Great Philosophers: Aquinas

References

Saint Thomas Aquinas
Excellent article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Summa Theologica
A well organized translation of the entire work.

Thomistic Philosophy
An extensive resource of texts and commentaries maintained by Dr. Joseph Magee

On the Proofs for the Existence of God
Articles examining the proofs in detail.

Thomas Aquinas

He was nicknamed "the Dumb Ox" due to his quiet and deliberate manner. Yet, he won his Doctorate at the University of Paris, lectured for ten years in Rome, wrote more than eight million published words, had such profound influence that in 1879 Pope Leo XIII declared his system to be the official Catholic philosophy, and to this day is taught as the basis of much Christian intellectualism. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) reversed the tradition began by Augustine of interpreting Christian thought through the philosophy of Plato. Instead, Aquinas succeeded in making the philosophical approaches and methods of Aristotle the basis of Christian philosophy.

Of his many written works, The Summa Theologica (A Summary of Theology) is the best known and most frequently read today. He began the extensive work in 1265 and died (nine years later) before completing it. Five chapters with 119 nineteen sections, each consisting of several articles. To get an idea of the scale of this work, below is an outline of the shortest chapter.

Summa Theologica

Treatise on the Creation
Part II

44. The Procession of Creatures from God, and of the First Cause of All Things: (1) Whether God is the efficient cause of all beings?
(2) Whether primary matter is created by God, or is an independent coordinate principle with Him?; (3) Whether God is the exemplar cause of beings or whether there are other exemplar causes?
(4) Whether He is the final cause of things?
45. The Mode of Emanation of Things from the First Principle: (1) What is creation?; (2) Whether God can create anything?
(3) Whether creation is anything in the very nature of things?; (4) To what things it belongs to be created?
(5) Whether it belongs to God alone to create?; (6) Whether creation is common to the whole Trinity, or proper to any one Person?
(7) Whether any trace of the Trinity is to be found in created things?; (8) Whether the work of creation is mingled with the works of nature and of the will?
46. Of the Beginning of the Duration of Creatures: (1) Whether creatures always existed?
(2) Whether that they began to exist in an article of Faith?; (3) How God is said to have created heaven and earth in the beginning?
47. Of the Distinction of Things in General: (1) The multitude or distinction of things.
(2) Their inequality.; (3) The unity of the world.
48. The Distinction of Things in Particular: (1) Whether evil is a nature?
(2) Whether evil is found in things?; (3) Whether good is the subject of evil?
(4) Whether evil totally corrupts good?; (5) The division of evil into pain and fault.
(6) Whether pain, or fault, has more the nature of evil?
49. The Cause of Evil: (1) Whether good can be the cause of evil?; (2) Whether the supreme good, God, is the cause of evil?
(3) Whether there be any supreme evil, which is the first cause of all evils?

As you shall see, each of the articles (titled as questions) is an extensive examination of a philosophical question, its possible answers, with reasoning for and against the possible answers.

Next - Learn about Aquinas' method of argument

IQ Home

Aquinas
Aristotle
Augustine
Berkeley
Confucius
Descartes
Douglass
Foucault
Hobbes
Hume
Hypatia
Kant
Kierkegaard
Lao Tzu
Leibniz
Locke
Marx
Mill
Montaigne
Pascal
Plato
Protagoras
Rand
Russell
Schopenhauer
Socrates
Spinoza
Thales

2002