8.9 Antonio Petagine – Che cosa la filosofia può dire dell’anima e del suo destino? Considerazioni a partire dal confronto tra Giovanni Duns Scoto e Tommaso d’Aquino

The western idea of soul has a dual origin: the platonic one, according to which the soul is the principle of spiritual life, and the aristotelian one, according to which the soul is the form of the body. In the 13th century, thanks to the mediation of Avicenna, this twofold idea is not seen as a possible source of incoherence, but as the proof of the complexity of human life: the soul is, at the same time, both that which makes man similar to the other life forms and that which makes it different.

In accordance with this premise, Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus both affirm that philosophy allows us to identify the most peculiar characteristics of the human soul. While Aquinas claims, however, that even immortality of the soul comes within the conclusions of philosophy, John Duns Scotus does not consider immortality to be demonstrable, beyond the horizons of faith. The essay dedicates particular attention to the arguments with which Duns Scotus has professed to show the inability of philosophy to deal with the subject of immortality in a pertinent way.