Sobre la relación de alma y cuerpo en Alberto Magno

Abstract

The main purpose of this article consists in giving account of Albert the Great’s arguments against an array of materialism explanations of the soul. The point of departure is the question whether the soul can be reduced to a mechanical principle of movement. In order to clarify this issue, a short characterization of the concept «mechanicus» is in order. Following this, Albert’s stance regarding materialist, mainly atomist explanations of the soul is presented. It will be shown that his solution to the problem of the relation of soul and body in not derived from the falsity of materialism, but from his basic assumption that the soul has per se an existence independent from the body in which it occurs. Hence, his criticism of materialist theories of the relation of soul and body either is not designed to resolve any soul-body problem or it simply begs the question.