Different in degree or kind; language (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 29, 2014, 00:29 (3405 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I certainly shan't disagree with you as regards our intellect and consciousness being vastly superior to those of our fellow animals, but the question remains as to why it is so important for you to distinguish between degree and kind. You now seem unsure whether our bodies and brains (which can hardly be separated from intellect and consciousness, even if the source of these remains a mystery) did or didn't evolve by Darwinian evolution. -I'm not unsure. Very simple. 'Degree' means that we humans evolved with our giant brain by some form of evolution. "Kind" means that our giant brain and consciousness were created by a special purposeful directed process separate from the evolution of our animal bodies. Strictly from Adler, and it represents the Thomist philosophical view of dualism. This is a major key to my thinking.-From vj Torley, the theistic philosopher:-"On the Thomistic account, every human being is a unity. An organism's soul is simply its underlying principle of unity. The human soul, with its ability to reason, does not distinguish us from animals; it distinguishes us as animals. The unity of a human being's actions is actually deeper and stronger than that underlying the acts of a non-rational animal: rationality allows us to bring together our past, present and future acts, when we formulate plans. When Aquinas argues that the act of intellect is not the act of a bodily organ, he is not showing that there is a non-animal act engaged in by human beings. He is showing, rather, that not every act of an animal is a bodily act. The human animal is capable of non-bodily acts in addition to bodily ones." -http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/remembering-rameses/