Medieval Philosophy: Aquinas

The purpose of this subject is to introduce you to many of Aquinas’s central ideas and arguments on a wide variety of theological and philosophical topics. These include the proofs of the existence of God (the famous “five ways”), the concept of the simplicity of God (including the controversial issue of the identity of being and essence in God), the concept of soul in general and of human soul in particular, the proof of the immortality of the human soul, the nature of perception and of intellectual knowledge, the notion of free will and of happiness, the theory of human actions. These are studied in translation rather than in the Latin original, though a glance at Aquinas’s remarkably readable Latin can often be useful. Candidates are encouraged to carefully read and analyze Aquinas’s texts and to focus on the philosophical questions they raise. Subjects 134 Aristotle, Physics, and 133 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, are a good background for this option.

Text: Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia, 2 - 11, 75 - 89 (God, Metaphysics, and Mind); or Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia Iiae qq. 1 - 10, 90 - 97 (Action and Will; Natural Law); Anthony Kenny, Aquinas; F.C. Copleston, Aquinas.