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A Philosophical Look At The Egocentric Interpretation Of Self-transcendence In Man In The Light Of Nietzsche
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
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1.2.1 SUBSTANCE AND ACCIDENT
What
can we say to be the meaning of a substance? It can be defined as a
being whose nature is to exist in itself. For instance, we can see such
things like racehorse, maple tree, robin, human being etc whose centers
of existence and activity remain independent. “Beings that go on being
what they are behind the restless face of everyday changeâ€
On the
other hand, accident “refers to those beings that cannot exist on their
own, any more than the grin on the face of the cat can be found apart
from the catâ€. The basic and outstanding fact about these ways of being
(accident) is that they cannot exist on their own and so depend on some
prior being for their existence. Hence “an accident can then be defined
as a being whose nature is to exist in anotherâ€.
The
word substance is derived from the Latin term sub (under) stans
(standing) and it literally means “Standing under†or that which stands
under. Substance constitute the very nature or essence of a thing and
accident represents any of its qualities which is not essential to its
nature; for instance color, size, weight etc. Various philosophers
equally contributed on the superiority of substance over accident.
Therefore, one can courageously say that substance transcends accident.
This was so because the concept of transcendence not only dwells on
material and tangible things but also goes beyond. For Descartes
“substance is an existent which requires nothing but itself in order to
exist"
1.2.2 BODY AND SOUL
The concept of transcendence is seen
and experienced in the body and soul relationship. It was indeed an
issue that captured the minds and thoughts of many philosophers and
theologians alike. The human soul is the principle of intellectual
activity and as such, it is incorporeal and subsistent. That is to say
that the human soul in its relationship with the body can “exist and
operate even when it is separated from the bodyâ€.
Consequently, the
soul being the principle of intellectual life, takes the form of the
human body. The transcendence of the human soul over the body is equally
seen in the immortality of the soul, but the human soul is a spirit as
well as soul; that is, it has activities-understanding and willing –
which being intrinsically independent of the body for their exercise,
indicate an act of existence equally independent of the body. There is
therefore no principle of death in the soul, for neither can it be
broken up into parts nor is it vitally dependent upon some other being
whose destruction it would share. This is because the soul of man is
spiritual as we noted earlier since it performs operations that are
independent of matter. Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas would see the
human soul as the substantial form of the body as against philosophers
like Plato and Descartes for whom the soul is a separate substance
independent of the body to which it is accidentally united or as against
the views of John B. Watson and David Hume who see the human soul as
something that is unknowable or does not exist at all. The point remains
that the human soul is superior to the body and many religions will
support this view. This is why at the point of death as some religions
hold, the soul leaves the body and does not decay and the body on the
other hand decays. Therefore as spiritual, the soul of man must be the
“product of a direct creation; it must be immortal, for
there is no principle of dissolution in a spiritual beingâ€.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
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