St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274(5)) was an Eclectic, Aristotelian, and a Christian. His teacher was Albert Magnus, also known as "Albert the Great". St. Thomas wrote two major works, the Summa Theologica and Suma Contra Gentiles. In the Summa Theologica he had perhaps his most famous single work, his proofs for the existence of God. These were knows as the "Five Ways". These were:1. The fact of change proves an ultimate agent of change. 2. The chain of causation proves a first cause that needs to be uncaused to end the otherwise endless chain of events. 3. The contingent facts of the world require an ultimate Being. 4. The fact of graduation of things as higher and lower suggests Perfected Being at the top of the hierarchy. 5. The order and design found in nature suggest a highest Being at the Source. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. It is certain to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion. Now another puts whatever is in motion in motion, for nothing can be in motion unless another acts it upon. For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality. But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause. In the world of sense we find there is an order of efficient causes. There is no case known in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of it; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible. Now in efficient causes it is not possible to go on to infinity, because in all efficient causes following in a sequential order, the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause, whether the intermediate cause is several, or only one. Now to take away the cause is to take away the effect. Therefore, if there is no first cause among efficient causes, there will be no ultimate cause. But if in efficient causes it is possible to go on to infinity, there will be no first efficient cause; neither will there be an ultimate effect, nor any intermediate efficient causes; all of which is plainly false. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to whi! 2. If every object in motion had a mover, then the first object in motion needed a mover. The criticism offered to this point of view is that human capacity is not nearly great enough to completely understand the evolution of movement. In addition it may be stated that the claims made by Aquinas were made in the absence of modern day science. Today, scientists are able to explain everything. A perfect example would be the Big Bang Theory. The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. Among beings there are some more and some less good, true, noble and the like. But "more" and "less" are predicated of different things, according as they resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum, as a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest; so that there is something which is truest, something best, something noblest and, consequently, something which is uttermost being; for those things that are greatest in truth are greatest in being. Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something, which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God. St. Thomas formulated this Way from a very interesting observation about the qualities of things. For example one may say that of t! wo marble sculptures one is more beautiful than the other. So for these two objects, one has a greater degree of beauty than the next. This is referred to as degrees or gradation of a quality. From this fact Aquinas concluded that for any given quality (e.g. goodness, beauty, knowledge) there must be a perfec
Some common words found in the essay are:
Bang Theory, God Five, Thomas Aquinas, God God, St Thomas, CAUSE GOD, Unmoved Mover, Mover GOD, According Aquinas, efficient causes, Summa Theologica, st thomas, motion motion, criticism offered, god criticism, efficient cause, god criticism offered, st thomas aquinas, intermediate cause, actually hot, call god, cause intermediate, cause intermediate cause, god st thomas, aquinas concluded common,
Approximate Word count = 1883
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
