Irishone21
Well-Known Member
From the book Thomas Aquinas; Truth… Is the mind the essence of the soul or one of its powers?
I will not answer the question in the same fashion as the book. I believe that the mind is the essence of the soul, for in order to activate the powers of the soul, which assist our higher reasoning or our divine, intellectual reasoning, we have to extinguish the baggage of our mind; i.e. hatred, or other sinful emotions such as jealousy, envy, lust, rage, ect and in doing we must focus on our ambiance and senses, thus triggering our senses, causing us to feel euphoric or even touched. Therefore, because activation of the soul begins at the mind, I say it is the essence, but in the book it says “the essence of the soul is common to all the powers, because all are rooted in it. But mind is not common to all the powers because it is distinguished from sense” which leads me to the belief that both make sense and it all depends on how one perceives the answer. Therefore, I say, the mind is the essence of the soul, but our divine intellect is a power of the soul.
“The essence of the soul is the principle of life,” therefore, only by the power of the mind, can we live by the principle of life, thus activating our soul. However, we must have the appropriate environment to activate our soul, for if other minds are at work, our rationality can be obstructed, and we may be prone, or susceptible to weak emotion, thus finding ourselves spiritually incompetent.
Therefore one could say values are the essence of our soul. In conclusion, I think it would make more sense to say that mind is a power of the soul, and not its very essence.
I will not answer the question in the same fashion as the book. I believe that the mind is the essence of the soul, for in order to activate the powers of the soul, which assist our higher reasoning or our divine, intellectual reasoning, we have to extinguish the baggage of our mind; i.e. hatred, or other sinful emotions such as jealousy, envy, lust, rage, ect and in doing we must focus on our ambiance and senses, thus triggering our senses, causing us to feel euphoric or even touched. Therefore, because activation of the soul begins at the mind, I say it is the essence, but in the book it says “the essence of the soul is common to all the powers, because all are rooted in it. But mind is not common to all the powers because it is distinguished from sense” which leads me to the belief that both make sense and it all depends on how one perceives the answer. Therefore, I say, the mind is the essence of the soul, but our divine intellect is a power of the soul.
“The essence of the soul is the principle of life,” therefore, only by the power of the mind, can we live by the principle of life, thus activating our soul. However, we must have the appropriate environment to activate our soul, for if other minds are at work, our rationality can be obstructed, and we may be prone, or susceptible to weak emotion, thus finding ourselves spiritually incompetent.
Therefore one could say values are the essence of our soul. In conclusion, I think it would make more sense to say that mind is a power of the soul, and not its very essence.