VII. Classical Philosophy and the

1
VII. Classical Philosophy and the

• High Middle Ages

2
VII.A. Scholasticism

• A method, not a creed
• Examination of authoritative texts
• Comparison of contradictory statements, so as
  to find the underlying unity
• Priority of reason

3
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• The son of a prosperous landowner in the Italian
  Alps
• A monk and later the abbot at Bec in Normandy
  (France)
• The most luminous mind in the Western Church
  between Augustine and Aquinas
• Became archbishop of Canterbury in 1089.
• The father of Scholasticism

4
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Faith seeking understanding
• (Fides quaerens intellectum)

5
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Proslogion
• Neoplatonic influences
• A top-down way of thinking
• God as the supreme good
• God as simple, not composed of parts
• God as separate from time

6
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Proslogion
• Gods illumination as the key to understanding

7
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Proslogion
• Paradoxes in Gods character
• Omnipotence and inability
• Mercy and impassibility
• Mercy and justice

8
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Gaunilo, On Behalf of the Fool
• A painting that exists only in the mind of the
  artist
• An island that can be imagined but does not exist
• In neither case does the ability to imagine or
  understand the thing signified mean that it
  actually exists.

9
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• Reply to Gaunilo
• God must be without beginning.
• God is not just the most perfect example of a
  certain genre.

10
VII.B. Anselm (1033-1109)

• An Anselmian exercise --
• Something is true because it is affirmed in the
  Bible.
• Something is affirmed in the Bible because it is
  true.

11
VII.C. Scholasticism after Anselm

• 12th Century Three Major Changes
• Problems with the patristic consensus
• Increased contact with Judaism and Islam
• Rise in heresy and schism within the Western
  Church

12
VII.C. Scholasticism after Anselm

• The Challenge of Aristotelianism
• Averroes (1126-1198)
• Distinction between faith, theology, and
  philosophy
• Eternality of the world
• Only one active intellect in the universe

13
VII.C. Scholasticism after Anselm

• 13th Century Responses to Aristotle
• The conservative response
• Sought to preserve Augustinian thought
• Used Aristotle only for logic
• Best represented by Bonaventure (ca. 1217-1274)
• The innovative response
• Reconstructed Augustinian theology on an
  Aristotelian basis
• Best represented by Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

14
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• A Dominican monk from near Naples, Italy.
• Studied and then taught scholastic theology in
  Paris and Cologne.
• Divided his last two decades between teaching in
  Paris and being a monastic adviser in Italy.
• Stopped writing as a result of a mysterious
  experience on Dec. 6, 1273.

15
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Theologiae (1265-72)
• Originally intended for Dominicans who were not
  planning to study in a university.
• Consists of four parts
• God (his one essence and three persons) and the
  procession of creatures from God (prima I)
• The return of humanity to God in general the
  purpose of human life (prima secundae I-II)
• The return of humanity to God in particular the
  cardinal virtues (secunda secundae II- II)
• Christ as the way to return to God (tertia III)

16
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Theologiae
• Each part consists of questions ( topics), and
  each topic consists of articles ( questions)
• Each article consists of five sections
• Title (formulation of the question)
• Objections to Thomas position on the question
• Thomas position
• Proof of Thomas position
• Answers to objections

17
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Theologiae
• Priority of revelation/theology
• Distinction between theology and philosophy

18
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Theologiae
• Gods existence is NOT self-evident.
• Gods existence is known through effects.
• The Five Ways
• Motion
• Cause
• Possibility/Necessity
• Gradation
• Governance

19
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Contra Gentiles (ca. 1256)
• Ways something can be predicated of two different
  subjects
• Univocally (if it is true of both subjects in the
  same way)
• Equivocally (if it is true of the two subjects in
  completely different ways)
• Analogically (if it is true of one subject in a
  way that is similar to, but less than, the way it
  is true of the other subject)

20
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Contra Gentiles
• Nothing is predicated of God and us univocally
• God is pure act.
• God is the measure of all beings.
• God is perfect.
• We are like God imperfectly, by participation.
• We can know God only negatively.

21
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Contra Gentiles
• Nothing is predicated of God and us equivocally
• There IS an order to the predication.
• There is a true likeness, not merely an
  accidental one.
• We can reason from one to the other.

22
VII.D. Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)

• Summa Contra Gentiles
• Things must be predicated of God and us
  analogically
• God is prior in terms of being.
• We are the effects by which God is known.
• God can thus be known by his effects.

23
VII.E. Aquinas and Aristotle in Retrospect

• Does Aquinas make room for philosophy within
  theology, or does he make philosophy a separate
  realm?
• Is this an appropriate way of describing faith
  and reason?
• Can one gain accurate knowledge of God by working
  from the bottom-up?

24
VII.E. Aquinas and Aristotle in Retrospect

• Aristotelianism down the Road
• More thorough, careful exegesis
• Investigation of the universe
• Fracturing of the view of knowledge
• Discovery of the individual
• Enthronement of reason as the supreme authority