THOMAS AQUINAS NOTION ON IMMORTALITY OF THE HUMAN SOUL

This project examines the idea of the immortality of the human soul in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. The study explains how Aquinas brings together the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian teaching, especially through the theory that the human person is a unity of soul and body. Aquinas argues that the soul is the form that gives life to the body, yet it also has a special kind of existence of its own. This is because human intellectual activities, such as understanding and willing, are not fully dependent on material organs. From this, Aquinas concludes that the rational soul is not destroyed when the body dies and is naturally directed toward eternal happiness. The study also considers how Aquinas’s position relates to modern debates about personal identity, dualism, and materialism, showing both its strengths and its possible weaknesses. By carefully explaining ideas such as immateriality, subsistence, and intellectual activity, the project argues that Aquinas’s view of immortality is not a simple separation of soul and body, nor merely a religious claim, but a carefully reasoned metaphysical position. The project concludes by showing that Aquinas’s account of the immortal soul remains philosophically important because it offers a balanced and coherent understanding of the human person that unites metaphysics, knowledge, and the final destiny of human life.