Thomas Aquinas went down in history as a major theological philosopher of the Middle Ages, as well as a systematizer of scholasticism and the founder of Thomism, an important area of the Catholic Church. During his lifetime, he was a Dominican monk. His ideas are used in modern philosophical as well as theological teachings.
The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas provides an opportunity to understand some complex theological issues. His most famous works are The Sum of Theology, as well as The Sum of Philosophy.
The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas: briefly
This philosopher considered the ontological existence of God to be insufficient. He compiled five proofs of the existence of a higher mind :
- traffic. Everything moved by someone is moving, which means there is some kind of primary engine. This engine is called God;
- the reason. Everything around has its own reason. The root cause is God;
- randomness and necessity. These concepts are interconnected. The original reason is God;
- degree of quality. Everything existing has various degrees of quality. God is the highest perfection;
- target. All around has a purpose. The goal has the meaning that God gives it. Without God, setting goals would be completely impossible.
Aquinas philosophy is connected with the problems of being, God, as well as all 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 entity, the philosopher presents a “pure idea” of a phenomenon or thing, a set of signs, traits existing in the divine mind;
- he calls the fact of the existence of a thing a proof of the existence of a thing;
- everything that we see around exists only for the reason that this existence was approved by God;
- God can give the essence of existence, and can deprive it of this existence;
- God is eternal and irreversible.
The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas contains the idea that:
- everything consists of an idea (form), as well as matter;
- the unity of matter and form is the essence of any thing;
- an idea is a determining beginning, matter is a receptacle;
- any idea is trinity - that is, it exists in the mind of God, in this very thing, as well as in the consciousness 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 cognition;
- reason and faith give true knowledge;
- untrue knowledge may appear for the reason that the mind is contrary to faith;
- everything around is divided into that which can be known, and that which cannot be known;
- the mind is able to know only the very fact of the existence of God;
- the existence of God, the creation of the world, the immortality of the soul, as well as other similar issues, a person can understand only through divine revelation;
- theology and philosophy are not the same thing at all;
- philosophy explains only what is known by reason;
- theology knows the divine.
The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas: Historical Importance
This may include:
- evidence of the existence of God ;
- systematization of scholasticism;
- drawing boundaries between existence and essence;
- a significant contribution to the development of the ideas of materialism;
- discovery of divine ideas preceding the beginning of the existence of a thing;
- the idea that knowledge can be obtained only when the mind is united with faith and ceases to contradict it;
- an indication of the spheres of being, which can only be understood through divine revelation;
- the separation of theology and philosophy, as well as the presentation of philosophy as something subordinate to theology;
- a logical proof of a number of propositions of scholasticism, as well as theology.
The teachings of this philosopher were recognized by the Pope (1878), and accepted as the official ideology of Catholicism. Today, such ideas as neo-Thomism are based on his ideas.