The philosophy of Aquinas

337 Pages·2016·2.23 MB·English

by  Pasnau

THE PHILOSOPHY OF AQUINAS

THE PHILOSOPHY OF AQUINAS
Second Edition
Christopher Shields
AND
Robert Pasnau
1
1
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© Oxford University Press 2016
First Edition published in 2004
Second Edition published in 2016
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Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 930124– 9 (hbk); 978–0–19–930124–9 (pbk)
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan, USA
CONTENTS
Preface  ix
1. Life and Work  1
1.1. Early Years  2
1.2. A Young Scholar  4
1.3. Master of Theology  8
1.4. Back to Italy  11
1.5. A Second Term in Paris  17
1.6. Breakdown  21
2. Aquinas’s Explanatory Framework: The Four Causes  26
2.1. Introducing the Four Causes  26
2.1.1. Matter and Form  28
2.1.2. The Efficient Cause  37
2.1.3. The Final Cause  40
2.1.4. The Four Causes Reviewed and Briefly
Illustrated  45
2.2. The Four Causes Developed and Articulated  47
Contents
2.2.1. Mutual Priority  48
2.2.2. Priority Among the Causes  50
2.2.3. Proximate and Non-P roximate Causes  52
2.2.4. Causal Coincidence  55
2.2.5. Incidental Causes  58
2.3. Conclusions  60
3. Aquinas’s Metaphysical Framework: Being
and Essence  62
3.1. Beings and Essences  62
3.2. Material Substances  70
3.2.1. First Qualification  73
3.2.2. Second Qualification  73
3.2.3. Third Qualification  76
3.3. Immaterial Substances  77
3.4. Substance and Accidents  83
3.5. Universals  89
3.5.1. Qualitative Sameness  90
3.5.2. Numerical Sameness  94
3.6. Conclusions  98
4. God’s Existence and Nature  100
4.1. Our Knowledge of God  100
4.2. Phase One: God’s Existence  104
4.2.1. The Proof from Motion  104
4.2.2. The Proof from Degrees of Truth  114
4.3. Phase Two: God’s Nature  119
4.3.1. Absolute Simplicity  123
4.3.2. From Intellect to Will  129
4.4. Understanding God’s Attributes: Analogical
Predication  137
4.5. Conclusions  148
vi
Contents
5. The Order of the Universe  150
5.1. God’s Power  150
5.1.1. Creation  150
5.1.2. Omnipotence and Freedom  155
5.1.3. The Beginning of the Universe  161
5.2. The Created Order  169
5.3. Providence  176
5.3.1. Conservation  177
5.3.2. Necessity and Freedom  180
5.4. Conclusions  188
6. The Human Soul and the Human Body  190
6.1. The Special Status of Human Beings  190
6.2. Soul as a Principle of Life  191
6.3. Souls and Bodies: Hylomorphism  194
6.4. Against Reductive Materialism  197
6.5. Against Platonism  202
6.6. A Difficult Intermediary  205
6.7. Soul as Subsistent  206
6.8. Where in the Body Is the Soul?  210
6.9. Conclusions  215
7. Sense and Intellect  217
7.1. The Nature of Cognition  217
7.2. The Cognitive Powers  220
7.2.1. Sensation  221
7.2.2. The Immateriality of Cognition  223
7.2.3. An Argument for the Intellect’s
Immateriality  226
7.3. Cognitive Functions  229
7.3.1. The Objects of Intellect  230
vii
Contents
7.3.2. Abstraction  234
7.3.3. Illumination  237
7.3.4. Concept Formation  238
7.4. Conclusions  242
8. The Goal of Human Life  244
8.1. Introduction  244
8.2. That There Is a Human End  246
8.3. Happiness  249
8.4. What Happiness Is Not  252
8.5. What Happiness Is  255
8.6. The Beatific Vision  260
8.7. Conclusions  265
9. Ethics  268
9.1. Overview  268
9.2. Natural Law  270
9.2.1. Nature and Eternal Law  270
9.2.2. Natural Inclinations  274
9.2.3. The Passions  278
9.3. Virtue  284
9.3.1. The Need for Virtue  284
9.3.2. The Perfection of Virtue  288
9.3.3. Prudence  291
9.4. Conclusions  297
Glossary  301
Catalog of Works  305
Index  319
viii
PREFACE
The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas has in recent decades found an audi-
ence well beyond its traditional home in Catholicism. While Aquinas
has benefited from many generations of careful and often incisive dis-
cussion at the hands of scholars broadly sympathetic to his ultimate
conclusions in virtue of their own Catholic theism, his works have been
sorely neglected— except, sadly, where they were mentioned only to
be maligned— by most of the broader philosophical public. This has
seemed a pity to many of those who more recently have read his works
with care, including now many not at all disposed to join him in his per-
vasively theistic worldview. Whatever ultimate truths it may contain,
the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas is animated by a kind of creative
intellectual dexterity rarely equaled in the long history of the subject.
If for this reason alone, his works merit careful study— though, as we
hope to make plain, the reasons for studying Aquinas alongside other
towering figures in the history of philosophy, including Plato, Aristotle,
Descartes, Leibniz, and Hume, far outnumber those reasonably offered
on behalf of any number of others whose works have entered into
the canon.
To begin, beyond the astonishing range of his interests, Aquinas
displays an uncommon, almost uncanny, ability to combine high- level
systematicity with an exactness of detailed argumentation. In this