Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being

Neuroscience is one of the most propulsive of all sciences and very often, directly or not, it tries to answer the question: What is man? However, neuroscientific research does not acknowledge the concept of man as a unity of body and soul. The modern scientific research paradigm therefore rests on...

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Main Author: Saša Horvat
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika 2017-07-01
Series:Scientia et Fides
Subjects:
Online Access:https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/SetF/article/view/13927
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spelling doaj-a66a9eb08c6a4765a0f3f64a2190233c2021-07-02T17:29:38ZengUniwersytet Mikołaja KopernikaScientia et Fides2300-76482353-56362017-07-015212715310.12775/SetF.2017.02112115Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human beingSaša Horvat0Theology department in Rijeka, Catholic Faculty of Theology University of Zagreb, CroatiaNeuroscience is one of the most propulsive of all sciences and very often, directly or not, it tries to answer the question: What is man? However, neuroscientific research does not acknowledge the concept of man as a unity of body and soul. The modern scientific research paradigm therefore rests on physicalism, while theologians are turning towards non-reductive physicalism. In this paper, we will highlight a few key points of the theory of philosopher and theologian Nancey Murphy, which is based on the deconstruction of Aquinas's thought about the human soul and its reduction to the physical. We aim to show that she neglected the full scope of Aquinas teachings. In the second part of this paper, for the scientific paradigm of humans we shall propose <em>new-old </em>hylomorphism, and try to complement certain points of such a system with modern neuroscientific views. The aim of this work is to offer advice for the interdisciplinary cooperation between neuroscience, philosophy and theology alongside the guidelines of Aristotelian-Thomistic hylomorphism.https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/SetF/article/view/13927thomas aquinasnancey murphyhylomorphismphysicalismneuroscience
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Saša Horvat
spellingShingle Saša Horvat
Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
Scientia et Fides
thomas aquinas
nancey murphy
hylomorphism
physicalism
neuroscience
author_facet Saša Horvat
author_sort Saša Horvat
title Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
title_short Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
title_full Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
title_fullStr Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
title_full_unstemmed Neuroscientific findings in the light of Aquinas' understanding of the human being
title_sort neuroscientific findings in the light of aquinas' understanding of the human being
publisher Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
series Scientia et Fides
issn 2300-7648
2353-5636
publishDate 2017-07-01
description Neuroscience is one of the most propulsive of all sciences and very often, directly or not, it tries to answer the question: What is man? However, neuroscientific research does not acknowledge the concept of man as a unity of body and soul. The modern scientific research paradigm therefore rests on physicalism, while theologians are turning towards non-reductive physicalism. In this paper, we will highlight a few key points of the theory of philosopher and theologian Nancey Murphy, which is based on the deconstruction of Aquinas's thought about the human soul and its reduction to the physical. We aim to show that she neglected the full scope of Aquinas teachings. In the second part of this paper, for the scientific paradigm of humans we shall propose <em>new-old </em>hylomorphism, and try to complement certain points of such a system with modern neuroscientific views. The aim of this work is to offer advice for the interdisciplinary cooperation between neuroscience, philosophy and theology alongside the guidelines of Aristotelian-Thomistic hylomorphism.
topic thomas aquinas
nancey murphy
hylomorphism
physicalism
neuroscience
url https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/SetF/article/view/13927
work_keys_str_mv AT sasahorvat neuroscientificfindingsinthelightofaquinasunderstandingofthehumanbeing
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