52. Reason, Imagination, and the Soul as All Things

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Human Pleasures and the Hierarchy of Beings #

• Following Osterwalder’s article on music evaluation, pleasures of fine arts (music, drama) are positioned between beastly and angelic pleasures
• These pleasures are “properly human” because they involve both senses (like music) and reason (like understanding fiction)
• They can sustain engagement far longer than sensory pleasures (e.g., can sit through a 2.5-hour Mozart opera, but not eat for three hours continuously)
• Mill’s utilitarianism is critiqued for using only pleasure/pain as criterion for good/bad, making it ultimately “beastly” despite acknowledging higher pleasures
• Those who have experienced higher pleasures judge them superior to lower ones; inexperience leads to overvaluing base pleasures

Reason’s Dependence on Phantasms (Images) #

• The proportion: images are to reason as exterior sensibles are to the senses
• Reason cannot understand without turning to images, even after acquiring knowledge
• When understanding a triangle, one must imagine a particular triangle (equilateral, scalene, or isosceles), yet understands something universal about all triangles
• Brain damage or disease affecting images impairs thinking (e.g., Alzheimer’s patients lose recognition of familiar people)
• Understanding is not in the brain, just as vision is not in the painting—but without images, understanding cannot occur
• God and immaterial realities can be thought through negation of what is imagined or by comparison to understood things

Practical vs. Theoretical Reason #

• Both are the same faculty but differ in purpose and scope
• Theoretical (Looking) Reason: Concerned with universal truth; asks “what is it?”
• Practical Reason: Concerned with singular, particular matters requiring action; asks “what to do here and now?”
• Theoretical reason seeks unchanging truths (e.g., a triangle always has interior angles equal to two right angles)
• Practical reason deals with contingent truths (e.g., who is friend or enemy changes over time and circumstances)
• Practical reason extends universal knowledge down to singular circumstances (e.g., applying understanding of friendship to particular political alliances)
• Man is distinguished by “looking before and after”—living in time through reason, not merely in the present like other animals

The Soul as “All Things” #

• Aristotle concludes: the soul is in some way all beings (panta in Greek)
• This responds to Empedocles’ claim that “we know earth by earth, water by water, fire by fire, love by love, hate by hate”
• Aristotle accepts a truth in Empedocles but rejects his explanation: we know things not by being materially composed of them, but by receiving their forms immaterially
• The stone is not in the soul; rather, the species (form) of the stone is in the soul
• Things understood are either sensibles or understandables; sense grasps sensibles, understanding grasps understandables
• This immaterial reception explains the universality of reason and why man can know an infinity of things

Material vs. Immaterial Understanding #

• Things understood without matter (number, shape, extension) reveal reason’s immateriality
• Example: the snubbed nose (curved nose in flesh) vs. understanding “curve” without flesh
• Mathematical objects (cube, sphere) are understood as separated from matter (wood, ice, earth, rubber) even though they don’t exist separately
• Understanding material things immaterially is a sign of the immateriality of understanding itself
• The question of whether we can understand separated things (angels, God) while the soul is in the body belongs to wisdom to answer

Key Arguments #

Argument 1: Reason’s Dependence on Images #

• Premise 1: The object of reason is the “what it is” of something sensed or imagined
• Premise 2: What is sensed or imagined is always particular and material
• Conclusion: Reason cannot understand without images
• Implication: Damage to the brain’s imaging capacity impairs thinking itself

Argument 2: The Soul Receives Forms, Not Matter #

• Premise: We understand what a stone is, yet the stone is not in the soul
• Conclusion: The soul must receive the form (species) without the matter
• Contrast: This differs from Empedocles, who wrongly thought we know things because we are materially composed of them
• Significance: Reveals the immateriality of understanding

Argument 3: Universality of Reason Requires Immateriality #

• Premise 1: Reason can know an infinity of different things
• Premise 2: If understanding were material, it would be limited to material forms
• Conclusion: Reason must be immaterial to receive all forms
• Application: The universality of the hand corresponds to the universality of reason

Argument 4: Imagination Cannot Convey Universals #

• Premise 1: Any image of a triangle must be equilateral, scalene, or isosceles (one in act)
• Premise 2: The universal concept includes all these possibilities (all in potency, none in act)
• Conclusion: Image and thought are distinct powers; thought grasps universals while imagination grasps particulars
• Application: Locke’s error in confusing the general idea with a universal image

Important Definitions #

Phantasm (εἴδωλον/imago) #

• The particular, sensible form received in imagination
• Can be from memory or newly formed by imagination
• Always singular and concrete (e.g., this particular triangle)
• Distinguished from “poetic imagination” or creative fancy

Species (εἶδος/forma) #

• The immaterial reception of what something is
• Received by the soul without matter
• The principle by which understanding occurs
• Distinct from the material thing itself

Practical Reason (ratio practica) #

• Reason extended to particular circumstances and singular matters
• Concerned with contingent truths and action
• Differs from theoretical reason in scope and end, not in nature

Theoretical/Looking Reason (ratio speculativa/theoretike) #

• Reason concerned with universal, unchanging truth
• Seeks to know what things are
• More universal in its extension

Discourse (διάνοια/dianoia) #

• Knowing one thing through another
• The characteristic act of reason as reason
• Involves movement from premises to conclusions
• Distinct from immediate intuitive understanding

Examples & Illustrations #

The Snubbed Nose (Socrates’ Example) #

• A snubbed nose is a curved nose in flesh (Socrates had such a nose)
• When we understand “curve,” we abstract from the flesh and nose
• We can understand curve without nose, though we may imagine it with the nose
• Illustrates how mathematical objects are understood without matter

The Triangle in Geometry #

• When demonstrating that interior angles equal two right angles, we imagine a particular triangle (isosceles, scalene, or equilateral)
• Yet we understand something universal about all triangles
• Shows the distinction between imagination (particular) and thought (universal)

Tabitha and Mozart #

• The dog sleeps through Mozart, indicating musical pleasures are too high for beasts
• Can sit through 2.5 hours of Mozart but not 3 hours of eating
• Law of diminishing returns in sensory pleasures; higher pleasures sustain engagement longer

The Shipping Dock Worker #

• When asked what he’d do with lottery winnings, says “get a bunch of it” (sensory pleasures)
• Contrasts with the speaker’s answer: “find a quiet place to do some studying”
• Shows how common understanding prioritizes base pleasures

Beer and the Freshman #

• Freshmen get sick from drinking more than seniors
• Reason requires “looking before and after” (temporal extension)
• Immediate pleasure must be weighed against future pain and consequences
• Shows reason’s ability to live in time, not just the present

The Flooding Bathroom (Graduate School Incident) #

• A man recalls an embarrassing incident at a parish house bathroom
• Can laugh about it years later by imagining the past
• Shows imagination can grasp past events and reason can judge them, causing emotion

Political Alliances (France, Germany, Iraq) #

• In Napoleonic Wars: France enemy, Germany ally
• In World Wars: France friend, Germany and Austria enemies
• In recent history: encouraged Iraq against Iran, now Iraq is enemy
• Illustrates contingency of practical reason vs. unchanging nature of theoretical truth

Dentistry and Pain Avoidance #

• Sometimes better to experience unpleasant dentist visit than delay and suffer more
• Shows reason extending knowledge across time to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
• Even in base pleasures, reason improves the outcome

Notable Quotes #

“The pleasures of the fine arts are too high for the beasts and too low for the angels, but because man is an animal with reason, they’re most proportioned to man.” — Berquist, summarizing Osterwalder on music evaluation

“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.” — Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, cited to show imagination’s role in love and poetry

“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.” — Shakespeare, illustrating the connection between these three states

“We know earth by earth, water by water, air by air, fire by fire, love by love, and hate by hate.” — Empedocles, cited as an example Aristotle critiques while accepting a grain of truth

“The soul is somehow all beings.” — Aristotle, as cited by Berquist

Questions Addressed #

How does reason depend on imagination if reason is immaterial? #

• Answer: Images are to reason as exterior sensibles are to senses. Reason cannot understand without turning to images, even though understanding itself is immaterial. The understanding is not in the image, just as seeing is not in the painting, yet without the sensible object, seeing cannot occur.

How can we understand universal truths if we can only imagine particulars? #

• Answer: Imagination and thought are distinct powers. When imagining a triangle, one must imagine it as a particular kind (equilateral, scalene, isosceles), but one understands what is common to all triangles. The image is particular; the understanding is universal.

How can the soul be “all things” if the stone is not in the soul? #

• Answer: The soul receives the form (species) of all things immaterially, not materially. It is the form received, not the material thing itself. This explains why reason can know an infinity of different things—it receives all forms without being materially composed of them.

What is the difference between practical and theoretical reason? #

• Answer: Both are the same faculty but differ in purpose and scope. Theoretical reason seeks universal, unchanging truth. Practical reason extends that knowledge to particular circumstances requiring action. Theoretical reason asks “what is it?”; practical reason asks “what to do here and now?”

How does reason know immaterial things like God or angels while in the body? #

• Answer: Aristotle leaves this question to wisdom. We can know immaterial things negatively (by negating what we imagine, as when we say “God is not a body”) or by comparison to understood things.

Connections to Thomistic Theology #

• Thomas Aquinas applies this principle to explain how we can have knowledge of God through negation and analogy
• The distinction between imagination and thought is crucial for understanding the Eucharist (substantial form vs. accidents)
• The sacraments are appropriate to human nature as an animal with reason—sensible signs for a rational creature

Theological Implications #

• St. Paul’s experience of being drawn to the third heaven suggests the possibility of transcending sensory-dependent imagination
• The dependence of thought on images reveals why Alzheimer’s disease is particularly tragic—it undermines the continuity of personal identity and relationship
• Understanding requires both body (source of images) and immaterial soul (source of reason), showing the integration of soul and body