Aquinas' Five Ways to Prove the Existence of God

This set of flashcards covers key vocabulary and concepts from Aquinas' Five Ways to prove the existence of God as discussed in his Summa Theologica.

Argument from Motion

The first way Aquinas uses to prove God's existence, stating that everything in motion must be moved by a first mover.

Actuality

The state of being actual; that which is currently real as opposed to potential.

Potentiality

The capacity to develop into something in the future; the state of being possible or capable of existing.

Efficient Cause

The cause that brings something into being; essential for understanding the chain of existence.

First Cause

The primary cause in a chain of causes, which itself was not caused by anything else, identified by Aquinas as God.

Necessity

The condition of being certain or unavoidable; in Aquinas' argument, relates to the existence of beings.

Contingent Beings

Beings that are possible to be or not to be and depend on something else for their existence.

Maximum Being

The greatest being, from which all goodness, truth, and perfection derive; identified by Aquinas as God.

Governance of the World

The concept that non-intelligent beings act toward ends directed by an intelligent being, which Aquinas identifies as God.

Conclusion of the Five Ways

Aquinas concludes that the existence of God can be established through motion, efficient causes, necessity, gradation, and governance.