Feser's argument, after all we know varied animals are capable of some logical reasoning...beyond that it's not clear what it would mean for us to potentially "uplift" an animal species and make it capable of rationality. Does this suddenly ensoul it?
And, of course, how this all fits into the continuity of life given via evolution is also in question...It seems more likely that the potential to grasp the universals would be in each creature's mind, if we're even willing to affirm the idea that only immortal souls can grasp the Universals...
Again, this is my speculation, I'm sure I'm missing some pieces of the argument Scholastics like Feser would make...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell
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