The Faculties of Man

St. Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolomeo (+1517AD)

What is man?  The great Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274), in his Summa Theologiae, in  the Questions of the Prima Pars that form the Treatise on Man, gives a rather full and helpful exposition of this question.  Man, a rational animal, whose powers can be classed as follows:

Powers or Faculties of Man

Vegetal Faculties [Plants]

·        Nutritive (Feeding)

·        Augmentative (Growing)

·        Generation (Reproducing)

Cf. Summa Theologiae, I Pars, Question 78, Articles 1 & 2

 

Sentient Faculties [Animals]

·        Sensing (interior & exterior senses)

Five Exterior Senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell

Four Interior Senses: Memory, Imagination, Consciousness, Instinct

·        Appetizing (Desiring)

·        Movement (Local motion)

Cf. ST, I, Q. 78, A. 1, 3, 4

Text of Pars I, Question 78, which deals with the vegetive and sensitive powers found here: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1078.htm

 

Intellective (Spiritual) Faculties [Men]

·        Intellect (Thinking)

·        Will (Choosing)

Cf. ST, I, Q. 79, 82, 83 [See summary below]

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Treatise on Man 

Intellect, Question 79

Full text here: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1079.htm

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 79, Article 2:

Whether the Intellect is a Passive Power?

 

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 79, Article 8:

Whether Reason is distinct from the Intellect?

 

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 79, Article 11:

Whether the Speculative and Practical Intellects are Distinct Powers?

 

Will, Question 82

Full text here: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1082.htm

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 82, Article 1:

Whether the Will desires something of Necessity?

 

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 82, Article 3:

Whether the Will is a Higher Power than the Intellect?

 

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 82, Article 4:

Whether the Will moves the Intellect?

 

Free Will, Question 83

Full text here: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1083.htm

Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 83, Article 1:

Whether Man has Free-Will?

Live well!