St. Albertus Magnus was a pioneer in the project of integrating and reconciling Aristotelian hylomorphism (as received and interpreted through Neo-Platonic and Arabic sources) with the Christian theological tradition. In the past century, there has been debate over whether St. Albert’s overall anthropological synthesis was successful, in particular in avoiding dualistic implications with respect to the union of the human soul and body. The present paper revisits that debate, responding to the case against the success of St. Albert’s synthesis, and making a positive case in its favor. It identifies as the crux of the controversy the question of whether, for St. Albert, the soul on its own is a “complete” substance; and then argues both that St. Albert denies that it is, and that neither do his principles imply that it is. As a result, we can discover in his thought a unified, coherent anthropological synthesis.
Harrison Jennings (Sun,) studied this question.