Thomas Aquinas main ideas. Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas: a brief excursion

Thomas Aquinas is the largest representative of late scholasticism. Born in the Kingdom of Naples near the town of Aquino. He joined the Dominican order and taught at the University of Paris. The philosophical teaching of Thomas Aquinas covers the entire spectrum of medieval scholasticism - these are the problems of the relationship between philosophy and theology, the ontological proof of the existence of God, the duality of truth, the problem of universals, the problem of theodicy (interpretation of the nature of evil allowed by God in the world).

The most significant works of Thomas Aquinas

"Summa Theology" and "Summa Against the Gentiles"

Thomas Aquinas on the specifics of philosophy and theology

Thomas Aquinas believed that both theology and philosophy are the study of God and his creations. But while philosophy ascends from divine creations to their creator, theology, on the contrary, proceeds from the recognition of the creator and descends to his creations: “in the philosophical doctrine, which considers creations in themselves and ascends from them to the knowledge of God, at the very beginning are considered creation and only in the end God; on the contrary, in a doctrine that considers creatures only in their relation to God, God is considered first and then creatures. And such a sequence is more perfect, because it reveals more similarities with the process of knowing God himself: after all, God, knowing himself, contemplates the rest through this.

According to Thomas Aquinas, philosophy should serve theology

Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas insisted, must be subordinate to theology. Its purpose is to clarify the dogmas of theology, to make them more intelligible for believers: “This science (theology) can take something from philosophical disciplines, but not because it feels the need for it, but only for the sake of greater intelligibility of the positions it teaches. After all, it does not borrow its principles from other sciences, but directly from God through revelation. Moreover, she does not follow other sciences as superior to her, but resorts to them as subordinate servants, just as the theory of architecture resorts to service disciplines or the theory of the state resorts to the science of military affairs. And the very fact that it still resorts to them does not stem from its insufficiency or incompleteness, but only from the insufficiency of our ability to understand: the latter is easier to lead from those objects that are open to mediocre reason, the source of other sciences, to those objects, which are above reason and about which our science treats. Thomas Aquinas owns the famous expression: "philosophy is the servant of theology", which determined the position of philosophy in Christian Europe for several centuries to come.

Thomas Aquinas on the nature of universals

In the disputes between nominalists and realists about the nature of universals, Thomas Aquinas stood on the positions of moderate (Aristotelian) realism. According to him, universals exist in three ways: before things, in the consciousness of God, as ideas of future things, as ideal eternal prototypes of things that exist; in things - as common, coinciding signs of many things, and after things - in human thinking as a result of abstraction, as a concept about them. If we discard the mention of the mind of God, then any modern atheist philosopher can agree with the second and third forms of the existence of universals.

The problem of truth in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas distinguished two sources of knowledge of truth: “from nature” and through divine revelation: “Knowledge of truth is twofold: it is either knowledge through nature, or knowledge through grace. And that knowledge which comes about through grace, in turn, is twofold: the first kind of knowledge is exclusively speculative, as when certain divine mysteries are revealed to a certain person; the other kind of knowledge is connected with feeling and produces love for God. And the last is a special property of the gift of wisdom. Following the ideas of Aristotle, in The Sum of Theology, Thomas Aquinas defined truth as "the correspondence of the intellect and the thing."

Thomas Aquinas on the evidence for the existence of God

Thomas Aquinas disagreed with the "ontological" proof of the existence of God previously offered by Anselm of Canterbury. In opposition to him, he put forward five arguments in favor of the existence of God, of which the so-called "cosmological" argument is most famous. Its essence lies in the interpretation of the existence of God as the "first cause" of all things. As the first cause, God creates numerous kinds and kinds of things endowed with varying degrees of perfection. A special place in creation is occupied by man, who is the unity of the material body and the soul as a form of the body.

The problem of evil in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas

For all scholastics, and not only for them, the problem of substantiating the existence of evil in the world was urgent. If the Christian God is omnipotent and kind, why did he allow the existence of evil in the world he created? Thomas Aquinas considered evil as a less perfect good - it is allowed by God in order for all the steps of perfection to be realized in the Universe, "the perfection of the common good is not damaged." If all evils were eliminated, many good things would be lacking in the world. Thus, without the killing of animals, the life of lions would be impossible, and without the cruelty of tyrants, the steadfastness of martyrs (Ibid.). At the same time, good is higher than evil, it dominates evil: “There is no single primary beginning of evil in the sense in which there is a single beginning of good ... everything that exists, to the extent that it is a being, is good ... evil exists only in good as its substrate." Thus, evil can arise only "accidentally" (accidentally) in the consequences of a single primary good, which is God.

The historical significance of the philosophical teachings of Thomas Aquinas.

The rather comprehensive philosophical and theological teaching of Thomas Aquinas was one of the highest achievements in the development of scholasticism. For services to catholic church, expressed in the adaptation of Aristotelian philosophy to Christian theology, he was in 1323 at the next Ecumenical Council numbered among the saints. His teaching and in our time acts as the leading direction of Catholic theology, since the official theology of the Vatican is neo-Thomism - a modernized version of the views of F. Aquinas. As for his purely philosophical views, then they are only of historical value, like all scholasticism as a whole.

The essence of the views of the Italian theologian and the most influential representative of the scholastic thought of the Middle Ages, the founder of the theology of the school of fomism are set out in this article.

Thomas Aquinas main ideas

Thomas Aquinas systematizer of medieval scholasticism. The scientist outlined his main ideas in the following works - "The sum of theology", "The sum against the pagans", "Questions on various topics", "Debatable questions", "The Book of Causes", as well as numerous comments on the works of other authors.

The life of Thomas Aquinas is full of unpredictability. He joined a secret society, his parents kidnapped him and kept him at home under lock and key. But Foma did not renounce his ideas and views, despite the surrounding protests. He was particularly influenced by the works of Aristotle, Neoplatonists, Arabic and Greek commentators.

The main philosophical ideas of Thomas Aquinas:

• The truth of science and faith are not contradictory with respect to each other. Between them there is harmony and wisdom.
• The soul is a substance that is one with the body. And in this tandem feelings and thoughts are born.
• According to Thomas Aquinas, the ultimate goal of human existence is bliss, which is found in the contemplation of God.
• Identified 3 types of knowledge. This is the mind, as the area of ​​spiritual abilities. This is the mind, as the ability to reason. It is intellect, like mental cognition.
• He singled out 6 forms of government, which are divided into 2 types. Fair forms of government - monarchy, polis system, aristocracy. Unjust - tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Thomas Aquinas believed that the best is the monarchy, as a movement towards the good from one source.
• Man is distinguished from the animal by free choice and the ability to know.

Without what, according to the philosopher Thomas Aquinas, human existence is impossible?

In fact, he was a very religious person. And without faith in God, life loses its meaning. Therefore, Aquinas put forward his undeniable evidence for the existence of God through:

• Motion. Everything that moves in the world is moved by someone. Someone above.
• Producing cause. The first efficient cause in relation to oneself is the cause of God.
• Need. There is always something that is the cause of necessity for everything else.
• target reason. Everything in the world works for a purpose. Therefore, all movement is not accidental, but intentional, although devoid of cognitive abilities.
• Degrees of being. There are good and true things, therefore in the world there is something more noble and true from above.

We hope that from this article you have learned what philosophy Thomas Aquinas.

The son of Landalf, Count of Aquinas, Saint Thomas Aquinas was born around 1225 in the Italian city of Roccasecca, in the Kingdom of Sicily. Thomas was the youngest of nine children in the family. Despite the fact that the boy's parents came from the family of Emperors Frederick I and Henry VI, the family belonged to the lower class of the nobility.

Before the birth of his son, the holy hermit predicted to the boy's mother that the child would enter the Order of Brother Preachers and become a great scholar, reaching an incredible degree of holiness.

Following the traditions of that time, at the age of 5 the boy was sent to the abbey of Monte Cassino, where he studied with the Benedictine monks.

Thomas will stay in the monastery until the age of 13, and after a change in the political climate in the country will force him to return to Naples.

Education

Thomas spends the next five years in a Benedictine monastery, completing his primary education. At this time, he diligently studied the works of Aristotle, which would later become Starting point his own philosophical quest. It was in this monastery, which worked closely with the University of Naples, that Thomas developed an interest in monastic orders with advanced views, preaching life in spiritual service.

Around 1239 Thomas studied at the University of Naples. In 1243 he secretly enters the Dominican order, and in 1244 he takes tonsure. Upon learning of this, the family kidnaps him from the monastery, and keeps him prisoner for a whole year. However, Thomas does not give up his views and, having been freed in 1245, he returns to the Dominican shelter.

From 1245 to 1252 Thomas Aquinas continued to study with the Dominicans in Naples, Paris and Cologne. Justifying the prophecy of the holy hermit, he becomes an exemplary student, although, ironically, his modesty often leads to misconceptions about him as a narrow-minded person.

Theology and philosophy

After completing his studies, Thomas Aquinas devotes his life to wandering, philosophical works, teaching, public speeches and sermons.

The main subject of medieval thought is the dilemma of reconciling theology (faith) and philosophy (reason). Thinkers can in no way combine the knowledge received through divine revelations with the information that is obtained naturally, using the mind and feelings. According to Averroes' "double truth theory", the two kinds of knowledge are in complete contradiction to each other. The revolutionary views of Thomas Aquinas are that "both kinds of knowledge ultimately come from God" and are therefore compatible with each other. And they are not only compatible, but also complement each other: Thomas claims that revelation can guide the mind and protect it from errors, while reason can purify and free faith from mysticism. Thomas Aquinas goes further, discussing the role of faith and reason, both in comprehending and in proving the existence of God. He also defends with all his might the image of God as an omnipotent entity.

Thomas, one of a kind, speaks of the connection of proper social behavior with God. He believes that government laws are, at their core, a natural product of human nature and therefore are an integral part of social welfare. Strictly following the laws, a person can earn the eternal salvation of the soul after death.

Works

Peru Thomas Aquinas, a very prolific writer, owns about 60 works, from short notes to huge volumes. Manuscripts of his works were distributed to libraries throughout Europe. His philosophical and theological works cover a wide range of issues, including comments on biblical texts and discussions on the natural philosophy of Aristotle.

Shortly after the death of Thomas Aquinas, his writings are gaining wide recognition and receive ardent support among representatives of the Dominican order. His "Summa Teologica" ("The Sum of Theology"), having supplanted the "Sentences in Four Books" by Peter Lombard, becomes the main textbook on theology in universities, seminaries and schools of that time. The influence of the works of Thomas Aquinas on the formation of philosophical thought is so great that the number of comments written on them today is at least 600 works.

Final years and death

In June 1272, he accepts an offer to go to Naples to teach Dominican monks in a monastery adjacent to the university. He still writes a lot, but the significance in his writings is becoming less and less.

During the celebration of St. Nicholas in 1273, Thomas Aquinas has a vision that puts him off work.

In January 1274, Thomas Aquinas went on a pilgrimage to France, to worship in honor of the Second Council of Lyon. However, along the way, he was stricken with illness, and he stopped at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova in Italy, where he died on March 7, 1274. In 1323, Thomas Aquinas was canonized by Pope John XXII.

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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 rehabilitation. 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 surrounding world and explains the surrounding world, its phenomena, and 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.

(1221-1274), who combined intellectualism with unshakable faith. His main works are: "The Sum against the Gentiles", "The Sum of Theology", "On Controversial Questions of Truth".

Thomas Aquinas, turning to Aristotle, takes a step that seemed heretical to many: he is trying to reconcile the great Greek with Christ. Aristotle for Thomas Aquinas is the embodiment of the authority of reason, from the positions of which he himself goes to faith. Reflecting on the problem of the relationship between faith and reason, Thomas argues that the existence of God is not provable, it is perceived only by faith, however, a person needs at least indirect evidence of His existence. The forerunners of Thomas Aquinas allowed the possibility of two truths, since science cognizes some objects, theology - others.

The rational thought of Thomas Aquinas offers another solution. Science and theology aim at the same thing, but they follow different paths, so their methods are different. Theology goes "from God" to the world, to man, the scientist, on the contrary, goes from facts to the discovery of what is behind them, gradually "ascends to God." Everything that cannot be proven or verified by experience belongs to the realm of theology. To the truths that are not generally subject to the judgment of reason or science, are the dogmas of faith. This solution to the problem was called "the doctrine of the duality of truth", which later became the most important aspect of the official doctrine of the Vatican.

Thomas Aquinas lists five possible ways to prove the existence of God. Proof from motion: everything that moves is set in motion by something else. The prime mover is God. Proof from a producing, efficient cause: everything in the world of sensible things has its cause. God is the first cause. Proof from necessity and contingency: everything contingent has a need for something else. God is essential. Proof from the degree of perfection: in the world there are all levels of perfection. God is perfection, absolute value. Proof from the divine control of the world: everything in the world behaves purposefully. God is the primary goal and the primary leader.

In the dispute between realists and nominalists, Thomas Aquinas took the position of moderate realism. Really only separately existing. General, universals, although they do not lead an independent existence in empirical reality, are not devoid of a real foundation, because they are derived from it. The only absolute general that is singularity is God.

Man is the center of the created world. Each person is a special thought of God. Every act of knowledge of God is a person's knowledge of himself in relation to the absolute Divine perfection. Things, people and God are real, but in different ways. Reality not only "is" as something realized, but it is also what it can be. God is such a being in which essence and existence coincide, and man is endowed only with the potential to "be", he is only involved in the existence of God.

Man must realize God not only as truth and goodness, but also as beauty. Beauty is a liberation from the aspirations of the will, it is a calm contemplation in the form of a pure form, it is, as it were, an achieved goal. Beauty, says Thomas Aquinas, is of three kinds - physical, intellectual, moral. Accordingly, at the other extreme there is ugliness, which is embodied in the images of the skeleton, the sophist, and Satan.

"Natural" laws express man's participation in "eternal" laws through his mind. The moral value of “human laws” is determined by “natural” law (“do good and avoid evil”, family and child rearing, the desire for knowledge and communication), “natural” law is based on “eternal”. The best form of the state is a monarchy, which promotes the unity of people and order. At the same time, Thomas Aquinas is not a religious utopian: the state is not the main instrument in achieving extraterrestrial bliss.

In 1879, in the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, the system of views of St. Thomas appears as an unshakable foundation on which Catholics must rely in their theological, scientific and philosophical studies. Soon a modern version of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas appears -