Saint Thomas Aquinas - Research Paper Example

Introduction Saint Thomas Aquinas (also known as Thomas of Aquino or Aquinas) was a priest in the Catholic Church from the Italian Dominican order. His major distinction is his stature as a highly influential philosopher as well as his position as a theologian of the highest order within the tradition of scholasticism. For these reasons he is also referred to as Doctor Angelicus or Doctor Communis as well as Doctor Universalis (Clark, 2000). Thomas Aquinas emerged as the chief proponent for the tradition of natural theology and is hence attributed to as the father of Thomism. The influence of Thomas Aquinas on Western philosophy and thought is undeniable. This is demonstrated from the fact that a considerable portion of modern philosophy has been conceived either as an agreement to or a reaction to the ideas of Thomas Aquinas. This is particularly true when the areas of ethics, metaphysics, natural law and political theory in modern Western philosophy and thought are explored. For these reasons and others, the Catholic Church has designated Thomas Aquinas as the model teacher for anyone studying for priesthood (Davies, 2004). Saint Thomas Aquinas is best known for his Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles and is one of the thirty three Doctors of the Catholic Church. Furthermore he is considered as the greatest philosopher and theologian available to the Catholic Church and his services have been recognized on a number of occasions. This text will explore the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas within the domain of philosophy and will compare them to other more modern thinkers to gauge their standing. 2. Philosophy Saint Thomas Aquinas is considered as a Scholastic philosopher (Jordan, 2006) as well as a theologian by the thinkers who came after him. Within his life, Saint Thomas Aquinas did not consider himself to be a philosopher and was highly critical of philosophers. He considered philosophers as pagans for always “falling short of the true and proper wisdom to be found in Christian revelation” (Davies, 2004). Keeping this in context, the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas show limited reverence for Aristotle who is simply referred to as “the Philosopher” in the Summa. The majority of his works reflects on various philosophical issues and so it can be considered as a work of philosophy. As mentioned before, the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas have had great effect on subsequent Christian theology in general and on the Roman Catholic Church’s theology in particular. This influence has borne its mark clearly on subsequent Western philosophy and thought in general. Through his works, Saint Thomas Aquinas has stood for change in the traditions of Aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism. Saint Thomas Aquinas penned several significant commentaries on Aristotle such as Nicomachean Ethics, On the Soul and Metaphysics. These works are associated in large part with William of Moerbeke’s translations of the works of Aristotle from Greek to Latin. 2.1. Epistemology Saint Thomas Aquinas was a staunch believer of divine help required for garnering human intellect without which he believed that human beings would remain limited in knowledge. He states (Jones, 2010): "...that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act." However it must be stressed that these ideas were limited to garnering further knowledge as per Saint Thomas Aquinas. On the other hand his ideas relate that human beings had an innate capacity to know various things without the need for special divine revelation. Still he contended that such divine revelation occurred from time to time (Aquinas, 2005): "...especially in regard to such (truths) as pertain to faith." Hence it may be surmised that Saint Thomas Aquinas contended that human beings knew of many things around them from innate capacity while matters pertaining to faith could only be advanced through divine revelation. However this stands in stark contrast to the ideas presented by later Western philosophers and thinkers who consider human effort as the chief means for epistemology. The dawn of the Age of Reason further led to the use of scientific means of investigation to advance the frontiers of human knowledge. These ideas stand in contrast to the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas but because they are more strengthened with reason so they are more concrete and acceptable. 2.2. Revelation Truth was seen as a conglomeration of reason (natural revelation) and faith (supernatural revelation) by Saint Thomas Aquinas. The domain of supernatural revelation originates from inspiration from the Holy Spirit. This in turn is made available to the masses through the teachings of prophets. These teachings are then summed up in the shape of Holy Scriptures that are then transferred through Magisterium. The sum of these is in turn known as Tradition. In contrast, the domain of natural revelation is composed of truths that are made available to all people through to their intrinsic nature. These comprise of certain truths that can be attained by all people through proper human reasoning alone. Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that these modes of human reasoning applied rationally to inquire the existence of God. In regards to these concepts, a person may be able to deduce the existence of God as well as his various Attributes (such as being One, being Truthful, having Power and Knowledge) through reason alone. However certain more specific issues may only be delineated using special revelation (for example the Trinity). As per the views of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the special revelation can be equated to the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that the major theological constituents of Christianity such as Incarnation and the Trinity can only be revealed through the Church’s teachings and through Scriptures. The deduction of any such components by any other means is not possible including reasoning. Putting all of these arguments together, supernatural revelations (faith) as well as natural revelation (reason) complement each other rather than contradicting each other. These come together to pertain to the same unity which is truth. These views of Saint Thomas Aquinas have both been criticized and endorsed by more modern thinkers and philosophers depending on their school of thought. The more religious schools of thought in philosophy such as the Roman Catholic Church endorse this idea fully while more “God less” factions reject these ideas outright. The works of modern thinkers such as Bertrand Russell end up in a quagmire where God can neither be proved nor disproved (Russell, 1967) which stand in contrast to Saint Thomas Aquinas’s views that God can be reasoned out. The strength of the ideas relating to faith and reason has persisted to the modern day. Splinter factions in the Roman Catholic Church disagree to the ideas pertaining to supernatural revelation while the Roman Catholic Church holds strong to them. Disagreeing to supernatural revelation means that splinter factions can invent novel rituals and beliefs into religion while the Roman Catholic Church stands for an unadulterated version of Christian religion. 2.3. Creation Being a Roman Catholic himself, Saint Thomas Aquinas held the belief that God is the “maker of heaven and earth, of all that is visible and invisible”. Much similar to Aristotle’s views, Saint Thomas Aquinas was a staunch advocate of abiogenesis (also known as spontaneous generation). This view argues that life can be created from plant life or non living materials as (Aquinas, 2009 a): “Since the generation of one thing is the corruption of another, it was not incompatible with the first formation of things, that from the corruption of the less perfect the more perfect should be generated. Hence animals generated from the corruption of inanimate things, or of plants, may have been generated then.” Other than this, Saint Thomas Aquinas considered that a number of mutated species emerged at the dawn of Creation which can be considered similar to Empedcoles’ theory on this issue. It has been reasoned by Saint Thomas Aquinas that these novel species were created due to mutations in animal sperm. Also such mutations were intended by nature by design and the species that died out were not configured for perpetual existence. These ideas are formulated by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his discussion on his commentary for Aristotle’s Physics (Aquinas, 2009 b): “The same thing is true of those substances which Empedocles said were produced at the beginning of the world, such as the ‘ox-progeny’, i.e., half ox and half man. For if such things were not able to arrive at some end and final state of nature so that they would be preserved in existence, this was not because nature did not intend this [a final state], but because they were not capable of being preserved. For they were not generated according to nature, but by the corruption of some natural principle, as it now also happens that some monstrous offspring are generated because of the corruption of seed.” 2.4. Ethics The ethics projected by Saint Thomas Aquinas are supported through the idea of “first principles of action” (Geisler, 1999) which can be seen from the text of his Summa Theologica (Aquinas, 2005 a): “Virtue denotes a certain perfection of a power. Now a thing's perfection is considered chiefly in regard to its end. But the end of power is act. Wherefore power is said to be perfect, according as it is determinate to its act.” The realm of ethics proposed by Saint Thomas Aquinas is limited to virtue ethics alone but there has been constant evolution and addition in the field of ethics. However it must be recognised that virtue ethics defined by Aquinas are derived in part from Aristotle and because Aristotle is still considered the chief architect of this line of ethics so virtue ethics are more or less the same ideology. However in more modern times, virtue ethics have been overtaken by other schools of thought such as hedonism, modern consequentialism, deontology, pragmatic ethics and others (Copleston, 1993). 2.4.1. Cardinal Virtues The four cardinal virtues have been defined by Saint Thomas Aquinas as prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude and these virtues are natural as well as revealed through nature. Moreover these virtues are binding on everyone. In contrast the theological virtues are different and are faith, hope and charity. These virtues are distinguished from others mainly because they are supernatural and because their main object is God. This has been expressed as (Aquinas, 2005 b): “Now the object of the theological virtues is God Himself, Who is the last end of all, as surpassing the knowledge of our reason. On the other hand, the object of the intellectual and moral virtues is something comprehensible to human reason. Wherefore the theological virtues are specifically distinct from the moral and intellectual virtues.” 2.4.2. Laws In addition to the above, Saint Thomas Aquinas has classified laws into four distinct categories that are eternal, human, natural and divine. The set of eternal laws deals with decrees of God which administer all of His creations. In contrast, natural law stems from human participation in the domain of eternal law through the use of reason (Pojman, 1995) and is based on “first principles” as (Aquinas, 2005 c): “. . . this is the first precept of the law, that good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided. All other precepts of the natural law are based on this . . .” Furthermore human law has been demarcated as positive law which points to natural law that is applied by the government to society. In contrast, divine law is classified as specially revealed law that has been provided by Providence through his messengers and the Scriptures. In modern terms, the definitions of law set by Saint Thomas Aquinas can be seen as huge contributors to current ideas on law. However in no way can Aquinas’s classification be termed as complete or comprehensive for modern methods to classify laws. In this respect, it must also be noted that the more theological aspects of laws defined by Saint Thomas Aquinas such as eternal law are still in recognition largely because of the clout of the Roman Catholic Church. 2.4.3. Reproduction Saint Thomas Aquinas has demarcated the desire to live and to procreate as the very basic human values that serve as the basis for all other human values. Human tendencies have been shown to be configured for real human goods. Within the case of procreation, the aspect of human nature in question is marriage. The ritual of marriage has been considered as a total gift of one person to another which makes certain that a family and children are generated. This in turn ensures that the future of mankind is secure (Aquinas, 2011). This aspect of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy is still intact in large part given the aspect of ethics demarcating it. However other schools of thought have emerged such as hedonists who are opposed to the views presented by Saint Thomas Aquinas. However in order to further society, the views presented by Saint Thomas Aquinas are still valid and in practice and recognition. 2.4.4. Treatment of Animals The views of Saint Thomas Aquinas over animals contain conservative as well as certain modern aspects. On the one hand, he denied any duty of human beings to do charity to animals as animals are not persons. This has been proved by arguing that had animals been persons, then it would have been unlawful to consume them as food. On the other hand, Saint Thomas Aquinas has argued that it is wrong to be cruel to animals. He argues that if people are cruel to animals then "cruel habits might carry over into our treatment of human beings" (Singer, 1995). Although Saint Thomas Aquinas’s views on animals are largely accepted today but his views on charity towards animals is questionable. Charity towards animals is accepted as an ethical obligation in the modern world. Similarly the classification of animals as non-person has shifted over due to scientific observation and understanding. While animals are considered non-person but it is accepted that they feel and sense so it is ethically obligatory to help animals in distress. 2.4.5. Economics Saint Thomas Aquinas furthered economic causes as an additional aspect of ethics and justice. The primary idea is the concept of a just price that must be demanded by sellers. This cost should be a market set price or an otherwise regulated price that is enough to cover the seller’s costs. It has been argued by Saint Thomas Aquinas that if sellers raise their prices, it would be immoral even if market pressures such as excess demand was present (Gordon, 2009). 3. Conclusion The philosophical ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas are without doubt a major influence on modern Western thinking and philosophy. While some ideas presented by Saint Thomas Aquinas have remained in place as such, yet others have been modified while others seem out of place altogether given the context of modern life and beliefs. 4. Bibliography Aquinas, S. T. (2011, March 29). Corpus Thomisticum. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from Corpus Thomisticum: www.corpusthomisticum.org/snp4027.html Aquinas, S. T. (2009 b, December 11). HE DEMONSTRATES THAT NATURE ACTS FOR AN END FROM THE EVIDENCE FROM WHICH SOME CONCLUDE TO THE OPPOSITE POSITION. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://dhspriory.org/thomas/Physics2.htm#14 Aquinas, S. T. (2009 a, December 11). ON THE WORK OF THE SIXTH DAY (ONE ARTICLE). Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FP/FP072.html#FPQ72OUTP1 Aquinas, S. T. (2005 a, May 26). Whether human virtue is a habit? Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FS/FS055.html#FSQ55A1THEP1 Aquinas, S. T. (2005 c, May 26). Whether the natural law contains several precepts, or only one? Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FS/FS094.html#FSQ94A2THEP1 Aquinas, S. T. (2005 b, May 26). Whether the theological virtues are distinct from the intellectual and moral virtues? Retrieved January 29, 2012, from CCEL: http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FS/FS062.html#FSQ62A2THEP1 Aquinas, S. T. (2005, May 26). Whether without grace man can know any truth? Retrieved January 29, 2012, from CCEL: http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FS/FS109.html#FSQ109A1THEP1 Clark, M. T. (2000). An Aquinas Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Aquinas. Fordham: Fordham University Press. Copleston, F. (1993). A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2: Medieval Philosophy - From Augustine to Duns Scotus. London: Image. Davies, B. (2004). Aquinas: An Introduction. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Geisler, N. (1999). Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. Gordon, B. (2009). The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. London: Palgrave. Jones, T. H. (2010). Saint Thomas Aquinas. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from Saints: http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-aquinas/ Jordan, M. D. (2006). Philosophy in a Summa of Theology. In Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after his Readers (pp. 154–170). Oxford: Blackwell. Pojman, L. (1995). Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Russell, B. (1967). The History of Western Philosophy. London: Simon & Schuster. Singer, P. (1995). Animals: Peter Singer. In T. Honderich, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (pp. 35-36). Oxford: Oxford University Publisher. Read More