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A Thomistic understanding of human death
1Department of Philosophy, Indiana University--Purdue University Indiana, Cavganaugh Hall 331, 425 University Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46202-5140, USA. jeberl@iupui.edu
Bioethics
|April 9, 2005
Summary
Thomas Aquinas
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Mind
- Metaphysics
- Philosophy of Biology
Background:
- Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical framework defines human death as the separation of the rational soul from the material body.
- Existing concepts, like the 'higher-brain' death criterion, focus on the cessation of conscious rational thought.
- Aquinas's view integrates vegetative, sensitive, and rational capacities as essential functions of the soul-body composite.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically examine Aquinas's metaphysical account of human death.
- To determine the most accurate criterion for the soul-body separation in Aquinas's philosophy.
- To propose an alternative criterion based on the integrated functioning of the organism.
Main Methods:
- Philosophical analysis of Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical texts on the soul and body.
- Comparative analysis with the 'higher-brain' concept of death.
- Argumentation for a criterion based on the loss of integrative organic unity.
Main Results:
- The 'higher-brain' concept is insufficient as it neglects the soul's role in vegetative and sensitive capacities.
- Death, in Aquinas's framework, signifies the irreversible loss of the body's integrated organic unity.
- The cessation of whole-brain functioning serves as the definitive criterion for this loss.
Conclusions:
- A human being is defined as a composite of soul and body, not merely by rational capacities.
- The irreversible cessation of whole-brain functioning is the most accurate indicator of the soul's separation from the body.
- This criterion aligns with Aquinas's holistic view of the human organism.
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