St. Thomas Aquinas - Philosophy, Learning and Ethics
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74)
Italian philosopher (pictured right) who introduced Aristotle’s (pictured right below) work into
Christianity.
His philosophy is called Thomism.
His most famous book is...
Summa Theologica (Summary of Theology), written 1265-74.
What did he say about learning and ethics?
1. Learn from your experience and intellect
Everything you learn comes firstly from:
- your senses (hearing, seeing, etc)
- experience (e.g. a dog has four legs).
Then your mind (or intellect)
- works out general rules and concepts (e.g. all dogs have four legs)
- distinguishes them from specific characteristics (e.g. the dog is owned by your
mother).
This is called abstraction.
General rules, or laws, are particularly important in science.
Your salvation depends on knowledge of what you believe, desire and
do.
2. Reason explains religion
Reason (the critical analysis and questioning of relevant facts) can help you understand
God.
But belief in God can explain things that you can’t understand.
God (pictured right in Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine Chapel) exists because someone must have:
- created the universe (the cosmological argument for God).
- designed it with order and purpose (the teleological argument).
Obeying and loving God shouldn’t stop you learning as much as possible.
“Beware the man of one book”, Thomas said.
A quote from Psalm 4 in the Bible is very important to him:
“The light of your face, Lord, is stamped on us”.
This means that you must do what God wants but your intellectual reasoning isn't enough to do
this.
You must also:
- act upon his commands in the Bible (particularly to love one another).
3. Question your ideas
He always questioned the truth of his ideas by discussing three of the
strongest arguments against it.
4. Do good and avoid evil
Important are:
a) action
Knowing what is good is useless, if you don’t do it.
b) duty
(what you should believe, desire and do).
c) virtues
Plato’s virtues (prudence, temperance or moderation, justice or fairness, and courage)
Christian virtues (faith, hope and love).
You must live by these virtues.
d) not being bad
You shouldn’t do anything bad, even if you have good intentions.
So even white lies are out!
5. Enjoy yourself and relax
Music, in particular, makes you happy.
“Good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine” will reduce your worries!
6. The “just war”
War is only justified if three things happen:
- Just cause (war is fought for the right reasons).
- Proper authority (the people declaring war must have it).
- Right intention (war should achieve something good or destroy evil).
7. A “just price”
Prices should be fair balancing the interests of:
Key quotes on
ethics
Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to
desire; and to know what he ought to do.
One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.
Evil denotes the absence of good.
Key quotes on
happiness
Happiness is secured through virtue.
The things that we love tell us what we
are.
Key quote on
leadership
If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
Key quote on God and
religion
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Key quote on learning and
motivation
All human beings by nature desire to know.
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