Exploring Plato’s Virtue and Aquinas’ Philosophy: Key Concepts
Plato’s Virtue
Moral behavior ensures excellent justice through temperance, fortitude, courage, and wisdom. It is impossible without harmony, a sign of purification and liberation of Plato’s soul. We find a restatement of Socrates’ moral intellectualism.
Aquinas’ Philosophical Concepts
A Priori
Knowledge existing before experience or independent of it, logically speaking. It doesn’t require experience to validate its truth. This includes knowledge from pure understanding and reason, characterized by necessity and universality. It’s sometimes misused to refer to proofs of God’s existence based solely on the idea of God, like St. Anselm’s ontological argument.
A Posteriori
Knowledge that is only possible through experience. Statements known to be true through experience are contingently true (they could be false, and their opposite is equally possible). For example, proving God’s existence through Aquinas’ Five Ways.
Abstraction
The process of separating or isolating ideas to understand things correctly. In Aristotelian philosophy, abstraction forms universal intellectual concepts (e.g., tree, human) from individual beings (e.g., specific trees, specific humans). Aquinas says understanding removes sensible qualities to develop universal concepts.
Analogy
Originally, a rigorous mathematical proportion (A/B = C/D). Later, it signifies a qualitative similarity between two distinct realities. For example, the analogy between humanity and God’s goodness. Reasoning by analogy has heuristic value but lacks probative force. Aquinas uses analogy to understand divine nature.
Averroism
The philosophy of Averroes and his followers. It includes European interpretations (13th-16th centuries) emphasizing three ideas: the doctrine of the single intellect (potentially denying personal immortality), the eternity of matter (potentially denying creation from nothing), and double truth (where theological and philosophical truths may differ).
Contingency
The opposite of necessity. What may or may not be. Contingency and necessity are central to Aquinas’ Third Way.
Scholasticism
From the 12th century, this term describes the institutional and professional method of teaching and learning in schools. Scholasticism spans three periods: early (9th-12th centuries), high (12th-13th centuries), and late (14th-15th centuries). It also refers to philosophical thought within a ‘school’ or a ‘closed’ doctrine, focusing on developing details without questioning core principles.
Essence
What a thing truly is, determining its being. The specific nature of something. A permanent set of properties defining a human being. Essence can exist potentially before actual existence.
Existence
The fact of being. In Thomistic philosophy, the universe consists of contingent beings, except for God, where essence and existence coincide.
Evidence
A property of truths requiring no proof. A proposition is self-evident when the subject contains the predicate (e.g., a square is a polygon with four sides). Aquinas argues that “God exists” is self-evident in itself but requires demonstration because we, as contingent beings, don’t fully grasp God’s essence.
Species
The complete essence of a being, shared by many individuals.
Faith
Knowledge given by God, based on revealed truth. For Aquinas, faith transcends reason, but preambles of faith are accessible through natural reason.
Aquinas on Law, Will, and Theology
Law
Rational management for the common good, promulgated by legitimate authority. Natural law is intrinsic to things’ nature and, for Aquinas, a rational expression of divine law. Positive law is the political expression of natural law in each state, aiming for justice, welfare, peace, and morality.
Free Will
An essential human soul feature, resembling God and differing from other species. Along with reason, it allows for decisions that change events.
Necessity
What cannot be otherwise or cease to be. The opposite of freedom, it’s a natural, rational, or moral obligation to act in a fixed way. Necessary being (God) has its reason for existence within itself, unlike contingent beings.
Patristics
From the 2nd century AD, Christians integrated philosophical language into doctrine. This early Christian philosophy, while apologetic, provided a philosophical basis using ideas from Plato, Aristotle, and others. St. Augustine is a key figure.
Preambles of Faith
Rational explanations and logical arguments used by Aquinas to make religious truths understandable, setting the stage for faith. They exemplify his approach to reconciling faith and reason.
Principle of Individuation
The metaphysical principle explaining the individuality of entities within the same genus or species. For Aquinas, matter gives individual qualities to things sharing general characteristics.
Natural Theology
A discipline within metaphysics, according to Aquinas, that uses intellectual effort to elevate knowledge of God. It aims to prove God’s existence and understand His nature.
Revealed Truths
Truths directly communicated by God through prophets and scriptures. Faith alone accesses these truths, which surpass natural reason.
Ways (to Prove God’s Existence)
Aquinas proposes rational paths to God based on experience and causality. The Five Ways present God as the unmoved mover, the first efficient cause, the necessary being, the perfect being, and the universal intelligence.