Aquinas's Thoughts On Bodies
Aquinas
believed that "matter, form, and privation" are the three natural compositions
of all physical reality. Matter, and form being the essential properties, and privation being the
accidental.
Aquinas
defines a "body" as the substance whose nature is "such that three dimensions
can be designated in it." (Length, width, and depth) The body is "an integral
and material part" of every animal, seperate from its soul. Aquinas points
out that the matter of a body is not all of its substance but really "only part of the
substance" along with its form. Bodies are completely different than intellectual
substances. Even though Aquinas believed that God created the Earth, he said that we cannot
prove that it did not always exist before. However, he does believe that there is only one
created world, in which the matrix is found. |
