Philosophical Psychology

419 Pages·2016·31.985 MB·English

by  McInerny, Dennis Q.

P h ilo so p h ica l
P sych o lo g y
D. Q. M clnerny
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter
Elmhurst Township, Pennsylvania
2016
Other books in this series:
A Course in Thomistic Ethics ( 1997; 3d ed. 2010)
The Philosophy of Nature (1998; 3d ed. 2014)
Metaphysics (2004)
Natural Theology (2005)
Epistemology (2007)
An Introduction to Foundational Logic (2012)
Cover design by Nancy LaRoza
ISBN 978-0-9892610-1-2
Copyright © 2016 by D.Q. Mclnerny
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Sancto Thoniae de Aquino
D octori Communi
I
Contents
Preface .......................................................................................................xi
Introduction.................................................................................................1
Chapter I ♦ The World of Psychology ................................................9
What Is Psychology?.....................................................................9
The Nature of Science..................................................................11
Material and Formal Objects of a Science...................................13
The Origins of Psychology...........................................................15
Psychology and Philosophy..........................................................16
Psychology and Theology............................................................19
The Emergence of Modern Psychology......................................21
The Philosophical Presuppositions of Modern Psychology........25
Naturalistic Philosophy...............................................................26
The Focus of Philosophical Psychology......................................29
The Approach of Philosophical Psychology...............................31
The Relationship Between Philosophical Psychology
and General Psychology......................................................33
Philosophical Psychology As Foundational Psychology............35
Chapter II ♦ Vegetative Life ................................................................38
What Is Life?................................................................................38
The Living Being..........................................................................40
The Principle of Life....................................................................43
The Signs of Life..........................................................................47
Immanent Activity........................................................................48
The Grades of Life........................................................................51
What Is Vegetative Life?..............................................................55
Nutrition.......................................................................................57
Growth..........................................................................................59
Generation.....................................................................................61
VI Contents
The Two Modes of Reproduction..................................................63
The Vegetative Powers of Man...................................................65
The Materia! Soul...........................................................................66
Chapter III ♦ Sensitive Life....................................................................70
From Vegetative Life to Sensitive Life.........................................70
Sensation..........................................................................................71
External Senses in Animals...........................................................75
Internal Senses in Animals............................................................76
Proper Sensibles and Common Sensibles.....................................78
Appetency in Animals....................................................................81
The Appetites Are Moving Powers................................................83
The Irascible Appetites in Animals................................................85
Locomotion......................................................................................88
The Powers of the Sensitive Soul..................................................91
Animal Intelligence........................................................................92
Communication and Language......................................................94
Chapter IV ♦ Rational Life....................................................................98
The Great Leap...............................................................................98
Intellect and Will.............................................................................99
The Proper Study of Psychology..................................................102
Consciousness and Human Consciousness.................................105
The Primacy of Intellect...............................................................108
Human Nature...............................................................................109
The Materialistic View of Man................................................... 111
Chapter V ♦ Human Sensation............................................................116
The General Nature of Sensation.................................................116
The External Senses......................................................................122
The Reliability of Sense Knowledge...........................................123
Sight................................................................................................124
Hearing...........................................................................................126
Smell...............................................................................................128
Taste................................................................................................130
Touch..............................................................................................132
The Internal Senses........................................................................135
The Common Sense.......................................................................137
Illusion, Hallucination, Delusion..................................................140
Imagination.....................................................................................141
The Various Workings of Imagination..........................................143
Memory..........................................................................................145
The Cogitative Sense.....................................................................149
Contents vi i
Chapter VI ♦ The Human Mind: Ideas and Judgments ................151
Modem Psychology and the Mind............................................151
The Intellectual Power...............................................................155
Abstraction................................................................................157
The Birth of Ideas or Ideogenesis..............................................159
The Relation Between Idea and Object.....................................162
The Idea As Universal...............................................................164
Intentional Existence.................................................................166
The Marriage of Mind and Object.............................................169
The Mind’s Apprehension of Existence....................................171
The Proper Object of the Intellect.............................................173
The Growth of Knowledge........................................................174
Chapter VII ♦ The Human Mind: Reasoning.................................176
The Way the Mind Naturally Works..........................................176
The Foundations for Reason......................................................179
The First Principles of Human Reasoning.................................182
Immediate Inference and Mediate Inference..............................184
Truth...........................................................................................187
Ascertaining the Truth................................................................189
Validity.......................................................................................190
The Inductive Mode of Reasoning............................................193
The Deductive Mode of Reasoning............................................196
The Fruits of Reasoning.............................................................197
The Two Major Modes of Practical Reasoning.........................200
Overvaluing Reason..................................................................201
Undervaluing Reason................................................................204
Faith and Reason........................................................................205
Intuition......................................................................................207
Chapter VIII ♦ Human Emotion ......................................................209
Contemporary Emphases...........................................................209
Scholastic Terminology.............................................................212
From Animal to Man.................................................................214
The Thomistic Emphases...........................................................215
The Positive Concupiscible Passions........................................217
The Negative Concupiscible Passions.......................................224
The Positive Irascible Passions.................................................227
The Negative Irascible Passions................................................230
Anger..........................................................................................232
Human Locomotion....................................................................234
vi i i Contents
Chapter IX ♦ The Human W ill...............................................................236
St. Thomas’s Psychology of Will...................................................23ft
The Nature of Will.............................................................................23$
Will and Intellect...............................................................................239
Ends and Means.................................................................................243
Will Acts Relating to Ends..............................................................247
Will Acts Relating to Means...........................................................248
The Idea of Freedom.........................................................................251
Freedom of the Will..........................................................................253
Determinism.......................................................................................257
Freedom and the Individual.............................................................260
Chapter X ♦ The Human Person.............................................................262
The Person and Modern Times.......................................................262
The Sense of Self...............................................................................266
Ego and Other Egos..........................................................................270
Personhood.........................................................................................273
The Person As Substance................................................................278
The Person As Rational Being.......................................................281
The Person As Individual................................................................283
Agere Sequitur Esse..........................................................................287
Character.............................................................................................289
Divine Personhood...........................................................................290
Chapter XI ♦ The Human Soul................................................................292
The Principle of Life........................................................................292
Modern Attitudes Toward the Soul...............................................294
Body and Soul..................................................................................294
The Substantiality of the Soul........................................................299
The Spirituality of the Soul............................................................301
The Argument from the
Nature of Intellectual Knowledge...........................................304
The Simplicity of the Soul...............................................................305
The Soul and the Person..................................................................307
The Immortality of the Soul...........................................................311
Summitry Reflections.......................................................................314
Contents ix
Chapter XII ♦ The Origin of Life.....................................................318
How Did It All Begin?..............................................................318
Abiogenesis................................................................................319
Omne Vivum Ex Vivo..................................................................323
Direct Creation and Indirect Creation.......................................324
The Possibility of the Indirect
Creation of Species..............................................................327
The Idea of Evolution................................................................330
Classic and Modem Understanding of Evolution....................332
Darwinian Evolution.................................................................337
A Critique of the Theory...........................................................341
Design.........................................................................................347
The Descent of Man..................................................................349
Theistic Evolution.....................................................................350
Science and Religion.................................................................353
Science and Philosophy.............................................................356
The Challenges to Evolutionary Theory....................................359
Human Destiny...........................................................................363
Notes .....................................................................................................365
Select Bibliography ................................................................................387
Index 393