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Spirituality

Definitions

I

499. The intellect, as an element of human nature, is the human subject in so far as it intuits indeterminate-being.

II

The intellect as a power(211) is the faculty which intuits determinate-ideal beings.

III

500. Reason is the faculty which applies indeterminate-being to feelings, and to real and ideal beings. This application gives rise to reasoning.

IV

501. Will is the faculty which inclines towards a known object. The act of will is called volition.

V

Freedom is the faculty which determines the will to a volition or to its contrary.

502. All our previous considerations about animality are simply a commentary on the first part of the definition of human being (cf. 22, 23), that is, of the human being as an animal subject. We now have to continue our work by commenting on and clarifying the subsequent words of the definition according to which the human being is also an intellective and volitive subject. For the sake of brevity, these two qualities of human nature are grouped under the single word spirituality. On the other hand, everything pertaining to the intellect is immune from all admixture and contact with body, and as such constitutes in its own right a spiritual substance.

503. The words intellective and volitive fall into place in the definitions in so far as the natural division of this third book needs to harmonise with that of its predecessor. Having considered first the passive and then the active animal faculties in speaking of the animal part of the human being, we now have to do the same when dealing with the spiritual part.

We shall divide this book into two sections, therefore, and deal first with the human being as intellective and then as volitive. All the passive faculties of the higher part of human nature are included under the heading `intellective', the active faculties under the heading `volitive'.

Notes

(211) Occasionally the word intellect is taken as synonymous with understanding to indicate the whole complex of intellective faculties.