1 of 1- lawrence89
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Offline - Registered: 9/03/2015
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Books about the soul
Hi, I would like to start studying the topic of the soul and the hylemorphic dualism from a catholic perspective (does it follows the thomistic doctrine on these issues?). Can you give me any advice about some books I could read to start understanding the topic? I know Feser has talked about "In Defense of the Soul" by Ric Machuga... is it ok? Any other good introductory texts?
- DanielCC
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- Registered: 6/26/2015
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Re: Books about the soul
You'll probably know of it but David Oderberg's Real Essentialism contains a section on Hylemorphic Dualism and Persons.
In Defense of the Soul is a good book and probably the most fleshed out take on the subject you will find short of trawling through unpublished Phd papers on ProQuest. Both Ed and Oderberg are a little haughty towards it as he (Machuga) identifies persons with souls, something which doesn't seem to matter so much if the soul if considered hylemorphicaly anyway.
James Madden’s Mind, Matter, and Nature: A Thomistic Proposal for the Philosophy of Mind is a fairly accessible elaboration and defense of the hylemorphic view ostensibly in the context of an introduction to Philosophy of Mind. He opts for a ‘trendy’ oppositional take on Dualism however, which is rather annoying.
David Braine gives an indepth techincal defense of Thomistc Dualism in his The Human Person: Animal and Spirit. The book abounds with vile Wittgensteinianisms - 'the earthy anti-dualistic wisdomd of Ryle and Austin' - still if you're interested in the subject you shouldn't miss it.
A word of advice: avoid anything by William Jarwoski as if it were the plague.