The Nature of the Soul

Will

Material cognition provides impulses.

The intellect (immaterial cognition + rationalization) understands, evaluates, and presents the good.

The will is free from compulsion by material forces and not determined by intellect, but it chooses in response to what the intellect presents.

Rationalization can be either ordered (truth-oriented) or disordered (distorted reasoning).

What I call “spirits” are the dispositions formed in us by God through Faith, Hope, and Love (theological virtues), which He infuses into the soul.

Through this spirit formed by the theological virtues, rationalization is oriented toward truth.

However, when not formed by the spirit shaped through the theological virtues, it is called “disordered,” because rationalization then bends truth to serve impulses.

Repeated choices guided by rationalization oriented toward truth form the spirit as stable habits (habitus), known as the cardinal virtues.

  • Prudence → right reasoning about action
  • Justice → giving others their due
  • Fortitude → firmness in difficulty
  • Temperance → control of desires

For ordinary animals, the flow towards decisions and actions is:

Senses → Memory + Imagination → Emotion + Valuation → Decision/Action selection → Motor action

However, for humans, this flow is also influenced by ordered rationalization (truth-oriented), such that decision/action selection is not only oriented to emotion and valuation, but also toward truth.

Humans are not compelled to make decisions oriented toward truth alone; rather, ordered rationalization presents truth to the will, directing it toward truth without compelling it.

The will makes the free choice, which is then carried out through decision/action selection in the brain, leading to motor action.

Repeated free choices of the will, expressed through motor actions and oriented toward emotion and valuation over truth, form stable habits (habitus) known as vices, culminating in the Capital (Deadly) Sins.

Senses → Memory + Imagination → Emotion + Valuation
↓
+ Ordered Rationalization (Truth)
↓
Will (Free Choice)

Valuation Path

Will chooses Valuation
↓
Decision / Action Selection (Brain)
↓
Motor Action
↓
Repeated Choices
↓
Habitus (Stable Habit)
↓
Vices
↓
Capital (Deadly) Sins

Truth Path

Will chooses Truth
↓
Decision / Action Selection (Brain)
↓
Motor Action
↓
Repeated Choices
↓
Habitus (Stable Habit)
↓
“Spirits” / Virtue Dispositions
↓
Capital Virtues (Oppose Capital Sins)
“Capital virtues” is used here in a non-theological sense to indicate dispositions opposing capital sins.

Repeated free choices of the will, expressed through motor actions and oriented toward truth, form stable habits (habitus) that become enduring dispositions or “spirits,” which oppose and remedy the capital vices.

These may be understood, in a non-theological sense, as “capital virtues,” insofar as they counteract the capital sins.