The Thomistic Perspective on the Mind-World Relationship

The difference between St. Thomas' view of the mind-world relation and a materialist perspective is precisely with respect to the closeness between the mind and the world, as I understand it. So for the cart, the mind is one thing and the world is another thing; there are only relations of efficient causality. And then you have to explain how our thinking gets its grip on this external world that is only impacts on us in terms of causal impacts. It's very difficult to say what is ours and what is up the world because our relationship with the world is very strong. The Thomistic view here is that it fundamentally rejects this kind of picture.