How do the arguments that motivate the Five Ways also help us to understand the nature of mind - Essay Example

However, he succinctly lays bare the fact assumption that the universe and the world depends upon him for their imminent existence (McGrath 15). This same exposition aids us to understand the nature of the mind. Evidently, to our sense, everything in the world that moves is most probably caused to do so by another, unless it is in its potentiality to move. Motion is perceived as the alteration of something from potentiality to its reality. However, not a single thing can move from a state of potentiality to actuality unless it is excited to behave in that way by something else that is in its actuality.

Therefore, it is exceedingly impossible for something to possess the ability, in the same respect, to move and be moved (Carruthers 73). Additionally, for something to move, it ought to be moved by another. The mind, though perceived to be abysmally voided induces the motion in every being. The mind has the ability to induce motion in beings and this initially ensues from the ultimate being gradually to inferior beings. This moving and being moved extends from one thing to another but cannot result into infinity, since there would not be a first mover.

The succeeding movers move in as much as the first and ultimate mover, who is no one else but God move them. Aquinas derived the planetary motion ideology from Aristotle and succinctly described the force behind the motion. The seasons changed due to the planetary movement. Who moves and sustains the order of things in the world? The answer is only God, the ultimate mover, who sustains the order of occurrences in the world (McGrath 15). The second proof towards God’s existence confers from the efficient reason of being or actuality.

In this world of sensible existence and the normal, there is usually a specific given order of the efficient causes. There is never an incidence where a thing is sufficiently capable of being the efficient cause of its own imminent existence (Gardiner 10). This is because it would undoubtedly be prior to itself and is therefore virtually impossible. It is extremely impossible to proceed to infinity, since all efficient causes follow each other progressively in a sequential order, the initial being the cause behind the efficiency of the intermediate cause.

This is regardless of the number of the intermediate causes. Taking the cause is actually taking away the effect. If it were possible to move to infinity in efficient causes, there would be no primary efficient cause, any ultimate effect or any transitional efficient causes, which is false. Thus, God is the final efficient cause above all the other intermediate and subsequent causes. Therefore, this theory of efficient cause means that there cannot be an endless regression of effect and cause.

Eventually, the final being that causes everything is God (McGrath 15). The mind, therefore, does not possess concrete existence. The emotions it holds of happiness and anger later subside, proving its emptiness. This proof is conferred from necessity and possibility. Naturally, there are things our minds perceive to, possibly, be and others not to be. This is due to the possibly that they might be generated, corrupted and eventually, it is probable that they are imminently in a state of being and not being.

However, this is virtually impossible since nothing can exist in the two different states. This depicts that everything can or cannot be. This results into the perception that if not