2.1.3.1 Superiority of Mind
Reason is the key to man. All the superiorities observable in the human person are traceable to the possession of that one root power which is his specific
difference: rationality. By this he surpasses the rest of creation not only in his specific power, but because through it he elevates those lower powers which he
has in common with lower creatures, complete the universe, and perfects himself Cronan 57.
Man’s unique superiority to other creatures is seen in his intellectual operation with regard to other existents. He can follow the universal dynamic
order consciously, and further it by rational foresight, in himself, and through others, and thus not only possess a superior nature, but perfect his inferiors by the
operation of his own natural superiority which sublimates them in a higher mode Cronan 61-62.
2.1.3.2 Supremacy of Will and Free Will
Man is attracted to unlimited goodness itself, he knows what it is that attracts him, and although he must move to it, he can consciously and freely move
toward it in his choice of means. Therefore he alone has will and since it is not only natural and inescapable but also rational and aware so he has freedom to do
his will Cronan 66-67. He has command decision over his actions: he is master of himself and his powers of operation, having the power of choice to act or not
Cronan 69. 11
It is his rationality that gives man superiority of choice and dominance over himself, over his actions, and over the goods he may make use of, and it is in
the operation of this free activity that man not only is constituted in a greater operative perfection, but achieves his own further perfecting, his further actuality;
and then also, with the retroaction of values, he himself gains even greater perfection because the perfective use of his powers has perfected the universe
more, by his free creation of further actualities in it. He is the master of the means of perfection themselves, a position of likeness to the omnipotent and free
Creator’s governance of Himself and all else Cronan 71. Allers suggest that the primal and double driving powers in humans are the
will to power and the will to community. The goal of the first is self-preservation and complete realization of self and the goal of the latter is to further realization of
self in others, called love. In addition, Allers insists that there is always present a consideration of value that “every being tends toward the good” Aristotelian and
Thomistic axiom. It is because the drive potentials operate, and seek their completion in acts which will perfect personality and extend personal dignity
Cronan 13. The few best modern psychologists agree with the scholastic doctrine that
the reasoning power which distinguishes the person is the guiding and governing factor in integrating the personality into the more perfect actualization of its innate
potentials. Allers has put it well when he says that the innate and inescapable drive toward perfection or completion, which is at the same time, an inherent
power-potential for it, is the very core energy of the whole fundamental 12
movement we call “life,” which, when completed in the realization of those perfectible energies, is “perfected” Cronan 16.
2.1.3.3 Man and Creator: His Perfection
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