“Faculdade formadora” (facultas formatrix), “influxo divino” (influxus diuinus) e “instinto natural” (instinctus naturalis)

The relationship between mind and body does not exhaust the set of scientific and philosophical problems posed by the chapter devoted to influxus diuinus and instinctus naturalis. On the one hand, there is the relationship between the compound (mind/body) and the external world. On the other, the relation between the theological principle of “vivification” and “sensification” (St. Augustine) 2 and the human being in its relation with the totality of the world and of life. Rodrigo de Castro’s thesis as a doctor has to be contextualised with the thesis of Rodrigo de Castro as a philosopher or even theologian. The “fact” that each human being has to relate to his life implicates each human being in his relationship not only with his body and its dispositions but also with his mind, with the outside world, with life in its totality and with God. The interpretation of the meaning of influxus and instinctus is supported by the references to which it appeals. With Anaxagoras and Plato we get an understanding of the human being as the bearer of nous (mens, spiritus). From Aristotle we get the model of the composition of zoai (threptikê, aucsêtikê, aisthêtikê, praktikê). The human being has in its structure to constitute it the genetic inheritance and the epigenetic opening. The references to Galen and the Stoics (we bring Seneca and Hierocles into collation) allow us to prepare the outline of a more modern understanding of concepts of totality and holistic visions of philosophical anthropology.