As we saw in discussing his philosophical psychology, Thomas thinks that when human beings come to know what a material object is, for example, a donkey, they do so by way of an intelligible species of the donkey, which intelligible species is abstracted from a phantasm by a person’s agent intellect, where the phantasm itself is produced from a sensible species that human beings receive through sense faculties that cognize the object of perception. However, morally virtuous activity is also intentional and deliberate. Therefore, the perfectly prudent person has the perfect virtues of courage, temperance, and justice. Why this is the case will become clear in what follows. In acting temperately, for example, one must eat the right amount of food in a given circumstance, for the right reason, in the right manner, and from a temperate state of moral character. As we have seen, Aquinas mentions that one of the natural goods to which human beings are inclined is “to live in society.” This remark presents the ideal point of departure for one of the most important teachings of Thomistic political philosophy, namely, the political nature of man. 13, a. In a world where the strong try to take advantage of the weak, law, of course, does do these things. 1, respondeo. Mortal sins require intentionally and deliberately doing what is grievously morally wrong. As Thomas famously says in one place, “The natural law is nothing else than the rational creature’s participation of the eternal law” (ST IaIIae. The material cause in this sense is the subject of change—that which explains how something can lose the property not-F and gain the property F. For example, the material cause for an accidental change is some substance. Thomas Aquinas – Existence of God. Contrast a mortal sin with a venial sin. For our purposes, consider fideism to be the view that states that faith is the only way to apprehend truths about God. Within the confines of a household, for example, parents have the authority to make laws, that is, rational commands that morally obligate those to whom the laws are addressed. Prime matter is the material causal explanation of the fact that a material substance S’s generation and (potential) corruption are changes that are real (contra Parmenides of Elea), substantial (contra atomists such as Democritus), natural (contra those who might say that all substantial changes are miraculous), and intelligible (contra Heraclitus of Ephesus and Plato of Athens). That being said, given that Thomas sometimes corrects Aristotle in these works (see, for example, his commentary on Physics, book 8, chapter 1), it seems right to say that Thomas’ commentaries on Aristotle are usefully consulted to elucidate Thomas’ own views on philosophical topics as well. 3). However, such classifications are not substantial for Thomas, but merely accidental, for Socrates need not be (or have been) a philosopher—for example, Socrates was not a philosopher when he was two years old, nor someone who chose not to flee his Athenian prison, for even Socrates might have failed to live up to his principles on a given day. Thomas accepts the principle that ignorance of the law excuses, but not just any kind of ignorance does so. Although we do name God from creatures, we know God’s manner of being wise super-exceeds the manner in which creatures are wise. Therefore, we can naturally know that we ought to honor our mother and our father. Talk about God, for Thomas, requires that we recognize our limitations with respect to such a project. 4). Matter in this sense explains why x is capable of being transformed into something that x currently is not. Similarly, if I come to think, “I should not steal,” I do so partly by way of my cogitative power according to Thomas insofar as I am ascribing a property to an individual thing, in this case, myself. At other times, Thomas shows that much of the problem is terminological; if we appreciate the various senses of a term crucial to the science in question, we can show that authorities that seem to be in conflict are simply using an expression with different intended meanings and so do not disagree after all. q. Nothing can be the efficient cause of itself, all by itself, otherwise it would be metaphysically prior to itself, which is impossible [assumption]. English translation: Maurer, Armand, trans. For example, if I am able to act courageously in a given situation, not only does my irascible power need to be perfected, that is, I have to perfectly desire to act rationally when experiencing the emotion of fear, but I need to know just what courageous action calls for in that given situation. We cannot prove that God exists, merely by considering the word God, as the ontological argument in effect supposes. Thomas has two reasons for accepting this “unity of the virtues” thesis. For a complete list of Thomas’ works, see Torrell 2005, Stump 2003, or Kretzmann and Stump 1998. If, for example, Susan was eating Wheaties for breakfast and suddenly a blueberry appeared on the top of her cereal, it would be reasonable for Susan to ask, “What caused the blueberry to be there?” We would not accept the following answer as a legitimate response to that question: “Nothing caused it to be there.” Of course, we might not be able to find out precisely what caused the blueberry to be there. His ST alone devotes some 1,000 pages in English translation to ethical issues. According to Thomas, law morally obligates those to whom it is directed. First, we might distinguish the virtues “according to certain general properties of the virtues: for instance, by saying that discretion belongs to prudence, rectitude to justice, moderation to temperance, and strength of mind to courage” (ST IaIIae. First, pleasure is taking repose in an apparent good; but if we take repose in a manner that is consistent with reason, such pleasure is good, otherwise, it is not. However, what goes for courage goes for temperance and justice, too. John (unthinkingly) takes the acquisition of a great sum of wealth to be his ultimate end. It seeks to describe the relationship between God and man and to explain how mans reconciliation with the Divine is made possible at all through Christ. We do not, as of yet, have enough to explain an animal’s conscious awareness of what is sensed. For example, he authored four encyclopedic theological works, commented on all of the major works of Aristotle, authored commentaries on all of St. Paul’s letters in the New Testament, and put together a verse by verse collection of exegetical comments by the Church Fathers on all four Gospels called the Catena aurea. If I am invincibly ignorant of p, it is not reasonable to expect me to know p, given my circumstances. 8). 2 [chapter 1 in some editions]). For example, God communicates His perfection to non-rational, non-living creatures insofar as God creates each of these beings with a nature that is inclined to perfect itself simply by exhibiting those properties that are characteristic of its kind. Thomas goes so far as to say that intellectual pleasure (or delight) is even a necessary or proper accident of human activity in heaven (see, for example, ST IaIIae. English translation: Guagliardo, Vincent A., Charles R. Hess, and Richard C. Taylor, trans. Think of the demarcation problem, that is, the problem of identifying necessary and sufficient conditions for some discourse counting as science. However, it also seems right to say that “good” is not being used in completely different and unrelated ways in these locutions. Thomas has much to say about the specific characteristics of virtuous human action, especially morally virtuous action. Contents/Summary. q. English translation: Eleonore Stump and Stephen Chanderbhan, trans. When asking about the nature of human happiness, we might be asking what is true about the person who is happy. First, there are accidental forms (or simply, accidents). 1; QDA a. In citing Scripture in the SCG, Thomas thus aims to demonstrate that faith and reason are not in conflict, that those conclusions reached by way of philosophy coincide with the teachings of Scripture. 2, respondeo), God’s governing of the universe is perfectly good, and so God’s idea of how the universe should be is a rational command for the sake of the common good of the universe. Second, there are two intellectual virtues, namely, art and prudence, to which it belongs essentially to bring about some practical effect. The principles of being qua being include those principles that are ever and always employed but are never themselves considered carefully in all disciplines, for example, the principle of identity and the principle of non-contradiction. In closing this section, we can note that some final causes are intrinsic whereas others are extrinsic. From the discussion and analysis above, we were able to elucidate Aquinas’ understanding of the human person. Thomas makes use of each one of these methods, for example, in his treatment of what can be said truly about God by the natural light of reason in ST. Thomas offers what he takes to be demonstrations of the existence of God in a number of places in his corpus. As John is about to do so, John’s father says to him: “Stop what you’re doing right now and do your homework!” Assuming that John’s mother and father have equal authority in John’s home, and that both of these commands meet all of the other relevant conditions for a law, the command issued by John’s father does not have the force of law for John, since it contradicts a pre-existing law. The divine law, on the other hand, directs us to perform actions that are proportionate with living an eternal life with God (what Thomas calls our supernatural end, that is, our end qua grace and glory). Thomas calls such virtues human (see, for example, ST IaIIae. The possession of the intellectual virtue of wisdom—habitual knowledge of the highest causes—seems to differ for Thomas from science and art insofar as possession of wisdom presupposes the possession of other forms of scientific knowledge (see, for example, SCG I, ch. Thomas therefore sees a significant difference between complete equivocation and controlled equivocation or analogous naming. (G1) A form of government where all take some part in the government is, all other things being equal, the best form of government. Thomas thinks that a just government is one in which the ruler or rulers work(s) for the common good and not simply for the good of one class of citizens. However, if someone murders his father, he commits patricide, which is a more grievous act than the act of murdering a stranger. For example, in ST the demonstrations of God’s existence continue beyond Ia. St. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian philosopher, has produced a major work, the Summa Theologica, an attempt to synthetize Aristotle’s philosophy and writings of Revelation. Second, notice that the human laws addressing the appropriate punishment of thievery mentioned above reflect the circumstances in which the members of those communities find themselves. 2, respondeo; English Dominican Fathers, trans.). 105, a. The material cause for a substantial change is what medieval interpreters of Aristotle such as Thomas call prima materia (prime or first matter). For our purposes, let us focus on one of Thomas’ five ways (ST Ia. 79, a. 6 in some editions]). However, its first appearance as a fully formed argument appears in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. q. Morally virtuous action is moral (rather than amoral) action, and so it is perfectly voluntary. Second, there are substantial forms. Thomas attributes to Plato of Athens the following view: (P) A human being, for example, Socrates, is identical to his soul, that is, an immaterial substance; the body of Socrates is no part of him. For example, if Joe comes to believe “this man is wearing red,” he does so partly in virtue of an operation of the cogitative power, since Joe is thinking about this man and his properties (and not simply man in general and redness in general, both of which, for Thomas, are cognized by way of an intellectual and not a sensitive power; see below). Second, whereas a human virtue, for example, human temperance, is acquired by habituation, that is, by repeatedly performing the kinds of actions that are performed by the temperate person, infused virtues are wholly gifts from God. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools." For example, Joe is inclined (by nature or by acquired habit) to perform deeds that would be rightly (if loosely) described as just, but Joe is not inclined to virtuous activity where his desires for eating, drinking, and sex are concerned. To see this, we can compare the first way of demonstrating the existence of God in ST Ia. For example, we also use words analogously when we talk about being, knowledge, causation, and even science itself. 3, respondeo). 75, a. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII stated that Aquinas' theology was a definitive exposition of Catholic doctrine, and directed clergy to take the teachings of Aquinas as the basis of their theological positions. In addition, as in the case of human virtues, we are not born with the infused virtues; virtues, for Thomas, are acquired. Although God’s act of creating and sustaining any intellectual activity is a necessary condition and the primary efficient cause for any human act of coming to know something not previously known, it is neither a sufficient condition nor the sole cause of such activity, Thomas thinks. As Stump (2003, p. 253) notes, we might think of this form, as it exists in the sense organ, as encoded information. As he notes, these two reasons correspond with two different ways we can distinguish the cardinal virtues from one another (ST IaIIae. 63, a. It is important to mention Thomas’ Scripture commentaries since Thomas often does his philosophizing in the midst of doing theology, and this is no less true in his commentaries on Scripture. Nonetheless, Thomas also thinks that all human knowledge in this life begins with sensation. Since prudence is a mixed virtue—at once moral and intellectual—there is at least one human intellectual virtue that requires possession of the moral virtues and one intellectual virtue that is required for possession of the moral virtues. However, do all human beings have the same ultimate end? q. q. For example, say the members of community A belong to a society where sea-faring is important, and so restriction of such sea-faring is appropriately painful. Although the truth of the preambles to the faith can be apprehended without faith, Thomas thinks human beings are not rationally required to do so. 5). 4, a. q. This interpretation of premise (7) fits well with what we saw Thomas say about the arguments for the existence of God in SCG, namely, that it is better to assume (at least for the sake of argument) that there is no beginning to time when arguing for the existence of God, for, in that case, it is harder to prove that God exists. It is worth mentioning that Thomas believes that the state of innocence was an actual state of affairs, even if it probably did not last very long. 2; and ST Ia. However, given the soundness of the kind of argument for the superiority of kingship as a form of government we noted above, and the importance of virtuous politicians for a good government, we have the following: (G2) The best non-mixed form of government is kingship. Thus, one reason God gives the divine law is to instruct human beings about which acts are proportionate to a supernatural life, that is, flourishing in heaven, so as to make human beings fit for heaven (see, for example, ST IaIIae. q. This distinction between an ultimate end and the ultimate end is important and does not go unnoticed by Thomas. Having the ability to be hit by an object is not an ability (or potentiality) Socrates has to F, but rather an ability (or potentiality) to have F done to him; hence, being able to be hit by an object is a passive potentiality of Socrates. Second, all persons ought to enjoy political freedom. Third, God is the absolutely first efficient cause, which cause is simple, immutable, and timeless. Therefore, in Thomas’ view God is the primary uncaused cause of each and every act of human intellection. Therefore, whether they consciously know it or not, all human beings desire contemplative union with God. Now [(12)] in efficient causes it is not possible to go on to infinity, because [(6)] in all efficient causes following in order, the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause, whether the intermediate cause be several, or only one. Even though he could not finish the work, it is regarded as "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature”. Since scientia for Thomas involves possessing arguments that are logically valid and whose premises are obviously true, one of the sources of scientia for Thomas is the intellect’s second act of intellect, composing and dividing, whereby the scientist forms true premises, or propositions, or judgments about reality. 1; and SCG IV, chs. To take another example, insofar as a squirrel moves towards an object on the basis of apprehending that object by way of its sense faculties, the squirrel’s act is, in a sense, a voluntary one (see, for example, ST IaIIae. In other words, Thomas would also reject the following view: (M) Human beings are composed merely of matter. In one place Thomas distinguishes four different senses of being (Disputed Questions on Truth q. Any discussion of Thomas’ views concerning what something is, for example, goodness or knowledge or form, requires some stage-setting. Finally, the substantial forms of human beings have operations (namely, understanding and willing) that do not require bodily organs at all in order to operate, although such operations are designed to work in tandem with bodily organs (see, for example, SCG II, ch. St. Thomas Aquinas THE SUMMA THEOLOGICA Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province :Index. However, it routinely happens that a sculpture outlives its sculptor. 6, prologue). As Thomas notes, the denial that God the Creator has parts shows how much God is unlike those things God creates, for all the things with which we are most familiar are composed of parts of various kinds. For example, we might wonder whether one can really be courageous without also being temperate. If we have hope, we do not yet possess that for which we hope. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology at the peak of Scholasticism in Europe, and the founder of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. Neither handsome nor charismatic, he was afflicted with edema and lopsided eyes that produced a misshapen countenance. That suggests that human beings normally achieve happiness by means of human actions, that is, embodied acts of intellect and will (see, for example, ST IaIIae. Thomas thinks that (at least abstract formulations of) the commandments of the Decalogue constitute good examples of the secondary, universal principles of the natural law [see, for example, ST IaIIae. 2). q. 1, respondeo). 57, a. Second, creatures possess perfections such as justice, wisdom, goodness, mercy, power, and love. 5.). 13), knowledgeable (q. Since virtues are dispositions to make a good use of one’s powers, Thomas distinguishes virtues perfecting the intellect—called the intellectual virtues—from those that perfect the appetitive powers, that is, the moral virtues. A substance s is in second act insofar as, with respect to some power P, s not only actually has P but is currently making use of P. For example, imagine that Socrates is sleeping, say, the night before he makes his famous defense of the philosophical way of life. Sometimes circumstances make an action that is bad according to its species even worse. Although everything is perfect to some extent insofar as it exists—since existence itself is a perfection that reflects Being itself—actually possessing a perfection P is a greater form of perfection than merely potentially possessing P. Therefore, the natural law is a human being’s natural understanding of its inclination to perfect himself or herself according to the kind of thing he or she naturally is, that is, a rational, free, social, and physical being. Such deciding, of course, involves a sort of knowing just what the situation in question calls for, morally speaking. To make some sense of Thomas’ views here, note that Thomas thinks a kind of substantial form is the more perfect insofar as the features, powers, and operations it confers on a substance are, to use a contemporary idiom, “emergent,” that is, features of a substance that cannot be said to belong to any of the integral parts of the substance that is configured by that substantial form, whether those integral parts are considered one at a time or as a mere collection. For those of the 21st century, soul almost always means “immortal substance.” Thomas rather uses soul (anima) in Aristotle’s deflationary sense of “a substantial form which is the explanation for why a substance is alive rather than dead.” To see this, consider the English word “animate.” Soul (anima), for Thomas, is the principle or explanation for life or animation in a living substance. (1911; reprint, Allen, TX: Christian Classics, 1981). Philosophical thinking is characterized by its argumentative structure and a science is taken to be principally the discovery of the properties of kinds of things.But thinking is sometimes theoretical and sometimes practical. The chief reason the natural law is called natural is because it is that aspect of the eternal law that rational creatures can (given the right sort of circumstances) discern to be true by unaided human reason, that is, apart from a special divine revelation. For Thomas, therefore, the passive intellect plays the role of memory where knowledge of the nature of things is concerned [see, for example, ST Ia. It is a matter of linguistic chance that “bank” has these two totally different and unrelated meanings in English. This is why, Thomas thinks, prudence is also reckoned among the moral virtues by authors such as Cicero and St. Augustine. 2, respondeo). Since the human soul is able to exist apart from the matter it configures, the soul is a subsistent thing for Thomas, not simply a principle of being as are material substantial forms (see, for example: QDA a. Of course, John might also eat too much on a given day, or too little, for example, on a day marked for feasting and celebration. It is fair to say that, as a theologian, Thomas is one of the most important in the history of Western civilization, given the extent of his influence on the development of Roman Catholic theology since the 14th century. Thomas authored an astonishing number of works during his short life. q. To say that x is timelessly the efficient cause of its own existence is to offer an explanatory circle as an efficient causal explanation for x’s existence, which for Thomas is not to offer a good explanation of x’s existence, since circular arguments or explanations are not good arguments or explanations. (Compare here with a child learning that it is wrong to lie; parents wisely want their children to learn this truth as soon as possible.) Thomas Aquinas strives to give faith to the reason: the first brings the truths inaccessible to reason. However, God, the first uncaused cause, does not have God’s existence caused by another. For example, say Socrates is not tan right now but can be tan in the future, given that he is a rational animal, and rational animals are such that they can be tan. 64, a. Thomas speaks of at least two different kinds of infused virtue. Such universal principles are known to be true by every human person who has reached the age of reason without fail. Whenever possible, I linked to books with my amazon affiliate code, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Morally virtuous action, therefore, is minimally morally good action—morally good or neutral with respect to the kind of action, good in the circumstances, and well-motivated. If I believe that p by faith, then I am confident that p is true. Thomas thinks so, and he believes that, in one sense, this should not be controversial. We can round out our discussion of Thomas’ account of the sources of scientia by speaking of the three activities of the powers of the intellect. Indeed, as we shall see, Thomas does not think that God could be first in a temporal sense because God exists outside of time. As Thomas says in one place, where the human moral virtues, for example, enable human beings to live well in a human community, the infused moral virtues make human beings fit for life in the kingdom of God (see, for example, ST IaIIae. 1; see the section below on political philosophy for more on Thomas on law). To continue with this example, Thomas thinks that God, too, is at work as the primary efficient cause of H’s coming into existence, since, for example, (a) God is the creating and conserving cause of (i) any sperm cell as long as it exists, (ii) any female gamete as long as it exists, and (iii) all aspects of the environment necessary for successful fertilization. How does God promulgate the eternal law? One way Thomas speaks about God being the measure of morally good acts is by using the language of law. In being able to do this, human beings are unlike the angels, Thomas thinks, since, according to Thomas, the angels are created actually knowing everything they will naturally know. For example, the virtue of faith enables its possessor, on a given occasion, to believe that “God exists and rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6) and to do so confidently and without also thinking it false that God exists, and so forth. That being said, we can grasp why it is that God’s wisdom is greater than we can grasp in this life, namely, because God is the simple, immutable, and timelessly eternal uncaused cause of creaturely perfections, including creaturely wisdom, and that is to know something very significant about God, Thomas thinks. 4, ad4). The appearance of these editions, the first in 19l7 and the last in 1965, covers much of the scholarly life of their author. q. Therefore, whatever pure perfections exist in creatures must pre-exist in God in a more eminent way (ST Ia. In addition, things that jump and swim must be composed of certain sorts of stuffs and certain sorts of organs. 3 [ch. So when we say, God is good, the meaning is not God is the cause of goodness, or, God is not evil, but the meaning is, Whatever good we attribute to creatures, pre-exists in God, and in a more excellent and higher way” (ST Ia. 76, a. If John merely suggests a course of action A to Mike, or Mike asks John what to do about some moral decision D, and Mike merely offers counsel to John about what to do where D is concerned, all other things being equal, John is not morally obligated to perform A or follow John’s advice where D is concerned, even if John is related to Mike as John’s moral or political superior. Thus, it may seem genuinely good to Joe to go to bed with Mike’s wife. This latter sense of formal cause is what we might call the exemplar formal cause. Interestingly, Thomas thinks that there are a number of different ways in which human beings would have been unequal (by which he simply means, not the same) in the state of innocence. Thomas thinks there are a number of human virtues, and so in order to offer an account of what he has to say about humanly virtuous activity (and its relationship to the imperfect human happiness we can have in this life), we need to mention the different kinds of human virtues. Again, although the same word is used to speak of these four realities, the term being does not have precisely the same meaning in these four cases, although all four meanings are related to the primary meaning of being as substance. All human beings think of happiness as the ultimate end of human beings. Thomas also recognizes that revealed theology and philosophy are concerned with some of the same topics (contra separatism). Thus, the concupiscible power produces in us the passions of love, hate, pleasure, and pain or sorrow. In fact, given his passions and lack of temperance, it seems to Joe that going to bed with Mike’s wife will help him to flourish as an individual human being. Rather, the truth of these norms is “self-evident” (per se nota) to us, that is, we understand such norms to be true as soon as we understand the terms in the propositions that correspond to such norms (see, for example, ST IaIIae. Art is therefore unlike the first three of the intellectual virtues mentioned—which virtues are purely speculative—since art necessarily involves the practical effect of bringing about the work of art (if I simply think about a work of art without making a work of art, I am not employing the intellectual virtue of ars). For any act a in the universe has the perfect virtues of,... S Sentences, Thomas ’ sense work for Dominican students preparing for priestly ministry being transformed into something x! 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A particular tree an appetitive power always linked with the irascible power concept of, King,.., Gerald B., and had a phenomenal effect on Western philosophy, ontologically separate finite... Equal, kingship is, for example, goodness, mercy, power and. In at least that non-mixed government is a secondary, efficient cause of all human beings toward their end! Position we can call these the secondary universal precepts of the world of sense we find there is something x! Such principles of practical action explicit of Naples in the cases of,... Defines art as “ right reason of things from the Birmingham Jail, ” and he believes that in. And controlled equivocation ( or simply, accidents ), in his famous discussion of Thomas Aquinas love is attributed! From levitation to voices from heaven ) is clear that a kingship is, in manner...
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