The teachings of Thomas Aquinas. Philosophical views of Thomas Aquinas

10.10.2019

Thomas Aquinas - a Dominican monk (1225 - 1274), the doctrine is called Thomism. A major theological medieval philosopher systematizer of scholasticism. Author of Thomism, one of the dominant trends in the Catholic Church.

The Problem of Existence.

Thomas Aquinas separates essence (essence) and existence (existence) is one of the key ideas of Catholicism. Essence (essence) "pure idea" exists only in the mind of God. (Divine intention). The very fact of the existence of a thing is realized through existence (existence). It proves that being and the Good are reversible, that is, God, who gave existence to the essence, can deprive this essence of existence, that is, the world is impermanent. Essence and existence are united only in God, that is, God cannot be reversible - he is eternal, omnipotent and constant, does not depend on external factors.

Based on these premises, according to Thomas Aquinas, Everything consists of matter and form (ideas). The essence of any thing is the unity of form and matter. Forms (idea) is the determining principle, matter is only a receptacle for various forms. The form (idea) is at the same time the purpose of the emergence of a thing. The idea (form) of a thing is threefold, it exists in the Divine mind, in the thing itself, in the perception, memory of man.

Thomas Aquinas gives a number of proofs for the existence of God:

Movement - since everything is moving, it means that there is a prime mover of everything - God.

Reason - everything that exists has a reason - therefore, there is the root cause of everything God.

Chance and Necessity: Chance depends on necessity - hence the original necessity is God.

Degrees of quality. Everything that exists has a different degree of qualities (better, worse, more, less, etc.), therefore, the highest perfection is given to exist - God.

The goal - everything in the world around us has some kind of direction, but God gives the goal, he is the meaning of everything.

In 1878, the teachings of Thomas Aquinas were declared the official ideology of Catholicism by the decision of the Pope.

New European philosophy and its characteristics.

Main feature - anthropocentric direction of philosophical thought.

Anthropocentrism (from the Greek « anthropos» - man and latin " centrum"- center) - is characterized by an appeal first of all to the person himself, to his being, and only then - to God. Philosophy is inherent humanism (from Latin « humanus» - human, humanity). The central idea of humanism is the understanding of personality as the highest stage in the development of the mind. One of the consequences of the anthropocentric view of the world and man is the concept pantheism(philosophical doctrine identifying God and the world). According to him God is understood as the fundamental principle of the world, he is incorporeal, but is present in any things and natural phenomena as a spiritual principle.

Renaissance philosophy

In the XY-XYII centuries, anthropocentric attitudes in philosophical creativity contribute to the emergence of a new ideology directed against Catholic theology and scholasticism. One of its main and meaningful motives is the desire for the rehabilitation of ancient culture. Therefore, this stage entered the history of philosophy under the name of the Renaissance or the Renaissance. Representatives: J. Bruno, N. Machiavelli, M. Montaigne, N. Kuzansky and others.

Giordano Bruno- an Italian philosopher, a fighter against scholastic philosophy and the Roman Catholic Church, a passionate propagandist of a materialistic worldview, which took the form of pantheism from him. Bruno developed and deepened the ideas of Copernicus. Ideas B. were not accepted by the Catholic Church and he was burned at the stake in Rome. From his point of view, the main task of philosophy is the knowledge not of God, but of nature, since it is identical to its Creator - "God in things." At the same time, he expressed the idea of the infinity of nature and the multiplicity of worlds.

Niccolo Machiavelli. He saw his main task as substantiating the thesis that, in the name of the state interest, the head of the country can act according to the principle: "end justifies the means". The activity of any sovereign consists of two qualities: fortune and virtual. If the first quality is equivalent to fate and cannot completely depend on the person himself, then the second is identical to the state will, sober mind, steadfast character and can be defined as the true valor of the ruler. It is in the presence of the second quality that the sovereign has the right to any means to achieve his own benefit and satisfy the interests of his people. It is best for a wise ruler to rely on what depends on himself. It is important that the subjects fear their sovereign, but more importantly, that they do not hate him.

Religious and philosophical teachings of the Reformation

The Reformation movement refers to the process of change and transformation of Catholicism, undertaken in most European countries in the XYI-XYII centuries. Representatives - M. Luther, J. Calvin, W. Zwingli and other Protestant thinkers.

MartinLuther(1483-1546) - the famous 95 theses against papal indulgences. These theses marked the formal beginning of the Reformation, which changed the entire spiritual and political face of Europe. At the heart of the Protestant worldview was the desire to purify the Christian faith from those internally alien elements that distorted the true spiritual foundations of the New Testament.

Luther denied the role of the church and the clergy as mediators between man and God. The “salvation” of a person, he argued, does not depend on the performance of “good deeds”, sacraments, rituals, but on the sincerity of his faith. According to Luther's views, the source of religious truth is not "holy tradition" (decisions of church councils, judgments of popes, etc.), but the Gospel itself.

Philosophy XYII century. Bacon and Descartes

In the XYII century in philosophy there is a development and deepening of the ideas left to Europe by the Renaissance. Anthropocentric orientation for philosophy, however, still remains the leading trend. Representatives - F. Bacon, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz and other thinkers.

English thinker Francis Bacon- founder of the empirical trend in philosophy.

The essence of the main philosophical idea L. Bacon - empiricism lies in the fact that the basis of knowledge is exclusively experience.

The more experience (both theoretical) and practical accumulated by humanity and the individual, the closer it is to the true value.

True meaning according to Bacon can be an end in itself

The main tasks of knowledge and experience are to help a person achieve practical results in his activities, science should give a person power over nature. Bacon put forward an aphorism "Knowledge is power"

Significance of Bacon's philosophy

The beginning of the empirical (experimental) direction in philosophy was laid.

Epistemology has risen to one of the main stages of any philosophical system.

A new goal of philosophy is defined - to help a person achieve practical results in his activities.

The first attempt was made to classify the sciences.

Rene Descartes(1596 - 1650) a prominent French philosopher and scientist mathematician - the founder of rationalism. He is the author of the world-famous aphorism, which is his philosophical credo: "I think, therefore I exist."

The meaning of Descartes' philosophy:

Substantiated the leading role of the mind in cognition.

He put forward the doctrine of substance, its attributes and modes.

He advanced the theory of scientific method knowledge and about "innate ideas"

The main idea of rationalism is the primacy of reason in relation to being and cognition

There are many things and phenomena in the world that are incomprehensible to man (do they exist, what are their properties?), for example, is there a God? Is the universe finite?

Absolutely any phenomenon, any thing can be doubted (does the sun shine? Is the soul immortal? etc.)

Therefore, doubt really exists, this fact is obvious and does not require proof.

Doubt is a property of thought, which means that a person, doubting, thinks

Only a real person can think.

Therefore, thinking is the basis of both being and knowledge.

Since thinking is the work of the mind, only the mind can lie at the basis of being and cognition.

From the point of view of Descartes, “the main question of philosophy, what is primary and what is secondary loses its meaning, neither matter nor consciousness can be primary - they always exist and are two different manifestations of a single being, but consciousness is a function of the brain, it floats somewhere in nature, is born by the brain - it means that matter is primary

French materialism of the 18th century. The philosophy of France in the 18th century has an atheistic-materialistic direction. Atheism is a direction in philosophy, whose supporters completely denied the existence of God, in any of his manifestations, as well as religion. Materialism is a direction in philosophy that does not recognize the independence of the ideal (spiritual) principle in the creation and existence of the world around and explains the world around, its phenomena, man from the point of view of the natural sciences.

Representatives - PaulHolbach and ClaudeHelvetius. Approaches to the study of nature, based on the assumption of the action of supernatural causes in it, were subjected to complete denial. Matter is considered by him as a reality with an infinite set of properties. Although it is generated by God, it exists and develops independently of him.

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Proceedings theological writings, "The Sum of Theology" Category at Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Aquinas(otherwise Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, lat. Thomas Aquinas, Italian Tommaso d "Aquino; born around Roccasecca Castle, near Aquino - died March 7, Fossanuova Monastery, near Rome) - Italian philosopher and theologian, systematizer of orthodox scholasticism, teacher of the church, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis, "princeps philosophorum" (" prince of philosophers"), the founder of Thomism, a member of the Dominican order; since 1879, he has been recognized as the most authoritative Catholic religious philosopher, who connected Christian doctrine (in particular, the ideas of Augustine Blessed) with the philosophy of Aristotle. Formulated. Recognizing the relative independence of natural being and human reason, he argued that nature is completed in grace, reason in faith, philosophical knowledge and natural theology, based on the analogy of beings, in supernatural revelation.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas (narrated by Alexander Marey)

✪ Thomas Aquinas. Encyclopedia

✪ Thomas Aquinas. Introduction 1 - Andrey Baumeister

✪ Thomas Aquinas. Great Philosophers

✪ Thomas Aquinas and his scholasticism.

Subtitles

short biography

Thomas was born The 25th of January [ ] 1225 in the castle of Roccasecca near Naples and was the seventh son of Count Landolph of Aquinas. Thomas Theodora's mother came from a wealthy Neapolitan family. His father dreamed that he would eventually become the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino, located not far from their family castle. At the age of 5, Thomas was sent to a Benedictine monastery, where he stayed for 9 years. In 1239-1243 he studied at the University of Naples. There he became close with the Dominicans and decided to join the Dominican order. However, the family opposed his decision, and his brothers imprisoned Thomas for two years in the fortress of San Giovanni. Having gained freedom in 1245, he took the monastic vows of the Dominican order and went to the University of Paris. There Aquinas became a student of Albert the Great. In 1248-1250, Thomas studied at the University of Cologne, where he moved after his teacher. In 1252 he returned to the Dominican monastery of St. James in Paris, and four years later was appointed to one of the Dominican positions assigned to teach theology at the University of Paris. Here he writes his first works - "On Essence and Existence", "On the Principles of Nature", "Commentary on the "Sentences"". In 1259, Pope Urban IV summoned him to Rome. For 10 years he has been teaching theology in Italy - in Anagni and Rome, at the same time writing philosophical and theological works. He spent most of this time as adviser on theological matters and "reader" to the papal curia. In 1269 he returned to Paris, where he led the fight for the "cleansing" of Aristotle from Arabic interpreters and against the scientist Siger of Brabant. By 1272, a treatise written in a sharp polemical form “On the unity of the intellect against the Averroists” (lat. De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas). In the same year he was recalled to Italy for the establishment new school Dominicans in Naples. Illness forced him to stop teaching and writing towards the end of 1273. At the beginning of 1274, Thomas Aquinas died in the monastery of Fossanova on his way to the church cathedral in Lyon.

Proceedings

The writings of Thomas Aquinas include:

two extensive treatises in the genre of the sum, covering a wide range of topics - "The sum of the theology" and "The sum against the pagans" ("The sum of philosophy")
discussions on theological and philosophical problems (“Discussion questions” and “Questions on various topics”)
comments on:
- several books of the bible
- 12 treatises of Aristotle
- "Sentences" by Peter Lombard
- treatises of Boethius,
- treatises of Pseudo-Dionysius
- anonymous "Book of Causes"
a series of short essays on philosophical and religious topics
several treatises on alchemy
verse texts for worship, for example, the work "Ethics"

"Debatable Questions" and "Comments" were largely the fruit of his teaching activities, which included, according to the tradition of that time, disputes and reading authoritative texts, accompanied by comments.

Historical and philosophical origins

The greatest influence on the philosophy of Thomas was Aristotle, largely creatively rethought by him; also noticeable is the influence of Neoplatonists, Greek and Arabic commentators of Aristotle, Cicero, Pseudo-Dionysius, Areopagite, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Canterbury, John, Damascus, Avicenna, Averroes, Gebirol and Maimonides and many other thinkers.

Ideas of Thomas Aquinas

Theology and philosophy. Steps of Truth

Aquinas distinguished between the fields of philosophy and theology: the subject of the former is the "truths of reason" and the latter the "truths of revelation". Philosophy is in the service of theology and is as inferior to it in importance as the limited human mind is inferior to Divine wisdom. Theology is a sacred doctrine and science based on the knowledge possessed by God and those who are blessed. Communion to Divine knowledge is achieved through revelations.

Theology can borrow something from the philosophical disciplines, but not because it feels the need, but only for the sake of greater intelligibility of the positions it teaches.

Aristotle distinguished four successive levels of truth: experience (empeiria), art (techne), knowledge (episteme) and wisdom (sophia).

In Thomas Aquinas, wisdom becomes independent of other levels, the highest knowledge about God. It is based on divine revelations.

Aquinas identified three hierarchically subordinate types of wisdom, each of which is endowed with its own "light of truth":

the wisdom of Grace;
theological wisdom - the wisdom of faith, using reason;
metaphysical wisdom - the wisdom of the mind, comprehending the essence of being.

Some truths of Revelation are accessible to the understanding of the human mind: for example, that God exists, that God is one. Others are impossible to understand: for example, the Divine Trinity, resurrection in the flesh.

Based on this, Thomas Aquinas deduces the need to distinguish between supernatural theology, based on the truths of Revelation, which man is not able to understand on his own, and rational theology, based on the “natural light of reason” (knowing the truth by the power of human intellect).

Thomas Aquinas put forward the principle: the truths of science and the truths of faith cannot contradict each other; there is harmony between them. Wisdom is the striving to comprehend God, while science is the means that contributes to this.

About being

The act of being, being an act of acts and the perfection of perfections, resides within every "existing" as its innermost depth, as its true reality.

For every thing, the existence is incomparably more important than its essence. A single thing exists not due to its essence, because the essence does not imply (implies) existence in any way, but due to participation in the act of creation, that is, the will of God.

The world is a collection of substances dependent for their existence on God. Only in God are essence and existence inseparable and identical.

Thomas Aquinas distinguished between two types of existence:

existence is self-essential or unconditional.
existence is contingent or dependent.

Only God is authentic, true being. Everything else that exists in the world has an untrue existence (even the angels, who stand at the highest level in the hierarchy of all creations). The higher the “creations” stand, on the steps of the hierarchy, the more autonomy and independence they possess.

God does not create entities in order to force them to exist later, but existing subjects (foundations) that exist in accordance with their individual nature (essence).

About matter and form

The essence of everything corporeal lies in the unity of form and matter. Thomas Aquinas, like Aristotle, considered matter as a passive substratum, the basis of individuation. And it is only thanks to the form that a thing is a thing of a certain kind and kind.

Aquinas distinguished on the one hand the substantial (through it the substance as such is affirmed in its being) and accidental (random) forms; and on the other hand - material (has its own being only in matter) and subsistent (has its own being and is active without any matter) form. All spiritual beings are complex substantive forms. Purely spiritual - angels - have essence and existence. There is a double complexity in man: not only essence and existence, but also matter and form are distinguished in him.

Thomas Aquinas considered the principle of individuation: form is not the only cause of a thing (otherwise all individuals of the same species would be indistinguishable), therefore, the conclusion was made that in spiritual beings forms are individualized through themselves (because each of them is a separate species); in corporeal beings, individualization occurs not through their essence, but through their own materiality, quantitatively limited in a separate individual.

In this way, the "thing" takes on a certain form, reflecting spiritual uniqueness in limited materiality.

The perfection of form was seen as the greatest likeness of God himself.

About man and his soul

The individuality of a person is the personal unity of the soul and body.

The soul is the life-giving force of the human organism; it is immaterial and self-existent; it is a substance that acquires its fullness only in unity with the body, thanks to it, corporality acquires significance - becoming a person. In the unity of the soul and body, thoughts, feelings and goal-settings are born. The human soul is immortal.

Thomas Aquinas believed that the power of understanding of the soul (that is, the degree of knowledge of God by it) determines the beauty of the human body.

The ultimate goal of human life is the achievement of bliss, acquired in the contemplation of God in the afterlife.

According to his position, man is an intermediate being between creatures (animals) and angels. Among bodily creatures, he is the highest being, he is distinguished by a rational soul and free will. By virtue of the latter, a person is responsible for his actions. And the root of his freedom is reason.

A person differs from the animal world by the presence of the ability to know and, on the basis of this, the ability to make a free conscious choice: it is the intellect and free (from any external necessity) will that are the basis for performing truly human actions (as opposed to actions characteristic of both a person and and animal) belonging to the sphere of the ethical. In the relationship between the two highest human abilities - the intellect and the will, the advantage belongs to the intellect (a situation that caused controversy between the Thomists and the Scotists), since the will necessarily follows the intellect, representing for it this or that being as good; however, when an action is performed in specific circumstances and with the help of certain means, volitional effort comes to the fore (On Evil, 6). Along with a person’s own efforts, the performance of good deeds also requires Divine grace, which does not eliminate the originality human nature but improving it. Also, the Divine control of the world and the foresight of all (including individual and random) events do not exclude freedom of choice: God, as the highest reason, allows independent action secondary causes, including those entailing negative moral consequences, since God is able to turn the evil created by independent agents to good.

About knowledge

Thomas Aquinas believed that universals (that is, concepts of things) exist in three ways:

« before things”, as archetypes - in the Divine intellect as eternal ideal prototypes of things (Platonism, extreme realism).
« in things or substances as their essence.

« after things"- in human thinking as a result of operations of abstraction and generalization (nominalism, conceptualism)

Thomas Aquinas himself maintained a position of moderate realism, dating back to Aristotelian hylomorphism, abandoning extreme realist positions based on Platonism in its Augustinian version.

Following Aristotle, Aquinas distinguishes between passive and active intellect.

Thomas Aquinas denied innate ideas and concepts, and before the beginning of knowledge he considered the intellect to be similar to tabula rasa (lat. "blank slate"). However, people are born general schemes", which begin to act at the moment of collision with sensual material.

passive intellect - the intellect into which the sensually perceived image falls.
active intellect - abstraction from feelings, generalization; the emergence of the concept.

Cognition begins with sensory experience under the action of external objects. Objects are perceived by a person not as a whole, but in part. When entering the soul of the knower, the knowable loses its materiality and can enter it only as a “species”. The “view” of an object is its cognizable image. The thing exists simultaneously outside of us in all its being and inside us as an image.

Truth is "the correspondence of the intellect and the thing." That is, the concepts formed by the human intellect are true to the extent that they correspond to their concepts that preceded in the intellect of God.

Initial cognitive images are created at the level of external senses. Inner feelings process initial images.

Inner Feelings:

the general feeling is the main function, the purpose of which is to bring together all sensations.
passive memory is a repository of impressions and images created by a common feeling.
active memory - retrieval of stored images and views.
intellect is the highest sensible faculty.

Cognition takes its necessary source in sensibility. But the higher the spirituality, the higher the degree of knowledge.

Angelic knowledge - speculative-intuitive knowledge, not mediated by sensory experience; carried out with the help of inherent concepts.

Human cognition is the enrichment of the soul with the substantial forms of cognizable objects.

Three mental-cognitive operations:

creation of a concept and retention of attention on its content (contemplation).
judgment (positive, negative, existential) or comparison of concepts;
inference - the linking of judgments with each other.

Three types of knowledge:

the mind is the whole realm of spiritual faculties.
intellect - the ability of mental knowledge.
reason is the ability to reason.

Cognition is the most noble activity of man: the theoretical mind, comprehending the truth, comprehends and absolute truth, that is, God.

Ethics

Being the root cause of all things, God, at the same time, is the ultimate goal of their aspirations; the ultimate goal of morally good human actions is the achievement of bliss, which consists in the contemplation of God (impossible, according to Thomas, within the present life), all other goals are evaluated depending on their ordered orientation towards the final goal, the deviation from which is an evil rooted in lack existence and is not some independent entity (On Evil, 1). At the same time, Thomas paid tribute to activities aimed at achieving earthly, final forms of bliss. The beginnings of proper moral deeds from the inside are virtues, from the outside - laws and grace. Thomas analyzes the virtues (skills that enable people to consistently use their abilities for good (Summary of Theology I-II, 59-67)) and the vices that oppose them (Summary of Theology I-II, 71-89), following the Aristotelian tradition, but he believes that that in order to achieve eternal happiness, in addition to virtues, there is a need for gifts, beatitudes and fruits of the Holy Spirit (Summary of Theology I-II, 68-70). The moral life of Thomas does not think outside the presence of theological virtues - faith, hope and love (Summa teologii II-II, 1-45). Following the theological, there are four “cardinal” (fundamental) virtues - prudence and justice (Summary of Theology II-II, 47-80), courage and moderation (Summary of Theology II-II, 123-170), with which the other virtues are associated.

Politics and law

Law (Summary of Theology I-II, 90-108) is defined as "any command of reason which is promulgated for the common good by those who care for the public" (Summary of Theology I-II, 90, 4). The eternal law (Summary of Theology I-II, 93), by which divine providence governs the world, does not make redundant other kinds of law arising from it: natural law (Summary of Theology I-II, 94), the principle of which is the basic postulate of Thomistic ethics - "it is necessary to strive for the good and do good, but evil must be avoided", is known to a sufficient extent to every person, and the human law (Summary of Theology I-II, 95), concretizing the postulates of natural law (defining, for example, a specific form of punishment for committed evil ), which is necessary because perfection in virtue depends on the exercise and restraint of unvirtuous inclinations, and whose power Thomas limits to the conscience that opposes the unjust law. Historically established positive legislation, which is the product of human institutions, can, under certain conditions, be changed. The good of the individual, society and the universe is determined by the divine plan, and the violation of divine laws by a person is an action directed against his own good (Sum against the Gentiles III, 121).

Following Aristotle, Thomas believed that the natural public life requiring management for the common good. Thomas singled out six forms of government: depending on the ownership of power by one, a few or many, and depending on whether this form of government fulfills the proper goal - the preservation of peace and the common good, or whether it pursues private goals of rulers that contradict public good. Fair forms of government are monarchy, aristocracy and polis system, unjust ones are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. The best form of government is a monarchy, since the movement towards the common good is most effectively carried out, guided by a single source; accordingly, the worst form of government is tyranny, since the evil done by the will of one is greater than the evil resulting from many different wills, moreover, democracy is better than tyranny in that it serves the good of many, and not one. Thomas justified the fight against tyranny, especially if the tyrant's rules clearly contradict the divine rules (for example, by forcing idolatry). The autocracy of a just monarch must take into account the interests of various groups of the population and does not exclude elements of aristocracy and polis democracy. Thomas placed church power above secular power, in view of the fact that the former is aimed at achieving divine bliss, while the latter is limited to the pursuit of only earthly good; however, help is needed to accomplish this task higher powers and grace.

5 Proofs for the Existence of God by Thomas Aquinas

The famous five proofs of the existence of God are given in the answer to the 2nd question “About God, is there a God”; De Deo, an Deus sit) Part I of the treatise "The Sum of Theology". Thomas' reasoning is built as a consistent refutation of two theses about the non-existence of God: Firstly, if God is an infinite good, and since “if one of the opposite opposites were infinite, then it would completely destroy the other,” therefore, “if God existed, no evil could be detected. But there is evil in the world. Therefore, God does not exist”; Secondly,"everything we observe in the world,<…>can be realized through other principles, since natural things are reduced to the principle, which is nature, and those that are carried out according to conscious intention, are reduced to the principle, which is the human mind or will. Therefore, there is no need to admit the existence of God.”

1. Proof through movement

The first and most obvious way comes from movement (Prima autem et manigestior via est, quae sumitur ex parte motus). Undoubtedly, and confirmed by the senses, there is something movable in the world. But everything that is moved is moved by something else. For everything that moves moves only because it is in the potency of that to which it moves, but moves something insofar as it is actual. For movement is nothing but the translation of something from a potency into an act. But something can be translated from potency into act only by some actual being.<...>But it is impossible for the same thing in relation to the same thing to be both potential and actual; it can only be so in relation to the different.<...>Therefore, it is impossible for something to be mover and mover in the same respect and in the same way, i.e. to make it move on its own. Therefore, everything that moves must be moved by something else. And if that by which something moves is [also] moved, then it must be moved by something else, and that other, [in turn, too]. But this cannot continue indefinitely, since then there would be no first mover, and therefore no other mover, since secondary movers move only insofar as they are moved by the first mover.<...>Therefore, we must necessarily come to some first mover, which is not moved by anything, and by him everyone understands God (Ergo necesse est deventire ad aliquod primum movens, quod a nullo movetur, et hoc omnes intelligunt Deum).

2. Proof through a producing cause

The second path proceeds from the semantic content of the efficient cause (Secunda via est ex ratione causae efficientis). In sensible things we find an order of efficient causes, but we do not find (and this is impossible) that something is an efficient cause in relation to itself, because in this case it would precede itself, which is impossible. But it is also impossible for the [order] of effective causes to go to infinity. Since in all ordered [relative to each other] effective causes, the first is the cause of the middle, and the middle is the cause of the last (it does not matter whether it is one middle or there are many of them). But when the cause is eliminated, its effect is also eliminated. Therefore, if in the [order] of effective causes there is no first, there will be no last and middle. But if the [order] of efficient causes goes to infinity, then there will be no first efficient cause, and therefore there will be no last effect and no middle efficient cause, which is obviously false. Therefore, it is necessary to admit some first efficient cause, which everyone calls God (Ergo est necesse ponere aliquam causam efficientem primam, quam omnes Deum nominant).

3. Proof through necessity

The third way proceeds from [the semantic content] of the possible and necessary (Tertia via est sumpta ex possibili et necessario). We find among things some that may or may not be, because we find that something arises and is destroyed, and therefore may both be and not be. But it is impossible that everything that is such should always be, because what may not be is sometimes not. If, therefore, everything can not be, then at one time in reality there was nothing. But if this is true, then even now there would be nothing, because what is not comes into being only because of what is; if, therefore, there was nothing that exists, then it is impossible for something to come into being, and therefore nothing would now exist, which is obviously false. Therefore, not all beings are possible, but in reality there must be something necessary. But everything necessary either has a reason for its need for something else, or it doesn't. But it is impossible that [a series of] necessary [existing] having a cause of their necessity [in something else] should go to infinity, as is impossible in the case of effective causes, which has already been proven. Therefore, it is necessary to posit something necessary in itself, which does not have the cause of the necessity of something else, but is the cause of the necessity of something else. And this is what everyone calls God (Ergo necesse est ponere aliquid quod sit per se necessarium, non habens causam necessitatis aliunde, sed quod est causa necessitatis aliis, quod omnes dicunt Deum).

4. Proof from the degrees of being

The fourth way proceeds from the degrees [perfections] found in things (Quarta via sumitur ex gradibus qui in rebus inveniuntur). Among things, more and less good, true, noble, etc. are found. But "more" and "less" are said about different [things] in accordance with their different degrees of approximation to that which is the greatest.<...>Therefore, there is something that is most true, best, and noblest, and therefore supremely existing.<...>. But what is called the greatest of a particular kind is the cause of all that belongs to that kind.<...>Therefore, there is something that is the cause of the existence of all beings, as well as their goodness and all perfection. And such we call God (Ergo est aliquid quod omnibus entibus est causa esse, et bonitatis, et cuiuslibet perfectionis, et hoc dicimus Deum).

5. Proof through target reason

Thomas Aquinas(otherwise Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, lat. Thomas Aquinas, Italian Tommaso d "Aquino; born around 1225, Roccasecca Castle, near Aquino - died March 7, 1274, Fossanuova Monastery, near Rome) - philosopher and theologian, systematizer of orthodox scholasticism, church teacher, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis, "princeps philosophorum" ( "Prince of Philosophers"), founder of Thomism, member of the Dominican order; since 1879, recognized as the most authoritative Catholic religious philosopher, who connected Christian doctrine (in particular, the ideas of Augustine the Blessed) with the philosophy of Aristotle. Formulated five proofs of the existence of God. Recognizing the relative independence of natural being and human reason, argued that nature ends in grace, reason - in faith, philosophical knowledge and natural theology, based on the analogy of beings, - in supernatural revelation.

short biography

Thomas was born on January 25, 1225 in the castle of Roccasecca near Naples and was the seventh son of Count Landolph of Aquinas. Thomas Theodora's mother came from a wealthy Neapolitan family. My father dreamed that he would eventually become the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino, located not far from their family castle. At the age of five, Thomas was sent to a Benedictine monastery, where he stayed for 9 years. In 1239-1243 he studied at the University of Naples. There he became close with the Dominicans and decided to join the Dominican order. However, the family opposed his decision, and his brothers imprisoned Thomas for 2 years in the fortress of San Giovanni.

Having gained freedom in 1245, he took the monastic vows of the Dominican Order and went to the University of Paris. There Aquinas became a student of Albert the Great. In 1248-1250, Thomas studied at the University of Cologne, where he moved after his teacher.

In 1252 he returned to the Dominican monastery of St. James in Paris, and four years later was appointed to one of the Dominican positions assigned to teach theology at the University of Paris. Here he writes his first works - "On Essence and Existence", "On the Principles of Nature", "Commentary on the "Sentences"".

In 1259, Pope Urban IV calls him to Rome. For ten years he has been teaching theology in Italy - in Anagni and Rome, at the same time writing philosophical and theological works. He spent most of this time as adviser on theological matters and "reader" to the papal curia.

In 1269 he returned to Paris, where he led the struggle for the "cleansing" of Aristotle from Arabic interpreters and against the scholar Siger of Brabant. By 1272 is written in a sharp polemical form a treatise on the unity of the intellect against the Averroists (De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas). In the same year he was recalled to Italy to establish a new Dominican school in Naples.

Illness forced him to stop teaching and writing towards the end of 1273. At the beginning of 1274 he died in the monastery of Fossanova on the way to church cathedral to Lyon.

Proceedings

The writings of Thomas Aquinas include:

two extensive treatises in the genre of the sum, covering a wide range of topics - "The sum of theology" and "The sum against the pagans" ("The sum of philosophy")
discussions on theological and philosophical problems (“Discussion questions” and “Questions on various topics”)
comments on:
- several books of the bible
- 12 treatises of Aristotle
- "Sentences" by Peter Lombard
- treatises of Boethius,
- treatises of Pseudo-Dionysius
- anonymous "Book of Causes"
a series of short essays on philosophical and religious topics
several treatises on alchemy
verse texts for worship, for example, the work "Ethics"

Historical and philosophical origins

The greatest influence on the philosophy of Thomas had Aristotle, largely creatively rethought by him; the influence of the Neoplatonists, Greek and Arabic commentators of Aristotle, Cicero, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury, John of Damascus, Avicenna, Averroes, Gebirol and Maimonides and many other thinkers is also noticeable.

Ideas of Thomas Aquinas

Main article: Thomism Theology and philosophy. Steps of Truth

Aquinas distinguished between the fields of philosophy and theology: the subject of the first is the "truths of reason", and the second - the "truths of revelation". Philosophy is in the service of theology and is as inferior to it in importance as the limited human mind is inferior to divine wisdom. Theology is a sacred doctrine and science based on the knowledge possessed by God and those who are blessed. Communion to divine knowledge is achieved through revelations.

Theology can borrow something from the philosophical disciplines, but not because it feels the need, but only for the sake of greater intelligibility of the positions it teaches.

Aristotle distinguished four successive levels of truth: experience (empeiria), art (techne), knowledge (episteme) and wisdom (sophia).

In Thomas Aquinas, wisdom becomes independent of other levels, the highest knowledge about God. It is based on divine revelations.

Aquinas identified three hierarchically subordinate types of wisdom, each of which is endowed with its own "light of truth":

wisdom of grace.
theological wisdom is the wisdom of faith using reason.
metaphysical wisdom - the wisdom of the mind, comprehending the essence of being.

Some truths of Revelation are accessible to the understanding of the human mind: for example, that God exists, that God is one. Others - it is impossible to understand: for example, the divine trinity, resurrection in the flesh.

About being

The act of being, being an act of acts and the perfection of perfections, resides within every "existing" as its innermost depth, as its true reality.

The world is a collection of substances dependent for their existence on God. Only in God are essence and existence inseparable and identical.

Thomas Aquinas distinguished between two types of existence:

existence is self-essential or unconditional.
existence is contingent or dependent.

God does not create entities in order to force them to exist later, but existing subjects (foundations) that exist in accordance with their individual nature (essence).

About matter and form

Thomas Aquinas considered the principle of individuation: form is not the only cause of a thing (otherwise all individuals of the same species would be indistinguishable), so the conclusion was made that in spiritual beings forms are individualized through themselves (because each of them is a separate species); in corporeal beings, individualization occurs not through their essence, but through their own materiality, quantitatively limited in a separate individual.

In this way, the "thing" takes on a certain form, reflecting spiritual uniqueness in limited materiality.

The perfection of form was seen as the greatest likeness of God himself.

About man and his soul

The individuality of a person is the personal unity of the soul and body.

Thomas Aquinas believed that the power of understanding of the soul (that is, the degree of knowledge of God by it) determines the beauty of the human body.

The ultimate goal of human life is the achievement of bliss, acquired in the contemplation of God in the afterlife.

A person differs from the animal world by the presence of the ability to know and, on the basis of this, the ability to make a free conscious choice: it is the intellect and free (from any external necessity) will that are the basis for performing truly human actions (as opposed to actions characteristic of both a person and and animal) belonging to the sphere of the ethical. In the relationship between the two highest human abilities - the intellect and the will, the advantage belongs to the intellect (a situation that caused controversy between the Thomists and the Scotists), since the will necessarily follows the intellect, representing for it this or that being as good; however, when an action is performed in specific circumstances and with the help of certain means, volitional effort comes to the fore (On Evil, 6). Along with a person's own efforts, the performance of good actions also requires divine grace, which does not eliminate the originality of human nature, but improves it. Also, the divine control of the world and the foresight of all (including individual and random) events does not exclude freedom of choice: God, as the highest cause, allows independent actions of secondary causes, including those entailing negative moral consequences, since God is able to turn to good evil created by independent agents.

About knowledge

Thomas Aquinas believed that universals (that is, concepts of things) exist in three ways:

Thomas Aquinas himself adhered to a position of moderate realism, dating back to Aristotelian hylomorphism, abandoning the position of extreme realism, based on Platonism in its Augustinian version.

Following Aristotle, Aquinas distinguishes between passive and active intellect.

Thomas Aquinas denied innate ideas and concepts, and before the beginning of knowledge he considered the intellect similar to tabula rasa (lat. “blank slate”). However, “general schemes” are innate in people, which begin to operate at the moment of collision with sensory material.

passive intellect - the intellect into which the sensually perceived image falls.

active intellect - abstraction from feelings, generalization; the emergence of the concept.

Initial cognitive images are created at the level of external senses. Inner feelings process initial images.

Inner Feelings:

the general feeling is the main function, the purpose of which is to bring together all sensations.
passive memory is a repository of impressions and images created by a common feeling.
active memory - retrieval of stored images and views.
intellect is the highest sensible faculty.

Cognition takes its necessary source in sensibility. But the higher the spirituality, the higher the degree of knowledge.

Angelic knowledge - speculative-intuitive knowledge, not mediated by sensory experience; carried out with the help of inherent concepts.

Human cognition is the enrichment of the soul with the substantial forms of cognizable objects.

Three mental-cognitive operations:

creation of a concept and retention of attention on its content (contemplation).
judgment (positive, negative, existential) or comparison of concepts;
inference - the linking of judgments with each other.

Three types of knowledge:

the mind is the whole realm of spiritual faculties.
intellect - the ability of mental knowledge.
reason is the ability to reason.

Cognition is the noblest activity of man: the theoretical mind, comprehending the truth, comprehends the absolute truth, that is, God.

Ethics

Politics and law

Following Aristotle, Thomas considered social life to be natural for a person, requiring management for the common good. Thomas singled out six forms of government: depending on the ownership of power by one, a few or many, and depending on whether this form of government fulfills the proper goal - the preservation of peace and the common good, or whether it pursues private goals of rulers that are contrary to the public good. Fair forms of government are monarchy, aristocracy and polis system, unjust ones are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. The best form of government is a monarchy, since the movement towards the common good is most effectively carried out, guided by a single source; accordingly, the worst form of government is tyranny, since the evil done by the will of one is greater than the evil resulting from many different wills, moreover, democracy is better than tyranny in that it serves the good of many, and not one. Thomas justified the fight against tyranny, especially if the tyrant's rules clearly contradict the divine rules (for example, by forcing idolatry). The autocracy of a just monarch must take into account the interests of various groups of the population and does not exclude elements of aristocracy and polis democracy. Thomas placed church power above secular power, in view of the fact that the former is aimed at achieving divine bliss, while the latter is limited to the pursuit of only earthly good; however, the realization of this task requires the help of higher powers and grace.

5 Proofs for the Existence of God by Thomas Aquinas Proof by motion means that everything that moves was ever set in motion by something else, which in turn was set in motion by a third. Thus, a chain of "engines" is laid out, which cannot be infinite, and as a result, you need to find an "engine" that drives everything else, but is not itself driven by something else. It is God who turns out to be the root cause of all movement. Proof by producing cause - this proof is similar to the first. Only in this case is not the cause of the movement, but the cause that produces something. Since nothing can produce itself, there is something that is the root cause of everything - this is God. Proof through necessity - every thing has the possibility of both its potential and real being. If we assume that all things are in potentiality, then nothing would come into being. There must be something that contributed to the transfer of the thing from the potential to the actual state. That something is God. Proof from the degrees of being - the fourth proof says that people talk about different degrees of perfection of an object only through comparisons with the most perfect. This means that there is the most beautiful, the noblest, the best - that is God. Evidence through target reason. In the world of reasonable and unreasonable beings, the expediency of activity is observed, which means that there is a reasonable being who sets a goal for everything that is in the world - we call this being God.

Reception of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas

Main articles: Thomism, Neo-Thomism

Cancer with the relics of Thomas Aquinas in the Toulouse Jacobite monastery

The teachings of Thomas Aquinas, despite some opposition from the traditionalists (some of the Thomist positions were condemned by the Parisian archbishop Etienne Tampier in 1277), had big influence on Catholic theology and philosophy, which was facilitated by the canonization of Thomas in 1323 and his recognition as the most authoritative Catholic theologian in the encyclical Aeterni patris Pope Leo XIII (1879).

The ideas of Thomas Aquinas were developed within the framework of the philosophical trend called "Thomism" (the most prominent representatives of which are Tommaso de Vio (Caetan) and Francisco Suarez), had some influence on the development of modern thought (especially evident in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz).

For a number of centuries, the philosophy of Thomas did not play a significant role in philosophical dialogue, developing within a narrow confessional framework, however, from the end of the 19th century, the teachings of Thomas again begin to arouse wide interest and stimulate actual philosophical research; there is a number of philosophical trends that actively use the philosophy of Thomas, known by the common name "neo-Thomism".

Editions

At present, there are numerous editions of the writings of Thomas Aquinas, in the original and translations into various languages; Complete collections of works were repeatedly published: "Piana" in 16 vols. (according to the decree of Pius V), Rome, 1570; Parma edition in 25 vols. 1852-1873, reprint. in New York, 1948-1950; Opera Omnia Vives, (in 34 volumes) Paris, 1871-82; "Leonina" (according to the decree of Leo XIII), Rome, since 1882 (since 1987 - republication of previous volumes); Marietti edition, Turin; edition of R. Bus (Thomae Aquinatis Opera omnia; ut sunt in indice thomistico, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1980), also released on CD.

And also as a systematizer of scholasticism and the founder of Thomism - an important direction Catholic Church. During his lifetime, he was a Dominican friar. His ideas are used in as well as theological teachings.

The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas makes it possible to understand some complex theological issues. His most famous works- "The Sum of Theology", as well as "The Sum of Philosophy".

Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas: briefly

This philosopher considered the ontological existence of God insufficient. He compiled five proofs of existence:

Motion. Everything moved by someone moves, which means that there is some kind of prime mover. This engine is called God;

Cause. Everything that exists around has its reason. The first cause is God;

chance and necessity. These concepts are interrelated. God is the original cause;

Degree of quality. Everything that exists has varying degrees of quality. God is the highest perfection;

Target. Everything around has a purpose. The goal has the meaning that God gives it. Without God it would be completely impossible.

The philosophy of Aquinas is connected with the problems of being, God, as well as everything that exists. In particular, the philosopher

Draws the line between essence and existence. This division is included in the key ideas of Catholicism;

As an essence, the philosopher represents the “pure idea” of a phenomenon or thing, a set of signs, features that exist in the divine mind;

He calls the very fact of the existence of a thing a proof of the existence of a thing;

Everything that we see around us exists only for the reason that this existence was approved by God;

God can give existence to the essence, and can deprive it of this existence;

God is eternal and irreversible.

The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas contains the ideas that:

Everything consists of idea (form) as well as matter;

The unity of matter and form is the essence of any thing;

The idea is the determining principle, matter is the receptacle;

Any idea is trinitarian - that is, it exists in the mind of God, in the thing itself, and also in the mind of man.

The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas contains the following ideas:

Reason and revelation are not the same;

Reason and faith are always involved in the process of knowledge;

Reason and faith give true knowledge;

Untrue knowledge may arise because reason is contrary to faith;

Everything around is divided into what can be known, and what cannot be known;

Reason can only know the very fact of God's existence;

The existence of God, the creation of the world, and other similar questions can only be understood by man through divine revelation;

Theology and philosophy are not at all the same thing;

Philosophy explains only what is known by reason;

Theology knows the divine.

Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas: historical significance

Systematization of scholasticism;

Drawing boundaries between existence and essence;

A significant contribution to the development of the ideas of materialism;

The discovery of divine ideas that precede the beginning of the existence of a thing;

The idea that knowledge can only be obtained when reason unites with faith and ceases to contradict it;

An indication of the spheres of being, which can be comprehended only through divine revelation;

Separation of theology and philosophy, as well as the presentation of philosophy as something subordinate to theology;

Logical proof of a number of provisions of scholasticism, as well as theology.

The teachings of this philosopher were recognized (1878), and accepted as the official ideology of Catholicism. Today, neo-Thomism is based on his ideas.

Thomas Aquinas - Italian philosopher, follower of Aristotle. He was a teacher, minister of the Dominican order, and an influential religious figure of his time. The essence of the thinker's teaching is the unification of Christianity and the philosophical views of Aristotle. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas affirms the primacy of God and his participation in all earthly processes.

Biographical facts

Approximate years of life of Thomas Aquinas: from 1225 to 1274. He was born in the castle of Roccasecca, located near Naples. Thomas's father was a feudal baron, and read to his son the title of abbot of a Benedictine monastery. But the future philosopher preferred to study science. Foma ran away from home and joined monastic order. During the trip of the order to Paris, the brothers kidnapped Thomas and imprisoned him in a fortress. After 2 years, the young man managed to escape and officially take a vow, become a member of the order and a student of Albert the Great. He studied at the University of Paris and Cologne, became a teacher of theology and began to write the first philosophical works.

Thomas was later called to Rome, where he taught theology and served as a theological adviser to the Pope. After spending 10 years in Rome, the philosopher returned to Paris to take part in popularizing the teachings of Aristotle in accordance with the Greek texts. Prior to this, a translation made from Arabic was considered official. Thomas believed that Eastern interpretation distorted the essence of the doctrine. The philosopher sharply criticized the translation, and sought a complete ban on its distribution. Soon, he was again called to Italy, where until his death he taught and wrote treatises.

The main works of Thomas Aquinas are "The Sum of Theology" and "The Sum of Philosophy". The philosopher is also known for his reviews of the treatises of Aristotle and Boethius. He wrote 12 church books and the Book of Parables.

Fundamentals of philosophical doctrine

Thomas distinguished between the concepts of "philosophy" and "theology". Philosophy studies questions accessible to the mind, and affects only those areas of knowledge that relate to human existence. But the possibilities of philosophy are limited, a person can know God only through theology.

Thomas formed the idea of the levels of truth on the basis of the teachings of Aristotle. The ancient Greek philosopher believed that there were 4 of them:

experience;
art;
knowledge;
wisdom.

Thomas placed wisdom above other levels. Wisdom is based on the revelations of God and is the only way Divine knowledge.

According to Thomas, there are 3 types of wisdom:

grace;
theological - allows you to believe in God and Divine Unity;
metaphysical - comprehends the essence of being, using reasonable conclusions.

With the help of the mind, a person can realize the existence of God. But the issues of the appearance of God, the resurrection, the Trinity remain inaccessible to her.

Types of being

The life of a person or any other being confirms the fact of his existence. The opportunity to live is more important than the true essence, since only God provides such an opportunity. Every substance depends on divine desire, and the world is the totality of all substances.

Existence can be of 2 types:

independent;
dependent.

True being is God. All other creatures depend on it and obey the hierarchy. The more complex the nature of the being, the higher its position and the more freedom of action.

Combination of form and matter

Matter is a substratum that has no form. The appearance of a form creates an object, endows it with physical qualities. The unity of matter and form is the essence. Spiritual beings have a complex essence. They dont have physical bodies, they exist without the participation of matter. Man is made of form and matter, but he also has the essence that God has endowed him with.

Since matter is uniform, all creatures created from it could be of the same shape and become indistinguishable. But, according to the will of God, the form does not determine the being. The individualization of an object is formed by its personal qualities.

Ideas about the soul

The unity of the soul and body creates the individuality of a person. The soul has a divine nature. It was created by God to give a person the opportunity to achieve bliss by joining his Creator after the end of earthly life. The soul is an immortal independent substance. It is intangible and inaccessible to the human eye. The soul becomes complete only at the moment of unity with the body. A person cannot exist without a soul, she is his life force. All other living beings do not have souls.

Man is an intermediate link between angels and animals. He is the only one of all corporeal beings who has the will and desire for knowledge. After the bodily life, he will have to answer to the Creator for all his actions. A person cannot approach the angels - they have never had a bodily form, they are inherently impeccable and cannot perform acts contrary to divine plans.

Man is free to choose between good and sin. The higher his intellect, the more actively he strives for the good. Such a person suppresses animal aspirations that denigrate his soul. With every deed he draws nearer to God. Inner aspirations are reflected in appearance. The more attractive the individual, the closer he is to the divine essence.

Types of knowledge

In the concept of Thomas Aquinas there were 2 types of intelligence:

passive - needed for the accumulation of sensory images, does not take part in the process of thinking;
active - separated from sensory perception, forms concepts.

To know the truth, you need to have high spirituality. A person must tirelessly develop his soul, endow it with new experience.

There are 3 types of knowledge:

reason - gives a person the ability to form reasoning, compare them and draw conclusions;
intelligence - allows you to know the world, forming images and studying them;
mind - the totality of all spiritual components of a person.

Knowledge is the main vocation of a rational person. It elevates him above other living beings, ennobles and brings him closer to God.

Ethics

Thomas believed that God is an absolute good. A person striving for the good is guided by the commandments and does not allow evil into his soul. But God does not force a person to be guided only by good intentions. He endows people with free will: the ability to choose between good and evil.

A person who knows his essence strives for the good. Believes in God and the supremacy of his plan. Such an individual is full of hope and love. His intentions are always prudent. He is peaceful, humble, but at the same time brave.

Political views

Thomas shared Aristotle's opinion about the political system. Society needs to be managed. The ruler must keep the peace and in his decisions be guided by the desire for the common good.

Monarchy is the best form of government. The sole ruler represents the divine will, he takes into account the interests of individual groups of subjects and respects their rights. The monarch must be subject to ecclesiastical authority, since the ministers of the church are the servants of God and proclaim His will.

Tyranny, as a form of power, is unacceptable. It is contrary to the higher plan, contributes to the emergence of idolatry. The people have the right to overthrow such a government and ask the Church to choose a new monarch.

Evidence for the Existence of God

Answering the question about the existence of God, Thomas gives 5 proofs of His direct influence on the world around us.

Motion

All natural processes are the result of movement. The fruit will not ripen until flowers appear on the tree. Each movement is subordinate to the previous one, and cannot begin until it ends. The first movement was the appearance of God.

Producing cause

Each action occurs as a result of the previous one. One cannot know what was the original cause of the action. It is permissible to assume that God became her.

Need

Some things exist temporarily, are destroyed and reappear. But parts of things need to exist permanently. They create the possibility for the appearance and life of other beings.

Degrees of Being

All things and all living beings can be divided into several stages, according to their aspirations and level of development. So, there must be something perfect, occupying the top rung of the hierarchy.

Every action has a purpose. This is possible only if the individual is guided by someone from above. It follows from this that a higher mind exists.