Hagia Filosofia

While I try to explore various subject matters of philosophy, it is important to examine major philosophical methods to better comprehend the process in exploring arguments for questions.

Thomism originated from St. Thomas Aquinas, who sought to develop a system that combined Christian doctrine with elements from Aristotelianism, as well as Muslim and Jewish theologies. Aquinas considered philosophy as the highest science, as it sought to explore an ultimate explanation for everything. Special sciences inquires about the subject matter that defines it: biology with living organisms, psychology with the human and animal mind, etc. They all make assumptions that cannot be justified. The role of philosophy is to explain how the world must be if the assumptions are to be valid. Therefore, results cannot be based on experience but instead rely solely on reason. These sciences largely deal with secondary causes of things while philosophy deals with the ‘first cause,’ which explains contingent things in terms of the ultimate cause of reality.

Summa Theologica is Thomas’ most famous writings, most intriguing to me as a born-again Christian, for he outlines five proofs for the existence of God:

1. All things in this world move. Objects move because of another object causes it (the motor). The motor can also be moved, but would require another motor to cause its movement, and after that another, and so on. It’s impossible for these causes to move indefinitely for then there would be no first motor and no cause in the first place.
2. There can be no object that is its own cause or else its cause would be anterior to its existence. Conversely, it’s impossible to ascend from cause to cause indefinitely, which means there must exist a self-sufficient, efficient cause: God.
3. I see in nature things that are born and things that die. Consequently, it is possible to be and not be. It is impossible for things to always be, since I that which is possible not to be at some point is not. If it’s possible for nothing to be, then there must have been a time when there was nothing. If this were true, then there would be nothing in existence for in order for things to exist there must be something to start existence. If at one time there was nothing in existence then nothing should exist today, unless there existed something that was necessary. But every necessary thing requires a cause to its existence. It is impossible to go onto infinity in necessary things that are caused by another. Therefore, there must exist some being having its own necessity and not receiving it from another.
4. Any category has a measurement of degrees. Hot has warm and warmer. Each have a source for its ultimate in measure. Whatever is the most in such a category is the source. Warmth has fire. Goodness has God.
5. Everything whether sentient or not proceeds in an orderly fashion. Reality has a natural order that could not have come from nothing, yet precedes humans.

Jacques Maritain, a chief exponent of Thomism, wrote in Introduction to Philosophy,

Philosophy is the science which by the natural light of reason studies the first causes or highest principles of all things – is, in other words, the science of things in their first causes, in so far as these belong to the natural order.

Maritain’s position was likely influenced by the secular and humanist forces that threatened Catholic organizations in France. He rejected modernity in the form of Cartesian and post-Cartesian thought as an emphasis on epistemology rather than metaphysics, taking it upon himself to bring back Thomistic philosophy to the contemporary world.

Scrunton offers a contrasting sceptical viewpoint because of the uncertainty of the nature and possibility of a priori argument, which I will explore later on.