St.Thomas Aquinas philosophy: summary, about self, of education, of God,of Law. Seems like we are going to talk about a very interesting title which you can read is St Thomas Aquinas philosophy.
To know about this Aquinas philosophy, we should make an effort to know about Saint Thomas Aquinas as well. Saint Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican theologian who is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of Scholasticism.
He is also termed the Thomistic School of theology. Saint Thomas is ranked as one of the most influential thinkers because of his unique ability to combine theological principles of faith with philosophical principles of reasons.
Let’s have a look at the early life of Saint Thomas as well. He was born in Roccasecca, Italy in 1225 in the kingdom of Sicily. He had a big family of eight siblings and he was the youngest among his siblings. When Saint Thomas was only 5 years old he was sent to the Abbey of Monte Cassino to be trained among the Benedictine monks. Thomas was described as a witty child with a good soul in wisdom.
Moreover, Saint Thomas completed his early education at a Benedictine house in Nepal, and during these years he began studying Aristotle’s work which became a great launching point for the explanation of Saint Thomas’ philosophy.
Thomas began to develop more interest in contemporary monastic orders over years and his attention was drawn particularly to the life of spiritual service contrasting with the traditional views and sheltered lifestyle.
It was after the completion of education that Saint Thomas devoted himself to the life of writing, public speaking, preaching, and traveling. Moreover, he is popular for his 60 known works ranging in length and the handwritten copies of his work were distributed to the libraries of Europe.
Summary: St.Thomas Aquinas philosophy
The belief that probably led Saint Thomas to think and write works was that according to his theory the existence of God could be proved in five ways and among these five beliefs three of them are by observing movement in the world as proof of God which is also known as Immovable Mover.
The second one was to observe the cause and effect and identify God as the cause of everything. The third demand is the conclusion that the impermanent nature of beings proves that a necessary thing is existing which is God and who only originates from himself.
The other two beliefs regarding existence were the noticing of different levels of human perfection and the determination that a supreme and powerful being must have existed before. The last belief was about knowing the intelligence of the human beings that they could not be intelligent if the intelligence was not granted by God.
St Thomas also addressed the appropriate social behavior toward God in a unique way. He continues to believe differently and mentions distinct concepts as according to his thinking the laws of nature are the natural products designed by human beings as they were crucial for social welfare.
By following these social laws of the state people will get help in learning about the eternal salvation of their soul in their afterlife. Laws were classified into three types by Thomas and these were natural laws, eternal and positive laws.
Nature law will prompt the man to act hard to achieve his goals and govern his sense of right and wrong. According to his treatise, the eternal law is related to the rational beings who are dependent on different reasons and it is put into action through a free will which will direct the man to walk on the path of the accomplishment of a man’s spiritual goals.
About Self
St Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy is a great way to learn about self differently as he always thought of having a theory covering the indirect self-knowledge and according to this theory, the mind will only know itself in second-order reflecting first-order actions and directed by extra-mental objects.
Some strange questions may always occupy your mind such as Who am I? What is the meaning of life? These questions are often asked online but no one has got the desired answer; however, philosophers found the first question the central question of human life. According to Socrates, a wise person knows what he does not know.
The reality is the lack of knowledge and pursuit of self-knowledge is one of the painful and lifelong questions. For example, a common phenomenon that is often studied in psychology is the loss of sense of self that is observed when the way of thinking of an individual is stripped because of a major change or tragedy in his life.
It can be a great task as the pressure to face oneself for the first time without any protection can make someone suddenly cut out from under one’s feet.
The reality about self-ignorance is a philosophical puzzle and the answer to the question Who am I? was answered by a great theologian St Thomas Aquinas. This concept was defined as a documentary in his new book Aquinas on Human Self-Knowledge, which is a scholarly myth according to him as the early modern scholars came to think human beings related to self and subject.
In his book, Thomas tried to dispel this myth by showing all theologians and neuroscientists all around the world that just like them medieval thinkers are also very curious about the intimate familiarity of the mind and inaccessibility to itself.
Of Education
St Thomas Aquinas mentioned philosophy regarding education as well. When the word education is heard the most common question that pops up in everyone’s mind is why knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning.
Knowledge and skills worthwhile learning covers knowledge about the study of knowledge which teaches us about the method of mathematics, moral philosophy, sciences, natural philosophy, and divine sciences.
Among the above-mentioned methods, natural science is considered the best method to understand a man due to various reasons. Logic is addressed first while the beginning of the learning process because the other sciences are made understood from a scientific point of view.
Following these methods and working hard leads surely to pure knowledge which is termed science and it is the most evident method of mathematical science.
The certainty of mathematical science is more serious than that of divine sciences as divine sciences are far from the problems of sensation that take knowledge as its origin. Moreover, mathematical thinking is regarded as easier and more certain compared to theological and physical studies but these two are considered as the kind of knowledge that can be taught to youth without any difficulty.
Moving to natural philosophy then it helps emphasize the methods of reasoning whereas the method of intellectualism is the specification of divine science. Moreover, the learning of metaphysics opens up the mind to look for the opportunities that are spared for the human intellect to be used at peak capacity.
The main thought that should be kept in mind should be what are the goals of education and why we are seeking knowledge. Education is obtained to get a sense regarding everything and to teach main issues that are made worthwhile through the knowledge of different subjects and the use of knowledge helps an individual in learning about mathematics, metaphysics, and other different disciplines.
Of God
St Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy thinks that God is not a material composite nor he is a metaphysical composite. In other words, he insisted on the clarification that God is not an amalgam of qualities and attributes nor his essence can be differentiated from his existence. Simply, he defines God as a simple being.
According to him, God from whom everything else has been created contains within himself and he is a perfect being. God is said to have all the perfections of his creations for the ultimate existence of us.
Of Law
Our last take on today’s discussion will be about the theology of St Thomas Aquinas of law. Thomas made it believe everyone that philosophy is so powerful that it can even be proven by the reasons of some unaided revelations that are proposed by the Christian faith and it can clarify the truths that cannot be proved. At last he held that philosophy can defend the principles Christian faith that is against their detractors.
Thomas describes the law as a certain rule and measurement of acts and a man is induced to act or stopped from acting. Law has essential relation to the rule and reasons of human beings as it is in the first place relating to divine reason and in second place relating to human reason.
When the divine reasons and reasons relating to men act correctly then they are fitted following the final purpose or cause implanted in it by God. Law is directed to God by its nature and more commonly to goods. It is not addressed in a private way to individuals but to people meeting together in the community.
It is a great source of information developing interest in the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas.
Read also: Relationship Between Logic and Philosophy
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