Connaturality and the cogitative power: A Thomistic account of the influence of culture on moral formation.

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide the framework for a Thomistic account of how culture influences moral formation. Clear accounts of moral formation and natural law have already been articulated by St. Thomas and his commentators. What we find in their work provides the basis for an account of culture that relies on the notions of finality (human acts are ordered to one final end), habit, and connaturality. Since repeated actions form habits, culture, by recommending and upholding examples of certain actions, disposes its members to form habits. The habits, in turn, incline their members to feel and act in particular ways.;The power of culture to dispose its members to certain ways of perceiving and acting is, to some extent, checked by the presence of tendencies within human nature that are prior to cultural habituation. These are the inclinations due to the natural law. While the inclinations due to habituation are a second nature, the natural law is first nature. In Thomistic language, they are both connatural to humans, but the natural law is more connatural to us than acquired habits. Judgments made according to connatural inclinations, of both the primary and secondary sort, are described by St. Thomas as affective judgments that are not made by rational deliberation. Being affective, these judgments are subjective in character: they are made according to what 'feels' right. Given that connaturality plays an important role in moral perception and action, it is surprising that there is no satisfactory account of where such judgments are formed and how they can be reliable since they are not made by the intellect.;The chief contribution of this dissertation to the larger question regarding culture and moral formation is that it brings to light the puzzle concerning the source of judgments made by connaturality and suggests that a solution is to be found in the activities of the cogitative power. With regard to culture, it also gives the outline of how a Thomistic understanding of the internal senses, and the cogitative power in particular, helps to explain how music influences moral formation.