Transcript Document 7119146

Augustine and
Aquinas
Augustine and Aquinas
• For Augustine and Aquinas, both Christian priests
and teachers in a world where Christianity was allpowerful, the Greek philosophers must be
synthesized with Scripture.
• Augustine influenced by Plato (through the
Neoplatonists )
• Aquinas influenced by Aristotle
• The truths of reason vs. Truth of Divine Revelation
• Solution: the search for Truth is fides quarens
intellectum, faith seeking understanding
St. Augustine of Hippo
Introduction to Augustine
• Born in 354 in Tagaste, Numidia (now Algeria)
• Raised and educated in Carthage. Mother (Monica) was
Christian, father (Patricius), was a pagan
• Augustine was brought up as a Christian at first, then chose
Manichaeism, a Persian dualist religion
• Educated in philosophy and rhetoric and was a teacher
• Taught in Milan, met Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; Ambrose and
Monica pressure Augustine to be Christian
• Augustine choose Neoplatonism instead
• Neoplatonism is an interpretation of Plato’s philosophy with
religious elements which took shape in the 3rd century CE
• It is an idealist monism
• Though Augustine eventually rejects Neoplatonism, it is clear that
Plato’s thought influences his own philosophy
Introduction to Augustine
• 386: Augustine finally converts to Christianity; baptized in 387
• Moves to Hippo, Africa; becomes priest in 391 and Bishop of
Hippo in 395
• Dies in 430 when the Vandals overrun Roman Africa
• Canonized in 1303; declared a Doctor of the Church
• Most Famous Works of Augustine:
• The Confessions—memoir of his childhood, sinful adulthood and
conversion to Christianity
• The City of God—an interpretation of human history as a conflict
between two Cities, the earthly City of Man and the heavenly City
of God.
• Written after the sack of Rome in 410, to console Christians with the
ultimate triumph of the City of God.
Augustine’s Basic Philosophy
• As with Plato, Augustine believes in the soul’s
participation in a world of forms and ideas. That is, the
intellect is able to grasp eternal truths.
• HOWEVER for Augustine, God and God’s Word impart
this intellectual light to humans. This is called
illumination
• Illumination is how we can come to know not only
universal principles (a priori) but also that which
challenges our human reason (for example, the Trinity)
• God created the world out of nothing, in a freely
willed act of love.
Augustine’s Philosophy of
Human Nature
• Human Nature
• Unlike Plato, for Augustine, God creates the human
soul at the moment it comes to animate the body. Yet
the soul is immortal and does exist beyond the death
of the body
• The soul reflects God’s Triune nature as Being,
Knowledge and Love. In the soul this is manifested as
• Being
• Reason
• Will
• The primacy of these three is the Will, because of its
connection to Love.
Augustine and Free Will
 Augustine believes that humans have Reason and Will, but
that there is a primacy of will over reason in humans
 Humans know what the right thing to do is, but they can
choose whether to do it.
 God gave humans free will, but thanks to the Fall and
Original Sin, humans are more inclined to do evil over
good.
 Human agency (reason and will, natural human goodness,
moral behavior) alone is insufficient for salvation from sin.
 Humans MUST depend on God’s grace for salvation.
 God, who is omnipotent and omniscient and atemporal,
has predestined some for heaven
Augustine Pros and Cons
• Voluntarism: Augustine’s theory of the primacy of the will over
reason (voluntarism) represents a major break with the Greek
tradition of reason being primary.
• Action over speculation; practice over theory
• It is necessary to love in order to know and not vice-versa
• (From Pojman): Predestination seems to conflict with
human free will
• Determinism: Is there really free will if God knows what I will do
before I do it?
• Morality: Why choose to do good if God hasn’t chosen me for
heaven?
St. Thomas Aquinas
Introduction to Aquinas
• Born in Italy in 1225; died 1274; Dominican
priest
• Aquinas had access to the scientific works of
Aristotle: ByzantiumIslamic world Muslim
SpainJews Western Europe
• Mainly thanks to Avicenna (ibn Sina) of 11th
cent. Persia, and Averroes (ibn Rushd) and
Maimonides of 12th cent. Spain, all interpreters
of Aristotle.
13th century—theology,
philosophy, science
• St. Albert the Great -- Paris, Cologne, 13th
cent. Revived use of observation &
experimentation; one of the first medieval
scholars to synthesize Aristotle with
Christian thought.
• Roger Bacon of Oxford, 13th cent. -revived Platonic application of
mathematics to science; empiricist.
Structure of Summa Theologiae
• Work of theology. Appeals to both
theological authorities (Bible, Augustine)
and to natural reason.
• Encompasses the conclusions of
philosophy.
• Organized by questions.
Typical structure of the Summa
•
•
•
•
•
The question.
It seems.... (thesis)
[Several plausible arguments, numbered]
On the contrary,.... (antithesis, counter)
Response [Sets out Thomas's opinion -typically, agrees with the counter, or accepts
both as partially true.]
• [The numbered plausible arguments are
rebutted or corrected, one by one.]
The Natural and the Supernatural
• The Natural
– Understanding natural things can be attained
by our own, natural powers
– Can be understood scientifically
– Provides imperfect happiness (“felicity”)
• The Supernatural
– Requires God’s grace
– Can be understood only by faith
– Provides perfect happiness (“beatitude”)
Natural Philosophy & Supernatural
(Revealed) Theology
• Philosophy (including “natural theology”)
is competent to understand the natural
order. So, Aristotle is a reliable guide to
imperfect happiness, and to the
structure of the cosmos.
• Understanding the supernatural
requires special revelation (through
prophets, inspired Scriptures).
Human Nature
• For Aquinas, human nature (the essence
of humanity) encompasses both levels.
• We are “naturally supernatural”. We
cannot be fully satisfied with any natural
good.
• Our capacity to grasp the idea of infinity or
perfection is evidence of our supernatural
end, which is union with God
Theory of Mind and Knowledge
• Aquinas is a developmental empiricist: all
human knowledge begins with the use of the
5 senses, by which we come to know our
physical environment.
• We start with the natural sciences, and then
move to metaphysics and natural theology.
• Natural theology tells us only that God (a First
Cause) exists. It does not tell us much about
the nature of God.
But Not a Strict, Absolute
Empiricist
• 1. The mind is not a blank slate: it brings
specific, pre-determined powers and
potentialities to the business of learning
through the use of the senses.
• 2. Knowledge is always the product of the joint
operation of the senses and the intellect.
• 3. Ultimately, we can attain some (very limited)
knowledge of things beyond the range of our
senses.
The Structure of the Soul
• Rational
– Intellect
• Speculative
• Practical
– Will (rational appetite)
• Sub-rational
– Senses
– Bodily appetites
• Concupiscible & Irascible
The Sub-rational Soul
• The senses give us information about the
environment.
• The appetite propels us to certain
apparent goods or away from certain evils:
anger and fear (irascible) and desires for
food, water, warmth, sex (concupiscible).
Rational Soul
• The theoretical (or "speculative") intellect
strives toward truth and understanding. It begins
with the information delivered by the senses,
and "abstracts" universal laws from this data.
• The practical intellect deliberates about what
is the best course of action. It begins with
inclinations provided by the appetites, but
corrects and supplements them from a rational
assessment of a plan of life.
Rational Soul, con.
• The will receives its direction from the
practical intellect -- but the will is needed
to effect the transition from thought and
feeling to action.
The Problem of Double Truth
• Are there two truths, one arrived at through reason,
philosophy, and science, and the other through faith,
theology, and religion?
• In other words, is it possible that something can be
theologically true but scientifically false?
• Aquinas says NO. Philosophy and theology give us
two ways of knowing ONE truth. If religion teaches
something opposed to reason, it is teaching a
falsehood; if reason cannot grasp a religious truth,
faith and religion are there to help it reflect more
deeply.