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Questions tagged [aquinas]

[St. Thomas Aquinas][1] (1225–1274), scholastic philosopher, Catholic theologian, and most famous commentator on Aristotle. [Thomism][2] is his school of thought. [1]: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas [2]: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14698b.htm

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), scholastic philosopher, Catholic theologian, and well-known commentator on Aristotle. Thomism is the name for the school of thought derived from his works in philosophy and theology.

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If the universe has a beginning does that prove God exists?

It is curious to note that a eminent Physicist like Stephen Hawking thinks the universe has a beginning. This has some rather startling Religious implications You can find the link here: http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html Now let…
Neil Meyer
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Is transubstantiation faithfully Aristotelian?

Transubstantiation is a concept that Roman Catholic scholastics, most notably Thomas Aquinas, developed for the doctrine of Communion. Catholics state that when a priest blesses the elements of bread and wine, they become the body and blood of…
Mr. Bultitude
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How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

This question became a symbol for the silly and pointless sophistry of medieval scholastics. But as modern scholarship has shown scholastics was not such a thoughtless desert as some of its caricatures: the role of Duns Scotus and Ockham in the…
Conifold
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How can souls and angels be pure forms if only matter undergoes change?

In Thomas Aquinas' philosophy, angels are conceived as pure forms without any matter, like God, but contrary to God they still possess potentiality. Although there is no composition of matter and form in an angel, yet there is act and…
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What is the agent intellect according to Avicenna and Aquinas?

Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas seem to generally interpret Aristotle in different ways, and I am trying to understand the differences. Specifically, what are the differences between Avicenna's view and Thomas Aquinas' on agent intellect?
keramus
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What does Dawkins suggest is the main flaw in these three arguments from Aquinas?

Source: p 100-101, The God Delusion, By Richard Dawkins 1. The Unmoved Mover. Nothing moves without a prior mover. This leads us to an infinite regress, from which the only escape is God. Something had to make the first move, and that…
user8572
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What does Aquinas mean in this passage from Summa Theologica responding to the claim that goodness is prior to being?

In his article on goodness in general, Summa Theologica I q. 5 a. 2, Aquinas considers the question of whether goodness is prior in idea to being. He is responding to the following objection (arg. 1): It seems that goodness is prior in idea to…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Did Thomas Aquinas state randomness as a prerequisite of free will?

I was told the other day that in one work on free will, Thomas Aquinas suggested that some randomness / non-determinism was a prerequisite for its existence. Does any one know where he expressed this idea? Did he? It doesn't sound like his sort of…
N. McA.
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If God is pure act of being, where does the essence of being come from?

According to the Thomistic view in Ontology, essence and 'the act of being' (I'm translating from a romance language) are different, in which 'to be' is the act received by the essence, which is the potency that limits the act of being. So, my…
An old man in the sea.
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Does the act-potency distinction lead to Meinong's jungle?

The Aristotelian-Thomistic distinction of act-potency is, among other things, supposed to solve Parmenides' paradoxes of change. Since change requires something non-existent popping into existence ex nihilo (as far as I can tell, this is the case…
Adam Sharpe
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According to St. Thomas Aquinas, do "being" (ens) and "truth" (verum) differ?

In his Disputed Questions on Truth q. 1 a. 1 arg. 3, St. Thomas Aquinas presents an argument against "that the true (verum) is exactly the same as being (ens)": 3. Things which differ conceptually [ratione or "in reason"] are so related to each…
Santiago Estupiñán
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Where did Suárez say the principle of non-contradiction does not apply to the Trinity?

Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., says, in Le Sens du Mystère et le Clair-Obscur Intellectuel: Nature et Surnaturel p. 128 fn. 1 (Engl. transl. p. 142 fn. 41): St. Thomas never would have admitted like Suarez that the principle of contradiction…
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Does Aquinas believe the first principle of human action is self-love as friendship or as concupiscence?

Aquinas states in the Summa Theologiae, First Part of the Second Part, Question 1, Article 5 the following: ... just as in the process of reasoning, the principle is that which is naturally known, so in the process of the rational appetite, i.e.…
user28843
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Thomas of Aquino vs. William of Ockham

Thomas of Aquinas mentions Aristotle´s views at length in his writings. It seems that Aristotle, who, I understand, did not teach about an intervening God, is nevertheless considered a skilled mechanics whose concepts can be used freely in religious…
Mikael Jensen
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How can the soul be a form in Aristotle's metaphysics but continue to exist after the body's destruction?

Many authors, especially in introductory books, seem to characterize Aristotle's forms as some kind of structure or organizational feature of matter, which seems to be compatible with a reductionist view of nature. Others characterize it as a…
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