St. Thomas Aquinas on death and the separated soul

Abstract

Since St. Thomas Aquinas holds that death is a substantial change, a popular current interpretation of his anthropology must be mistaken. According to that interpretation - the 'survivalist' view - St. Thomas holds that we human beings survive our deaths, constituted solely by our souls in the interim between death and resurrection. This paper argues that St. Thomas must have held the 'corruptionist' view: the view that human beings cease to exist at their deaths. Certain objections to the corruptionist view are also met. © 2010 The Author Pacific Philosophical Quarterly © 2010 University of Southern California and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.