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Man As Infinite Spirit,
Book by Robb, James H.
57 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1974
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December 19, 2025
Studying Man As Spirit In Milwaukee
Every year, the Philosophy Department of Marquette University, Milwaukee invites a scholar to give a lecture on a philosophical subject. The lectures are published by Marquette University Press and offer the opprotunity to learn about many philosophical issues and approaches to philosophy. I grew up in Milwaukee and read these lectures as examples of the intellectual life of my home town.
March 7, 1974, marked the 700 anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas. To commemorate the occasion, the Philosophy Department asked Professor James H. Robb of Marquette's own philosophy department to deliver the annual Aquinas Lecture on a subject relating to Aquinas' thought. Robb (1918 -- 1993) taught at Marquette for many years and was a renowned expert in Medieval philosophy and in Aquinas as well as an inspring teacher and lecturer.
Robb's lecture, given on March 10, 1974, was titled "Man as Infinite Spirit" and focused on Aquinas' philosophy of man. This might be an erudite, technical subject even for philosophers not well-grounded in Aquinas' thought. Robb's lecture while difficult weaves together a discussion of Aquinas with Robb's own personal reflections on the study of metaphysics and philosophy, and with reflections on how Aquinas' understanding of man remains of critical importance to modern life and thought.
Robb discusses how he had studied Aquinas for many years before realizing his lack of full understanding. He came to think of Aquinas under the influence of scholars such as Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson to see Aquinas as an existential thinker more than as an Aristotelian. "It has taken us 700 years to begin to do justice to the profound uniqueness of [Aquinas'] doctrine on man", Robb writes. He points to the difficulty in thinking philosophically of seeing things afresh, with effort, rather than through the accumulated customary views of the past.
For Robb, Aquinas sees the essence of man as spirit or intellect. Traditional interpreters of Aquinas understand him as teaching that God is infinite spirit while man is finite spirit. Human beings have limitations in that they grow old and die, learn with difficulty, struggle with emotions, and many other obvious considerations.
Robb reads Aquinas' texts to teach that man is a finite spirit but he is an infinite spirit as well. Infinite can be said in many senses. and Robb finds that in its quest for God, goodness, truth, and beauty, man's reach is infinite, conditioned by man's basic limitations and finitude. The body of his lecture develops this position by developing the nature of intellect, the nature of spirit. the nature of finite spirit,and the nature of infinite spirit.
After his exposition, Robb reaches his eloquent conclusion. Aquinas' thought and philosophy are intended to help understand reality rather than to argue. It is important to realize the importance of the teaching that man is both a finite and an infinite spirit for Aquinas' own time and for our own. The understanding of man is a finite spirit is important because it teaches human limitation. Some people simply think they know more than they in fact do and, if they are educated, they may think their own specialty holds the key to understanding all human issues. They need to be reminded of finitude.
Conversly, for Robb, "there are others who. having no sense of the metaphysical notion of intentionality, would reduce human knowing to the material and the physical conditions which accompany it." Those thinking in this manner need to be reminded of man as an infinite spirit and to stress man's openess to the "fullness of existential reality, man as someone whose very ontological structure guarantees the possibility of metaphysics. and explains man's permanent refusal to deny the metaphysical dimensions of either himself or the universe."
There is a great deal in Robb's discussion which has value beyond his particular reading of Aquinas or his commitment to a particular religious philosophy. His lecture is rewarding and perhaps is something of an antidote to a too limited conception of experience or of pragmatism, among other things. I learned form the lecture and I appreciated the passion Robb brought to it. The lecture reminded me of the breadth and difficulty of philosophical thinking and also brought back to me my early years of studying philosophy in Milwaukee.
Robin Friedman
Every year, the Philosophy Department of Marquette University, Milwaukee invites a scholar to give a lecture on a philosophical subject. The lectures are published by Marquette University Press and offer the opprotunity to learn about many philosophical issues and approaches to philosophy. I grew up in Milwaukee and read these lectures as examples of the intellectual life of my home town.
March 7, 1974, marked the 700 anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas. To commemorate the occasion, the Philosophy Department asked Professor James H. Robb of Marquette's own philosophy department to deliver the annual Aquinas Lecture on a subject relating to Aquinas' thought. Robb (1918 -- 1993) taught at Marquette for many years and was a renowned expert in Medieval philosophy and in Aquinas as well as an inspring teacher and lecturer.
Robb's lecture, given on March 10, 1974, was titled "Man as Infinite Spirit" and focused on Aquinas' philosophy of man. This might be an erudite, technical subject even for philosophers not well-grounded in Aquinas' thought. Robb's lecture while difficult weaves together a discussion of Aquinas with Robb's own personal reflections on the study of metaphysics and philosophy, and with reflections on how Aquinas' understanding of man remains of critical importance to modern life and thought.
Robb discusses how he had studied Aquinas for many years before realizing his lack of full understanding. He came to think of Aquinas under the influence of scholars such as Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson to see Aquinas as an existential thinker more than as an Aristotelian. "It has taken us 700 years to begin to do justice to the profound uniqueness of [Aquinas'] doctrine on man", Robb writes. He points to the difficulty in thinking philosophically of seeing things afresh, with effort, rather than through the accumulated customary views of the past.
For Robb, Aquinas sees the essence of man as spirit or intellect. Traditional interpreters of Aquinas understand him as teaching that God is infinite spirit while man is finite spirit. Human beings have limitations in that they grow old and die, learn with difficulty, struggle with emotions, and many other obvious considerations.
Robb reads Aquinas' texts to teach that man is a finite spirit but he is an infinite spirit as well. Infinite can be said in many senses. and Robb finds that in its quest for God, goodness, truth, and beauty, man's reach is infinite, conditioned by man's basic limitations and finitude. The body of his lecture develops this position by developing the nature of intellect, the nature of spirit. the nature of finite spirit,and the nature of infinite spirit.
After his exposition, Robb reaches his eloquent conclusion. Aquinas' thought and philosophy are intended to help understand reality rather than to argue. It is important to realize the importance of the teaching that man is both a finite and an infinite spirit for Aquinas' own time and for our own. The understanding of man is a finite spirit is important because it teaches human limitation. Some people simply think they know more than they in fact do and, if they are educated, they may think their own specialty holds the key to understanding all human issues. They need to be reminded of finitude.
Conversly, for Robb, "there are others who. having no sense of the metaphysical notion of intentionality, would reduce human knowing to the material and the physical conditions which accompany it." Those thinking in this manner need to be reminded of man as an infinite spirit and to stress man's openess to the "fullness of existential reality, man as someone whose very ontological structure guarantees the possibility of metaphysics. and explains man's permanent refusal to deny the metaphysical dimensions of either himself or the universe."
There is a great deal in Robb's discussion which has value beyond his particular reading of Aquinas or his commitment to a particular religious philosophy. His lecture is rewarding and perhaps is something of an antidote to a too limited conception of experience or of pragmatism, among other things. I learned form the lecture and I appreciated the passion Robb brought to it. The lecture reminded me of the breadth and difficulty of philosophical thinking and also brought back to me my early years of studying philosophy in Milwaukee.
Robin Friedman
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