The Harmony of the Faculties in the Epistemology of Francisco Suárez

Abstract

The problem of communication between the body and the soul is a topic of rationalist psychology, but is already present in Francisco Suárez. The Doctor Eximio criticizes the notion that the image is the instrumental cause, which produces the intelligible species, because a material reality cannot be the efficient cause of anything in a reality of a higher order, as is the spiritual soul. Suárez considers the types of causality that are proper to images, and concludes that the various denominations are inappropriate: instrumental, material and exemplary. This leads him to adopt the doctrine of sympathy or natural harmony of the faculties proposed by the physician Francisco Vallés. On the other hand, he underlines the active role of the intelligence, but certain expressions invite the reader to conceive a duality of operations (sensitive and intellectual), thus giving grounds to accept a pre-established harmony or cognitive occasionalism. In any case, the texts of Suárez are an invitation to continue thinking about the specific nature of human thought.