Issue 146

Year 62 | 2013 Articles The analysis of the being and the ontological constituency of the person in the twentieth century Thomism Alain Contat Personal mode of subsistence as a substantial reflection, according Thomas Aquinas Martín Federico Echavarría Personal...

Contributions of Rudolf Allers to the anthropological foundation of psychotherapy

Se cumplen este año los ciento treinta años del nacimiento y los 50 del fallecimiento del psiquiatra y filósofo austríaco Rudolf Allers (1883-1963). Este autor, que en su momento se hizo conocido para el público de habla española por el libro del filósofo francés Louis Jugnet, Rudolf Allers o el Anti-Freud, es hoy casi completamente desconocido para el público general, incluidos psicólogos y psiquiatras. No obstante lo cual, sus méritos propios y su lugar en la historia de la psicología y de la psicoterapia hacen que merezca la pena recordar algunas de sus ideas, en este doble aniversario. De él dijo su antiguo discípulo Viktor Frankl, creemos que justamente, que “ha anticipado la psicoterapia del futuro”.

Closing ceremony of the 1st Conference on Tomistic Studies “Being and Person”

The theme that has occupied our attention in this warm day of tomistic studies, Being and person, which embraces from the Holy Trinity to us men, passing through the angels, is enormous, very rich. From the hand of the Angelic, we have been able to explore it from the theological and philosophical points of view, glimpsing, albeit fleetingly, its psychological, ethical and juridical derivations. I would give of itself for a congress; but we, led by the teacher Enrique Martinez and urged by the brevity of the time that everyone harasses, we had the audacity to compress it in one and very intense day.

Trinitarian and Christological Context of Aquinas’ Statements about the Person

Aquinas frequently (forty times) refers to boethian definition of person: rationalis naturae individua substantia. He uses such notion in trinitarian, christological and anthropological contexts. We find this definition in relationship with main faith principles about Trinity and Incarnation, depending on the Magisterium of Lateranense IV and the great christological councils. The use of boethian definition may be count among the preambula fidei and it is relevant both for theology and philosophy

Substantive conception and functional conception of the individual in contemporary philosophy

The last answer to the importance of the problem of “person” has not done anything but increasing since 1900. Personalism scope has moved beyond the limits of the classical subjects and include today the inner core of the person, its “manipulability”, along with biotechnologies, neuroscience and cybernetic sciences while materialist and determinist thesis are being spread out. Personalism duty in modernity as well as in post-modernity becomes decisive, as for its responsibility to contribute to mend the fractures of the modern era. Among the former ones, there is the gnoseological fracture between mind and world under the sign of an intense dualism; the fracture between science and wisdom together with the primacy of the first one; the fracture between human being and God due to the denial of Transcendence or the conflict of the principle of created or uncreated liberty; and the anthropological fracture between substantial or functional idea of the person that includes the radical theme of soul-body nexus which is the object of our work

Form dat esse as a fundamental principle of the ontology of the person of St. Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas’s ontology of the person is based on being. More particularly, the notion of person as subsistens distinctum introduces anthropology within the ontology of the created spirit. Aquinas’s anthropology discovers existence achieving form. Forma dat esse means the fundamental principle of an ontology of the person which puts a special emphasis on the intellectual principle of human behaviour, the unity of the human being, the personal character of the body, the spirituality of the intellect and will and love as communication of the human being

Personal subsistence, foundation of human life communication

The foundation of the interpersonal communication in which human life consists is the person, this is to say, the subsistent in an intellectual nature. Supported by a metaphysical and theological tradition, chiefly represented by saint Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Canals discusses positions -that may be called “relationist”- that in order to affirm the interpersonal relations, end up denying the substantivity of the subject who communicates himself. In Canals’ thought, instead, the foundation of interpersonal communication is nothing but the person inasmuch subsistent in an intellectual nature. And, because of her subsistence, the person communicates her vital perfection through the language of the spirit in the family, in friendship and in society

Personal mode of subsistence as a substantial reflection, according Thomas Aquinas

When introducing the definition of person given by Boethius, Aquinas says that the name “person” is proper to the first substance of a rational nature, for individual subsistence occurs in it in a more perfect way. He supports this assertion by the fact that persons have dominion over their own actions. Having dominion over one´s actions entails spiritual powers’ capability to return upon themselves. Spiritual substances’ return upon themselves is complete since they are able to know their own essence. Supported by Proclus and by the De causis, Aquinas states that the basis for this operative reflection is a substantial reflection, which is nothing but the intimate mode of subsistence of spiritual beings. This reflective mode of subsistence is a kind of formal infinity. Therefore, being a person implies an infinite perfection. Ultimately, the paper shows that Aquinas sometimes calls “memory” this reflective mode of subsistence, hence being a person entails the constitutive self-presence of the mind, by which persons recall themselves

The analysis of the being and the ontological constituency of the person in the twentieth century Thomism

The present study analyzes the three great interptretations of Thomistic doctrine on the ontological constituency of the person, developed by Thomists from the 20th century on. For the followers of the gaetanistic tradition, like Martain, the person is formally based on the mode of subsistence, that constitutes the spiritual nature in subjectivity. For the followers of the transcendental Thomism, like Lotz, the personal being is primarily founded on the reditio completa of the created spirit. For the masters of the intentive Thomism, like Fabro or Forment, the person results fundamentally from the possession of an act of participated being owened by an essence that transcends matter. In conclusion, first we propose a structualy judgement on these three positions, secondly a judgement of veritability