Aquinas I

Life

  • (1224/5- 1274)

  • lived in an interesting time regarding Christianity, ethics→ in the Middle Ages

  • lots of philosophical interest, questions about whether they should only look towards the Bible to understand God or other philosophical writing

  • most influential thinker w/in Catholic tradition

  • born into minor nobility in Southern Italy (ruled over by Sicily at the time), younger son so not too important in society

    • sent to live in a monastery until 13 (Benedictine monks)→ devoted their lives to God, very traditional, stuck to Bible

    • expected to be an Abbot (head of a monastery)

    • powerful families had some sons in military, some in business, and at least one that’s an Abbot

    • sent to Naples for college (atp all colleges are religious)

    • Dominicans (diff order than Benedictines) run this college, have a huge theological belief difference

  • Greek was being rediscovered→ reading some of the same stuff we did, especially philosophical stuff like Aristotle (when he says “the philosopher”, refers to him)

    • Dominicans believed you should use outside knowledge (mainly Greek) to understand Christianity better

  • willing to be influenced by Arabic, Jewish, Greek, etc writings and he’ll cite everybody→ can be dangerous/get him in trouble

    • he wanted to be a Dominican but his parents wanted him to be Benedictine (his family kidnapped him and locked him in family castle to keep him from going to France and hanging out with more Dominicans→ story ab his family releasing a sex worker in the room to tempt him, he takes a burning log and chases her out, inscribes something in the room…his mom eventually lets him escape and make his way north all over Europe)

  • He kept learning b/c wanted to get a master’s degree in teaching and teach others

    • he was very reserved in general, didn’t talk very much

    • one of his teachers said “you can call him the dumb ox if you want but one day this ox’s bellowing will echo around the world” (that was his nickname)

    • loved to teach Gospel of Matthew, focused on converting people, loved to teach about that

Obtaining Knowledge

  1. Through your senses

  2. Ration

  3. Revelation/Faith

    • limit to human knowledge → look to divine knowledge

    • can be imparted to humans by God, where the first 2 are purely human

    • reveals deeper truths

    • Ex: you know you’re a student at Rhodes but after a while you feel a part of Rhodes→ according to Aquinas, this feeling is brought about by God

    • Aquinas did not believe in faith without any human knowledge and ration

Writings

  • writes in very straightforward ways at times like Aristotle but his ways of proving God exists align with how teaching worked around that time

    • advanced students at that time would do readings and then there would be someone leading the class, divide the class in half (yes/no sides) and there would be a yes/no question posed→ have to argue for that side→ strengthened rhetorical skills even for lesser arguments

    • teacher would synthesize arguments and come up with a final answer

    • kind of like Sophistry b/c can make lesser arguments greater

    • Teaching like this = Scholastic Method

    • class arguments = Disputations

  • he has very strong opinions, not really a middle ground

  • does list arguments against God, like evil exists, but also approaches it from the science side of things, like there are natural causes for most things

  • lists all his yes arguments:

    1. Motion→ there must be something that started moving the first thing, like laws of motion in Newtonian physics→ God is first mover+unmoved, is Aristotle’s idea applied in a Christian concept

    2. Cause and effect

    3. Things exist

    4. Gradations→ some things better than others, best thing = God, like Plato’s form of the good

    5. Order in the Universe

  • at the time, no concept of infinity, which kinda throws a wrench in some of these

  • proofs do prove God exists for a very narrow definition for God when there are several things that cannot be explained, unknown = God, whether God is purposeful or just some unsolved mystery titled God

  • God allows there to be evil so He can make good out of it, taken from Augustine

Law:

  • Eternal

  • Divine- part that He has made available to humans

  • Natural- humans look at the world and rational part of your brain can discern patterns of how things are supposed to work, like laws of physics

    • what is in effect w/o human laws

    • everyone does what they think is the right way to behave according to how a majority sane people population would act

    • stealing unchecked = wrong

    • no one would get drunk b/c everyone can see bad consequences

  • Human- look at natural, develop a sense of right and wrong in a community

    • some just and some unjust

    • has conditions

    • don’t have to obey unjust laws

    • created by someone in power to make laws on behalf of people

    • must align with natural law b/c that aligns w/ eternal law

War:

  • ruler must have the authority to start a war

  • must have a just cause- avenge injuries, in response to an offense, punishment for failing to right a wrong

  • must be fought with good intentions

  • Scholastic method did start modern science→ look at 2 different approaches and prove or disprove them