Philosophical Anthropology

A recorded course for adults

Instructor: Sister Bernadette-Marie of Jesus Christ Crucified, F.L.M.

Course Description and Syllabus:

This course studies what it means to be a human person, that is, a being made in the image and likeness of God, that is, a being endowed with freedom and the capacities to know and to love. Topics include: basic philosophical principles; man as a body-soul composite; the powers of the rational soul and its immortality; the faculties of man (the senses, the passions, the intellect, the will); the inviolability of the human person.

Through a greater understanding of human nature, students will be better able to fulfill the end for which they were made: to know, love, and serve God in this life so as to be happy with Him forever in the next. While the course is intended for adults, mature high school students are also welcome.

There are twelve recorded classes in the course which are in a Google Drive folder which may be accessed by registered students.

If you are unable to donate but would like to attend, please email us at schoolofmarywithflm@gmail.com. May God reward you!

Course Objectives

1) To grow in a greater understanding of our God-given nature so as to better understand how grace builds upon it.
2) To learn some basic philosophical principles which will facilitate further study of the Catholic Faith and of philosophy
3) To be able to give a reason-based defense of the inviolability of all human life from the moment of conception

View Syllabus and Class Reading PDF

Class Schedule

See below for Class Readings.

Lesson 1: What is philosophy? Why study philosophy? What is objective truth?
Lesson 2: Order and hierarchy in creation; begin basic philosophical principles: form and matter; four causes; the telos of things
Lesson 3: Continuation of basic philosophical principles: intrinsic and extrinsic principles; potency and act; first and second act
Lesson 4: Categories: substance and accidents; change; prime matter; secondary matter
Lesson 5: The Soul: kinds, powers, activities of the soul; vegetative powers of the soul
Lesson 6: Sensitive powers of the soul: sensation, appetition, locomotion; external senses

Lesson 7: Internal senses; sense appetite

Lesson 8: Rational Powers: intellect and will. Begin the faculty of the intellect

Lesson 9: Continue the faculty of the intellect

Lesson 10: Spiritual Soul: subsistent, immortal, immaterial; what it means to be a person

Lesson 11: The faculty of the human will; begin human freedom

Lesson 12: Continuation of human freedom; the summum bonum and happiness (if time, human nature as elevated by grace) NB: no reading was assigned for this class.

Those who register after June 4th 2025 will receive the link to a Google Drive folder with the recordings of the talks.