The favoured philosopher
of the Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is principally remembered
for reconciling the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian doctrine. Born in
northern Sicily, he was educated first at the University of Naples and later at
Cologne, and lectured at Paris and Naples. Aquinas was canonized in 1323 by
Pope John XII (thus, he is called Saint Thomas Aquinas).
While much of Aquinas’
work was Aristotelian in derivation he also extended and clarified many of
Aristotle’s ideas and made many original contributions to Aristotelian thought.
Chief amongst Aquinas’ many achievements are the Five Ways, or proofs of the existence of God, from his Summa Theologica. The Five Ways are the
clearest and most succinct attempt to prove the existence of God by means of
logical argument.
In the first of the Five Ways, Aquinas says the
existence of God can be proved by considering the concept of change. We can clearly see that some things in the world are
in the process of change, and this change must be a result of something else,
since a thing cannot change of itself. But the cause of the change itself,
since in the process of change, must also be caused to change by something
other than itself, and so on again, ad
infinitum. Clearly, there must be something which is the cause of all
change, but which itself does not undergo change. For, as Aquinas says, “If the hand does not move the stick, the
stick will not move anything else.” The first mover, Aquinas concludes, is
God.
In the second Way, arguing in a similar manner to the
first, Aquinas notes that causes always operate in series, but there must be a
first cause of the series or there could not be a series at all. Interestingly, both the first and second Ways
proceed on the assumption that a thing cannot cause itself. Yet this is
precisely his conclusion, that there is a thing which does cause itself,
namely, God. Philosophers have criticized this form of arguing as confused,
since the proposition that appears to be proven in the conclusion is the very
same proposition denied in the argument.
In the third Way, it is noted that we observe that
things in the world come to be and pass away. But clearly not everything can be
like this, for then there would have been a time when nothing existed. But if that were true then nothing could ever have
come into being, since something cannot come from nothing. Therefore something
must have always existed, and this is what people understand by God. The first,
second and third Ways of Aquinas’ arguments are often called variations of a
more general argument, the Cosmological Argument.
In the fourth Way, Aquinas offers a version of the
Ontological Argument (to know more
about this argument, see my previous post on St Anselm). In Aquinas’ version some things are noted to exhibit varying degrees
of a quality. A thing may be more or less hot, more or less good, more or
less noble. Such varying degrees of quality are caused by something that
contains the most and perfect amount of that quality. Because, just as the sun
is the hottest thing, and thus is the cause of all other things being hot, so
there must be some fully ‘good’ thing which makes all other things good. That which
is most good is, of course, God.
Finally, the in the Fifth Way, Aquinas relies on
Aristotle’s notion of ‘telos’ or purpose. All things aim towards some ultimate
goal or end. But to be guided by a
purpose or a goal implies some mind that directs or intends that purpose. That director
is, once again, God. Versions of Aquinas’ cosmological and ontological
arguments are still accepted by the Catholic Church today, though modern
philosophers have almost unanimously rejected all five of Aquinas’ Ways.
[Summarized from Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers by
Philip Stokes, 2012. Also watch YouTube’s ‘The
School of Life: Thomas Aquinas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJvoFf2wCBU]
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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