Knowledge is Power (Journal Entry) - Essay Example

Word count 900 Thomas Aquinas, Saint. (1225?-1274) Summa Theologica I, 46:2, ad 7 When I read this article at the end I fill like I was back to the beginning of the argument. Thomas Aquinas demonstrates his greatest prowess of an argument and there couldn’t be any further conviction like the one Thomas demonstrated in his argument. Controversies and contradiction are never short in these arguments. They way Thomas gave answers to this article was in agreement. He actually agrees with the article.

After giving his view regarding the first article that the universe must be eternal, he couldn’t live to the expectation of many in his argument by not giving what many expected of him that the start of the universe can be demonstrated philosophically. He rather astonishes when he concludes that philosophy can’t solve the problem of origin in either way. Being a Christian he said that the beginning of the world can only be attributed to the fact that god said so as the scripture reads in the book of genesis "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth ( Aquinas, 46).

" To him because reason cannot judge then faith is the way to go by trusting god as it is an article of faith it seems. The objection by Thomas is based on the argument that the possibility of eternal world is due to existence of efficient eternal causes. It therefore seems to me that philosophy can not proof that the world is eternal because it has been proved to the contrary that there can never be series of efficient causes (Aquinas, 2). However, there are a lot of inconsistencies by Thomas Aquinas by denying existence of efficient causes in one part and accepting it in the other.

I noted several things as I go through Thomas arguments. First, it is thought that he is using the impossibility as a proof of the necessity of necessary being. But he is actually making the converse argument about the necessity of first mover and the impossibility of infinite regression The second question was in response to whether god exists. According to Thomas, for a motion to set off it must be moved and what moves it must also be moved and the series continue to eternity. Several things should be noted about Thomas' arguments here.

First, I thought that Thomas is using the fact that there can be no infinite series of regression to justify that there must be a first mover; he is inclined to thinking of either the existence of causes or essential necessity of a necessary being. But he is actually putting forth a converse argument. He never clarify whether the absence of an infinite regress, is a proof that there must be a first mover, he seem to be saying that because there must be a first mover then infinite causes can not exist.

Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations I and II On meditations Descartes tries to look down upon his believes by putting forth the fact that he recall that his thinking have cheated him before. If he was deceived by his memory in the past then there is possibility that his memory deceived him this time again and it is fair for us not to believe those who have lied to us before. He keeps moving forward in his argument to a point of suggesting strong reasons to doubt that his beliefs are not false.

Evidently, his style is that of coming up with skeptical hypotheses. In the first meditation, he considers whether he is dreaming, mad or deceived by an evil demon. Descartes' intention, as at the beginning of the meditation, is to evade judgment about any of his beliefs which throws the whole thing into doubt. The doubtfulness is a clear proof that all of the beliefs which he considers in the first meditation are doubtful and this includes that on his beliefs about the physical world. He will thereafter throw away all of his beliefs about the physical world.

Descartes also decided to be reminding himself every other time not to be accepting beliefs without concrete evidence to proof them, a habit to which he is doubtful. In meditation two Descartes said his pattern of thoughts disconnects the mind from the world, this leads to the necessity for some kind of bridge to this separation and give a substantive argument to believe that the ideas actually is a reflective of the outside world (Descartes, I). What he uses in constructing this bridge can be found in the following excerpt: I have convinced myself that there is nothing in the world — no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies.

Doesn't it follow that I don't exist? No, surely I must exist if it's me who is convinced of something. But there is a deceiver, supremely powerful and cunning whose aim is to see that I am always deceived. But surely I exist, if I am deceived. Let him deceive me all he can, he will never make it the case that I am nothing while I think that I am something. Thus having fully weighed every consideration, I must finally conclude that the statement "I am, I exist" must be true whenever I state it or mentally consider it.

It means, one's consciousness implies one's existence. Once he has found his existence, Descartes try to find out what "I" is. Descartes concludes that he exists because he is a "thinking thing." If he is the thing that can be deceived and can think and have thoughts, then he must exist.