The Modern Schoolman

Volume 89, Issue 3/4, July/October 2012

Theological Themes in Medieval Philosophy

St. Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Too Many Thinkers

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 of us 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.