DSPT hosts Chad Engelland, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. To assess what is at stake in the Heidegger-Aquinas debate concerning human animality, the paper contemplates the significance of the human hand, which Aristotle memorably calls the tool of tools. The hand clearly belongs to the bodily dimension of us and is both anticipated by animal grasping and transfigured by the unlimited openness of the human spirit. In this way, Aquinas can account for the kinship of the human and the animal while maintaining the essential difference between them. However, it is Heidegger who helps us see the full significance of the human hand, which is not just handy for handling things: the hand also points out, and, we could say, it embodies the presence of God in the world. Free and open to the public. RSVP recommended. Response by Justin Gable, OP, DSPT Professor of Philosophy.
