Saint Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy and Theology
**Saint Thomas Aquinas**
Introduction
Until the 18th century, the prevalence of Platonic inspiration characterized this dominance. The work of St. Augustine contributed to the total ignorance of Aristotle’s philosophy. Only parts of his logic were known.
Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle
Aquinas never accepted these Averroist theses:
- a) The Eternity of the World: God has revealed that the temporal world has a beginning, and we believe this. The truth about the creation of the world is a credible but unprovable
Causality, Chance, and Order in the Universe
Difference Between Operational Randomness and Chance
Monod’s concept of *incausality* can be confusing when discussing technical unpredictability. For example, genetic mutations are totally unpredictable today, but we cannot say they are without cause.
In the example of randomness, Monod argues that the fall of a hammer is unpredictable. However, one can verify that it has a cause: the carelessness of a person and the law of gravity. This is operational randomness. So, both have a cause, whether known
Read MorePlato’s Theory of Ideas: A Dualistic Perspective
Plato’s Theory of Ideas
The Theory of Ideas affirms the existence of certain intangible realities: conceptual, immutable, innate, and everlasting (eternal). These are absolute, transcendent, not accessible to the senses but to intelligence, separate and independent of the physical world of sensible things and human views. Ideas are also ideal paradigms or models that are the essences of things, and are imitated by them more or less imperfectly, the way a shadow copies or imitates the object that
Read MoreMarx and Kant: Key Concepts and Theories
Marx’s Philosophy
History of Marxism
- Left Hegelian
- Feuerbach – Defends materialism
- Utopian Socialism – Thinkers like Fourier, Owen, and others demanded social reforms that ended the exploitation of workers.
- Economists – British economic liberalism (e.g., A. Smith) considered the law of supply and demand as natural, justifying the capitalist system (Invisible Hand).
- Rousseau considered the natural equality of men, attributing the inequalities to social institutions.
Dialectical Materialism
Marx argues that
Read MorePhilosophical and Scientific Methods: Reality and Knowledge
Empiricism and the Evolution of Scientific Thought
From the standpoint of method, figures like Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Kant, Comte, and John Stuart Mill are generic. In the field of empiricism, we can emphasize Mach, Duhem, the Vienna Circle, and Quine. The Vienna Circle advocated for verification, proposing that all scientific experiments be proven by an empirical method to make them true. K. Popper challenged this with falsificationism, arguing that it is not possible to verify all hypotheses.
Read MorePersonal Identity, Freedom, and Responsibility in Ethics
Personal Identity, Freedom, and Responsibility
Human beings, as moral subjects, become themselves with their ethical and moral choices. These choices can lead to a happy and fulfilled life or a bitter and frustrated one. The good that all persons want to achieve in their moral life is, as Aristotle and St. Thomas believed, to achieve the best for their life. The morally wise and good person always tries to do good, not bowing to good or bad fortune, to ensure their emotional and psychological inner
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