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Objection 5: It is impossible for an infinite number of things to exist simultaneously.
If the world is eternal, then there must exist simultaneously an infinite number of human
souls. Bonaventure arrives at this conclusion by arguing that the world does not exist without
men, each man endures for a finite amount of time, and each soul is immortal and unique to the
individual man. Bonaventure rejects the possibility of all men sharing one human soul and the
possibility of reincarnation by calling them philosophical mistakes that already Aristotle
recognized. 90 Bonaventure’s argument hinges on the first premise that men existed from all
eternity. Bonaventure most likely is following Aristotle’s argument from Physics stating that
since everything in creation exists as related to man, “the world would never have been without
man.” 91
90
Bonaventure, Comm. in Sent. 2, d.1, pars 1, art. 1, q.2: “Impossibile est infinita simul esse; sed si mundus est
eaternus sine principio, cum non sit sine homine – propter hominem enim sunt quodam modo omnia – et homo
duret finite tempore: ergo infini homines fuerunt. Sed quot fuerunt homines, tot animae rationales: ergo infinitae
animae fuerunt. Sed quot animae fuerunt, tot sunt, quia sunt formae incorruptibiles: ergo infinitae animase sunt. Si
tu dicas propter hoc, quod circumlatio est in animabus, vel quod una anima est in omnibus hominibus; primum est
error in philosophia, quia, ut vult Philosophus, ‘propius actus est in propria materia’: ergo non potest anima, quae
fuit perfectio unius, esse perfectio alterius, etiam secundum Philosophum. Secundum etiam magis est erroneum,
quia multo minus una est anima omnium.”
91
Bonansea, "The Question,” 19.
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