Paper details
Write a paper in which you identify and explain one argument Aquinas makes in the The Treatise on Human Nature taken from Summa Theologiae Ia, qq. 75-77.
You must choose an argument from the Corpus of one article (The corpus is the section labeled “Reply”): Pick one article from the list below.
Pick one a. from the following list:
Q. 75: a. 1
Q. 75, a. 2
Q. 75 ,a. 6
Q. 76: a. 3
Q. 77, a. 1
Q. 77, a. 3
Q. 77, a. 8
If you want to write on a different article, you must get my approval.
Requirements
Things you must do:
Begin by stating the passage in which the argument is found. State the Question and Article number
Identify the conclusion of the argument.
Identify the premises of the argument. Present them by identifying each premise (For example: “Premise one is that…”). Quote the line from which the premise is taken.
Explain what each premise means. If St. Thomas gives an example or explanation of a premise, be sure to mention this. Define any technical terms. Cite previous articles if any of the premises are taken from previous articles.
For example: “Aquinas’s first premise is that “the subject of a power is that which is able to operate” (Q. 77, A. 5, co.). Aquinas explains that this is because “every accident denominates its proper subject.” Powers, Aquinas argues in Q. 77, a. 1, co., are proper accidents which belong to a living thing. They flow from the soul but are not part of the soul. The subject of a power possesses the power. However, what possesses a power is the same thing that use a power: “The same is that which is able to operate, and that which does operate.” (Q. 77, A. 5, co.) This is clear from an example. Whatever performs the operation of heating could only do so because it possesses the power of heating. Thus the subject of operation is the subject of the power.”
Things you should not do:
Summarize the argument or the passage without identifying the premises.
