St. Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Too Many Thinkers

Modern Schoolman 89 (3-4):209-222 (2012)
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Abstract

It has been argued that St. Thomas Aquinas’s anthropological views fall prey to the problem of “Too Many Thinkers.” The worry, roughly, is that his views entail that I—a human person—am able to think, but that my soul—which is not a human person—is also able to think. Hence, too many thinkers: there are too many ofus having my thoughts. In this paper, I show why this is not a problem for St. Thomas. Along the way, I also address Peter Unger’s argument for substance dualism.

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original Toner, Patrick (2012) "St. Thomas Aquinas on punishing souls". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 71(2):103-116

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Patrick Toner
Wake Forest University

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