Exploring Personhood

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature

By (author) Joseph Torchia, OP

Publication date:

23 October 2007

Length of book:

312 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742548381

Exploring Personhood examines the metaphysical underpinnings of theories of human nature, personhood, and the self. The history of western philosophy provides the framework for broaching critical questions pertinent to these three topics. The book explores philosophical anthropology on its most foundational level, with a focus on the basic constituents of the unified self. The coverage of the work is broad in scope, moving from the Pre-Socratics to Postmodernism, critically assessing what transpired during the intervening 2500 year period, but with special attentiveness to the contributions of the Aristotelian/Thomistic tradition of inquiry. While each chapter can stand on its own, they collectively reveal a developing story that finds expression in diverse attempts to come to terms with what it means to be human, and how we understand ourselves as persons. This book is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of readers, from beginners to more advanced students.

Part 1 Preface
Chapter 2 A Point of Departure
Chapter 3 Focus and Methodology
Part 4 Introduction: Competing Anthropological Perspectives
Chapter 5 Human Nature and Personhood
Chapter 6 Toward a Metaphysics of Personhood
Chapter 7 A GeneralOverview: Content and Approach
Part 8 Part I: From Psyche to Anthropos
Part 9 Chapter I: In the Beginning: Defining Some Key Issues
Chapter 10 The Transition from Myth to Reason
Chapter 11 The Milesian Response
Chapter 12 Two Metaphysical Responses
Chapter 13 The Move Toward Reconciliation
Chapter 14 The Pythagorean Contribution
Chapter 15 The Anthropological Significance of It All
Part 16 Chapter II: Plato: The Primacy of Soul
Chapter 17 The Shift Toward Humanism
Chapter 18 The Sophistic Legacy
Chapter 19 Enter Socrates
Chapter 20 Socrates and Plato
Chapter 21 The Psychology of the Phaedo
Chapter 22 The Broader Anthropological Dimension
Part 23 Chapter III: Aristotle: The Human Composite
Chapter 24 Aristotle's Background and Development
Chapter 25 Theoretical Knowledge and Wisdom
Chapter 26 The Nature of Wisdom and Causality
Chapter 27 Aristotle and Plato
Chapter 28 Being and Substance
Chapter 29 Substance and Change
Chapter 30 The Psychology of the De Anima
Chapter 31 Soul, Body, and the Separable Intellect
Part 32 Part II: Human Nature and Personhood
Part 33 Chapter IV: St. Augustine: A Harmonious Union
Chapter 34 The Challenge of Christian Anthropology
Chapter 35 Augustine's Personal Experience
Chapter 36 Manichaeism and the Problem of Evil
Chapter 37 Augustine's Neoplatonic "Lens"
Chapter 38 Augustine's Definitions of Homo
Chapter 39 Augustine on the Person
Chapter 40 The Subjective Ego
Chapter 41 Moral and Cosmic Order
Part 42 Chapter V: St. Thomas Aquinas: A Subsistent Individual
Chapter 43 A Teacher's Life
Chapter 44 Aquinas on Sacra Doctrina
Chapter 45 A Metaphysics of Esse
Chapter 46 Humans Beings, Being Human
Chapter 47 The Status of the Soul
Chapter 48 The Composite Human
Chapter 49 The Powers of the Soul
Chapter 50 The Fact of Psychosomatic Union
Chapter 51 Aquinas' Metaphysics of Personhood
Chapter 52 Trinitarian and Christological Background
Chapter 53 Subsistence and the Person
Chapter 54 The Primacy of Esse
Chapter 55 The Person as Free Agent
Part 56 Part III: Minds and Bodies
Part 57 Chapter VI: Rene Descartes: The Ghost in the Machine
Chapter 58 Descartes and His Mission
Chapter 59 A Believing Man of Reason
Chapter 60 Forging a Method
Chapter 61 Affirming the Cogito
Chapter 62 The Role of God
Chapter 63 The Challenge of Hyperbolic Doubt
Chapter 64 That I Am, What I Am
Chapter 65 An Experiment
Chapter 66 Mind, Body, and World
Chapter 67 The Bodily Mechanism
Chapter 68 Mind-Body Interaction: An Uneasy Alliance
Chapter 69 Where Mind and Body Meet
Chapter 70 Assessing the Cartesian Compromise
Part 71 Chapter VII: David Hume: A Bundle of Perceptions
Chapter 72 Hume's Newtonian Model
Chapter 73 A Science of Human Nature
Chapter 74 The Origin of Ideas
Chapter 75 Hume on Causality
Chapter 76 Personal Identity and the Self
Chapter 77 Assessing Hume on Personal Identity
Part 78 Part IV: Humanity and Personhood
Part 79 Chapter VIII: Postmodernism: Humans, Persons, and Non-Persons
Chapter 80 Postmodern Philosophy: A Broad Overview
Chapter 81 The Consciousness Criterion of Personhood
Chapter 82 The Bioethical Dimension
Chapter 83 Postmodernism and Incommensurability
Part 84 Chapter IX: Our Interpersonal Journey
Chapter 85 A Teleological Model
Chapter 86 An Infinite Horizon
Chapter 87 Knowing and Willing
Chapter 88 A Participation Scheme
Chapter 89 The Being of Persons
Chapter 90 Subsistence and Selfhood
Chapter 91 Substantiality and Relationality
Chapter 92 Embodied Spirits
Chapter 93 The Unity of Self
Chapter 94 A Moral Cosmos
Chapter 95 Life as Quest
Part 96 Epilogue: In Search of an Irreducible Self
Chapter 97 The Challenge of Reductionism
Chapter 98 A Quantum Theory of Consciousness
Chapter 99 The Causal Role of Mind
Chapter 100 Human and Animal Intelligence
Chapter 101 Embodied Spirits and Our World

Readers undeterred by fears of "foundationalism" will appreciate Torchia's study as a hearty meal in a day when so many offerings are thin and unsatisfying. . . . Exploring Personhood is modestly offered as an "alternative account." It is an account that deserves attention, especially by those disinclined to examine it.