Augustine and Aquinas

Augustine and Aquinas

• For Augustine and Aquinas, both Christian priests and teachers in a world where Christianity was all-powerful, the Greek philosophers must be synthesized with Scripture. • Augustine influenced by Plato (through the

Neoplatonists )• Aquinas influenced by Aristotle

• The truths of reason vs. Truth of Divine Revelation• Solution: the search for Truth is fides quarens

intellectum, faith seeking understanding

St. Augustine of Hippo

Introduction to Augustine• Born in 354 in Tagaste, Numidia (now Algeria)• Raised and educated in Carthage. Mother (Monica) was

Christian, father (Patricius), was a pagan• Augustine was brought up as a Christian at first, then chose

Manichaeism, a Persian dualist religion• Educated in philosophy and rhetoric and was a teacher• Taught in Milan, met Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; Ambrose and

Monica pressure Augustine to be Christian• Augustine choose Neoplatonism instead

• Neoplatonism is an interpretation of Plato’s philosophy with religious elements which took shape in the 3rd century CE

• It is an idealist monism• Though Augustine eventually rejects Neoplatonism, it is clear that

Plato’s thought influences his own philosophy

Introduction to Augustine• 386: Augustine finally converts to Christianity; baptized in 387• Moves to Hippo, Africa; becomes priest in 391 and Bishop of

Hippo in 395• Dies in 430 when the Vandals overrun Roman Africa• Canonized in 1303; declared a Doctor of the Church• Most Famous Works of Augustine:

• The Confessions—memoir of his childhood, sinful adulthood and conversion to Christianity

• The City of God—an interpretation of human history as a conflict between two Cities, the earthly City of Man and the heavenly City of God.

• Written after the sack of Rome in 410, to console Christians with the ultimate triumph of the City of God.

Augustine’s Basic Philosophy• As with Plato, Augustine believes in the soul’s

participation in a world of forms and ideas. That is, the intellect is able to grasp eternal truths.• HOWEVER for Augustine, God and God’s Word impart

this intellectual light to humans. This is called illumination

• Illumination is how we can come to know not only universal principles (a priori) but also that which challenges our human reason (for example, the Trinity)

• God created the world out of nothing, in a freely willed act of love.

Augustine’s Philosophy of Human Nature

• Human Nature • Unlike Plato, for Augustine, God creates the human

soul at the moment it comes to animate the body. Yet the soul is immortal and does exist beyond the death of the body

• The soul reflects God’s Triune nature as Being, Knowledge and Love. In the soul this is manifested as • Being• Reason• Will

• The primacy of these three is the Will, because of its connection to Love.

Augustine and Free WillAugustine believes that humans have Reason and Will, but

that there is a primacy of will over reason in humansHumans know what the right thing to do is, but they can

choose whether to do it.God gave humans free will, but thanks to the Fall and

Original Sin, humans are more inclined to do evil over good.

Human agency (reason and will, natural human goodness, moral behavior) alone is insufficient for salvation from sin.

Humans MUST depend on God’s grace for salvation.God, who is omnipotent and omniscient and atemporal,

has predestined some for heaven

Augustine Pros and Cons• Voluntarism: Augustine’s theory of the primacy of the will over

reason (voluntarism) represents a major break with the Greek tradition of reason being primary.• Action over speculation; practice over theory• It is necessary to love in order to know and not vice-versa

• (From Pojman): Predestination seems to conflict with human free will• Determinism: Is there really free will if God knows what I will do

before I do it?• Morality: Why choose to do good if God hasn’t chosen me for

heaven?

St. Thomas Aquinas

Introduction to Aquinas

• Born in Italy in 1225; died 1274; Dominican priest

• Aquinas had access to the scientific works of Aristotle: ByzantiumIslamic world Muslim SpainJews Western Europe

• Mainly thanks to Avicenna (ibn Sina) of 11th cent. Persia, and Averroes (ibn Rushd) and Maimonides of 12th cent. Spain, all interpreters of Aristotle.

13th century—theology, philosophy, science

• St. Albert the Great -- Paris, Cologne, 13th cent. Revived use of observation & experimentation; one of the first medieval scholars to synthesize Aristotle with Christian thought.

• Roger Bacon of Oxford, 13th cent. -- revived Platonic application of mathematics to science; empiricist.

Structure of Summa Theologiae

• Work of theology. Appeals to both theological authorities (Bible, Augustine) and to natural reason.

• Encompasses the conclusions of philosophy.

• Organized by questions.

Typical structure of the Summa

• The question. • It seems.... (thesis)• [Several plausible arguments, numbered]• On the contrary,.... (antithesis, counter)• Response [Sets out Thomas's opinion --

typically, agrees with the counter, or accepts both as partially true.]

• [The numbered plausible arguments are rebutted or corrected, one by one.]

The Natural and the Supernatural

• The Natural – Understanding natural things can be attained

by our own, natural powers– Can be understood scientifically– Provides imperfect happiness (“felicity”)

• The Supernatural– Requires God’s grace– Can be understood only by faith– Provides perfect happiness (“beatitude”)

Natural Philosophy & Supernatural (Revealed) Theology

• Philosophy (including “natural theology”) is competent to understand the natural order. So, Aristotle is a reliable guide to imperfect happiness, and to the structure of the cosmos.

• Understanding the supernatural requires special revelation (through prophets, inspired Scriptures).

Human Nature

• For Aquinas, human nature (the essence of humanity) encompasses both levels.

• We are “naturally supernatural”. We cannot be fully satisfied with any natural good.

• Our capacity to grasp the idea of infinity or perfection is evidence of our supernatural end, which is union with God

Theory of Mind and Knowledge

• Aquinas is a developmental empiricist: all human knowledge begins with the use of the 5 senses, by which we come to know our physical environment.

• We start with the natural sciences, and then move to metaphysics and natural theology.

• Natural theology tells us only that God (a First Cause) exists. It does not tell us much about the nature of God.

But Not a Strict, Absolute Empiricist

• 1. The mind is not a blank slate: it brings specific, pre-determined powers and potentialities to the business of learning through the use of the senses.

• 2. Knowledge is always the product of the joint operation of the senses and the intellect.

• 3. Ultimately, we can attain some (very limited) knowledge of things beyond the range of our senses.

The Structure of the Soul

• Rational– Intellect

• Speculative• Practical

– Will (rational appetite)

• Sub-rational– Senses– Bodily appetites

• Concupiscible & Irascible

The Sub-rational Soul

• The senses give us information about the environment.

• The appetite propels us to certain apparent goods or away from certain evils: anger and fear (irascible) and desires for food, water, warmth, sex (concupiscible).

Rational Soul

• The theoretical (or "speculative") intellect strives toward truth and understanding. It begins with the information delivered by the senses, and "abstracts" universal laws from this data.

• The practical intellect deliberates about what is the best course of action. It begins with inclinations provided by the appetites, but corrects and supplements them from a rational assessment of a plan of life.

Rational Soul, con.

• The will receives its direction from the practical intellect -- but the will is needed to effect the transition from thought and feeling to action.

The Problem of Double Truth

• Are there two truths, one arrived at through reason, philosophy, and science, and the other through faith, theology, and religion?

• In other words, is it possible that something can be theologically true but scientifically false?

• Aquinas says NO. Philosophy and theology give us two ways of knowing ONE truth. If religion teaches something opposed to reason, it is teaching a falsehood; if reason cannot grasp a religious truth, faith and religion are there to help it reflect more deeply.