Aristotle and Aquinas: State, Ethics, Soul, and God

Posted on Nov 27, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

The Purpose of the State

The purpose of the state is to promote the common good, encompassing the material welfare and moral improvement of citizens through the practice of virtue. However, not all individuals are considered citizens. Regarding political regimes, a government is just if its decisions align with the purpose of the polis, protecting the common good. It errs when it defends its own interests. Correct forms of government are:

  • Monarchy: When one governs in the community’s interests.
  • Aristocracy: When a minority governs for the benefit of all.
  • Republic: When the majority rules for the common good.

Incorrect forms are:

  • Tyranny: When one rules for personal or group gain, a degeneration of monarchy.
  • Oligarchy: When the wealthy rule for their benefit, a degeneration of aristocracy.
  • Democracy: When the poor rule for their advantage, a degeneration of the republic.

Virtue and the Middle Class

Following the classification of political regimes, Aristotle seeks the best one. He argues, similar to his ethics, that virtue lies in the middle ground. Applied to politics, this means the best regime has a large middle class running the city.

Evidence of the Existence of God

Types of Proofs

Arguments for God’s existence are classified into two groups:

  1. A Priori Arguments: These rely on reason alone, independent of experience, arguing from God’s essence. Aquinas rejects this, stating God’s essence is unknowable.
  2. A Posteriori Arguments: These start from empirical facts. Thomas uses five such arguments (quinque viae).

Structure of the Quinque Viae

  1. Begins with an empirical observation.
  2. Applies the principle of causality: everything has a cause.
  3. An infinite causal chain is impossible.
  4. Therefore, there must be a First Cause: God.

The Five Ways

  1. From motion to an Unmoved Mover (God).
  2. From efficient causes to a First Efficient Cause (God).
  3. From contingent beings to a Necessary Being (God).
  4. From degrees of perfection to a Most Perfect Being (God).
  5. From the order of the universe to an Intelligent Designer (God).

The Essence of God

While we can rationally know God exists through the quinque viae, we cannot fully grasp His nature or essence. However, Aquinas suggests two approaches:

  • Via Negativa (Way of Negation): We understand God by stating what He is not (e.g., not finite, not mutable).
  • Via Eminentiae (Way of Eminence): We attribute positive qualities to God in their highest degree (e.g., infinitely wise, infinitely good).

Understanding

The process from the sensible to the intelligible involves these steps:

  1. External senses receive sensations from objects.
  2. Common sense unifies and coordinates these sensations.
  3. Unified sensations are stored in the imagination or memory as images.
  4. Active intellect abstracts the essence from the image and impresses it on the passive intellect.
  5. Passive intellect receives the essence.
  6. Passive intellect applies concepts to form judgments about sensory images.

Ethics

Human actions are directed towards an end, and Aristotle identifies this ultimate end or purpose as happiness (eudaimonia). Happiness is achieved by fulfilling one’s proper function and reaching one’s full potential. Humans, possessing a rational soul, must control their desires and passions through reason.

Virtue

Virtue consists of the abilities that enable humans to live fully and happily. These abilities are developed through habit or custom. Virtues are a mean between two extremes: excess and deficiency. There are moral and intellectual virtues.

The Three Kinds of Soul

Every substance is a composite of matter and form, including living beings. Living things have souls, but there are different kinds:

  1. Vegetative Soul (Plants): Responsible for growth, nutrition, and reproduction.
  2. Sensitive Soul (Animals): Includes vegetative functions plus sensation, appetite, and locomotion.
  3. Rational Soul (Humans): Includes sensitive and vegetative functions plus rational thought and free will.

Humans are a union of body and soul, forming one substance.

Intellective Level

There are two intellectual powers:

  • Cognitive/Intellectual Powers: Knowledge begins with sensation, but true knowledge involves understanding universals. The intellect has two aspects:
    • Passive Intellect: The capacity to receive universals.
    • Active Intellect: Abstracts universals from particulars.
  • Appetitive Powers: The desire for what the intellect knows.

Aquinas’s Posture

Aquinas’s position can be summarized in three points:

  1. Distinction between Reason and Faith: They differ in content (reason uses abstraction, faith uses revelation) but do not contradict each other. God is the author of both the natural (accessible to reason) and supernatural (accessible to faith) realms.
  2. Rejection of Double Truth: Aquinas rejects the idea that faith and reason can lead to contradictory truths, as in Latin Averroism.
  3. Two Types of Truth Plus Preambles: There are truths of faith and truths of reason, but also preambles of faith (e.g., God’s existence) accessible through both.

Soul (Hylemorphism)

Aquinas maintains a hylomorphic view of humans as a composite of body and soul. Unlike Aristotle, he believes the soul is immortal and created directly by God. The soul has three capabilities: vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual.