Thomas Aquinas on the End of Human Life

n the present paper I rediscuss a text from Thomas Aquinas’s Commen- tary on the Liber de causis which seems to entail the possible distinction, in a human being, between end of human life and biological death of the living organism. This text establishes a parallel between the process of substantial generation, understood as a progressive acquisition of forms, and that of corruption, understood as a progressive loss of forms, thus introducing an apparent exception to the Aristotelian “functionalism” which inspires the entire anthropological doctrine of Thomas. In the present paper I offer an interpretation of Proclus’s parallel that makes it reconcilable with Aristot- le’s functionalism. My interpretation is that, for Thomas, the end of human life coincides with the biological death of the living organism. The loss of forms in the process of substantial corruption cannot begin before but only after the detachment of the human soul from the body. The removal of ra- tionality referred to by Proclus has therefore to be limited to the actual use of reason, not to the possibility of having the capacity of using it