Aquinas’ Philosophy: Faith, Reason, and the Existence of God
The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Reason
The fundamental objective of St. Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy is to harmonize faith and reason, opposing the Averroists’ concept of a double truth. Aquinas posits that truth is singular and accessible through two distinct avenues: reason, derived from sensory data, and faith, stemming from divine revelation. These are independent, creating a distinction between truths of faith or dogma (studied by theology, which must be accepted without discussion because they spring from God) and the truths of reason (these are the truths of philosophy that can be understood by the human mind), which can be demonstrated as the preambles of faith, that are truths that share the philosophy and theology.
For Aquinas, the difference between philosophy and theology lies in philosophy’s offering of imperfect knowledge while clarifying aspects of theology. Thus, faith improves reason but does not replace it, like correcting theology to philosophy but not eliminating it. Philosophy, therefore, serves the singular truth, and philosophy and reason are wrong if they come to conclusions incompatible with the faith; therefore, reason and faith should not be in conflict.
Aquinas’ Proofs of God’s Existence
Before demonstrating the existence of God, Aquinas proposes an a posteriori demonstration from the senses, moving from effect to cause, i.e., God created beings, thus opposed to St. Anselm’s ontological argument that God exists in mind and in reality. St. Thomas develops a process of rapprochement with the assertion that God exists, are the five ways:
- Via the movement: Everything that moves is moved by God, who is the prime mover that moves without being moved.
- Via the efficient cause: Everything that exists is the effect of a cause, raising the need for a first cause, God.
- Via the contingency of things: Running from contingent beings to a first if necessary, and that contingent beings need not be caused.
- Way through the grades of perfection: It is necessary to be where they are made in a minimum degree of perfection that beings are limited.
- Via the cosmic order and purpose: There is an ordering intelligence, as the cosmic order is not given to himself.
Hylemorphism and Theory of Knowledge
Following the Aristotelian hylemorphism, Aquinas affirms that man is composed of matter (body) and form (soul), which together form a single substance, but Aristotle asserted against the immateriality of the human soul. The Thomistic theory of knowledge is based, likewise, in Aristotle. He suggested that the origin of our knowledge is in our senses and is based on collaboration between the senses and understanding, which allows to know the essence of sensible things, of reality. With the data provided by the senses, understanding develops through the abstraction concepts. This process involves understanding the ability to separate the matter of how, working together in this process the senses, memory, intellect (which abstracts the forms) and patient understanding (which receives the information and knows the general concept).
Ethics and Politics
On the Ethics of St. Thomas, which is teleological as in Aristotle, the ultimate goal of moral activity is to achieve happiness, this is achieved through a life dedicated to the search and the knowledge of God, as it will be the most perfect and happy for humans. God governs the world by the eternal or divine law whose basic principle is “Do good and avoid evil” – elementary principle of morality -. This law coincides with the natural law and order directing the actions of natural things for the proper conduct of the assets of its own. And the eternal law is that which rests in God’s own reason and from which all other laws derive, is based on man’s natural inclination toward the good. But it’s not a habit but an act of practical reason, and it is a single law, immutable, universal and indelible.
Speaking of his politics, Aquinas believes that man is by nature a social being, so that standards are necessary to regulate their social life. This is the function of positive law, it is the reflection of natural law. It is the means that states have to seek the common good. Laws are unjust if they fail its purpose and it shall be lawful to resist them. But when the positive law and natural law-abiding authority are legitimate.