THE QUINQUE VIAE OF EXISTENCE OF GODCHAPTER IA. ST. THOMAS
AQUINASA.1 LIFE OF THE SAINTA.2 ARISTOTLES INFLUENCEA.3 WRITING OF
THE SAINTB. THE FORMULATON OF FIVE WAYSC. .THE FIRST WAY OF
SAINTC.1 ETYMOLOGYC.2 DEPICTIONC.3 THE ARGUMENT OF UNMOVED MOVERC.4
LOGICAL SYLLOGISM OF ARGUMENT OF UNMOVED MOVER
CHAPTER IIA. THE SECOND WAY OF SAINTA.1 ETYMOLOGYA.2
DEPICTIONA.3 THE ARGUMENT OF UNCAUSED CAUSEA.4 LOGICAL SYLLOGISM OF
ARGUMENT FROM CAUSATION (CREATION) AND EXISTENCE.
B. THE THIRD WAY OF SAINTB.1 ETYMOLOGYB.2 DEPICTIONB.3 THE
ARGUMENT OF POSIIBILITY AND NECESSITYB.4 LOGICAL SYLLOGISM OF
ARGUMENT FROM CONTINGENT AND NECESSITY OBJECTS.CHAPTER IIIA. THE
FOURTH WAY OF SAINTA.1 ETYMOLOGYA.2 DEPICTIONA.3 THE ARGUMENT OF
DEGREEA.3 LOGICAL SYLLOGISM OF ARGUMENT FROM DEGREES AND
PERFECTIONB. THE FIFTH WAY OF SAINT`B.1 ETYMOLGYB.2 DEPICTIONB.3
THE ARGUMENT OF GOVERNANCE OF THE WORLDB.4 DEFENSEB.5. LOGICAL
SYLLOGISM OF ARGUMENT FROM INTELLIGENT DESIGN
CHAPTER I
A. ST THOMAS AQUINASA.1 LIFE OF THE SAINTThe emperor expelling
the monks, because of the obedience they were giving to the pope.
After returning to his parents, he was sent to the Naples
University and was found by the emperor; now is where he
encountered several things, some begin scientific and philosophical
works that were translated from Greek and Arabic. Although his
early life became the shaping of his older life hood, his older
years are the key to his impotence in history for example in 1245
to 1249 he attended Paris and cologne; in 1259 to 1269 he attended
Naples, Orvieto, Rome, anta Sabina and lastly in 1269 to his death
he attended the second regency and the council of Lyons before his
death.A.2 ARISTOTLES INFLUENCEAristotle Scientific Concept where
Thomas Aquinas Arguments are reviewed. Aristotle's factors of
scientific explanation drawn from hisPhysicsand Metaphysics. A
complete explanation, according to Aristotle, for some feature of
natural phenomenon must include the following factors, reasons, or
causes.
What's responsible or theaitia () is often translated as causes;
hence the title reference used in many sources citing these factors
is Aristotle's Doctrine of the Four Causes. In point of fact,
Aristotle's four factors answer why-questions about how natural
processes come about. Note that modern science only began to
progress many centuries later when most of Aristotle's factors of
explanation, which proved to be too rigorous for much (scientific)
discovery, were dropped in favor of the efficient factor alone,
with occasional use of the final factor (especially, as in the
biological and social sciences). Francis Bacon states inNovum
Organum that science was unable to progress on account of
Aristotle's overly rigid restrictions on explanationespecially in
Aristotle's linking natural philosophy to logic.A. The material
factor: the ultimate substratum of matter consists of the elements
from which all particular things arise. Matter is the possibility
of form. Matter has the potential to form. A baby is the matter of
the form of a child; a child is the matter of the form of an
adult.A. The efficient factor: the source of the movement of
particular things accounts for the generation or the coming to be
and the passing away of those particular things. The efficient
factor is what is ordinarily meant by the contemporary use of the
term cause. Although change is the actualization of potential,
actuality precedes potentiality in that something actual causes
potentiality to reach another form.
A. The formal factor: the essence or the form or pattern of
particular things. Form is the actuality of matternot just the
shape, but the factor or formation of the potential or the capacity
of matter. The ultimate fulfillment of a sequence of forms is the
final form or final factor.A. The final factor: The purpose of a
thing accounts for the end or the good of a thingwhat it's for. The
development of natural processes moves to completionwhat a thing is
designed to achieve or do. The internal design of things is part of
the ordinary action of natural factors.
A.3 WRITING OF THE SAINT"Thomas Aquinas: Scholastic Theologian
and the Creator of the Medieval Christian Synthesis" reinstated the
mind of reasoning and the understanding of what education is.
Aquinas indeed was a very intellectual person of his time and
understood what it meant to be educated; as well as what it means
to be a teacher. His beliefs and research shows that he is not only
a great theologian but a man that understood the essence of
education and reformed it to make it sensible to others. Thomism or
the philosophy of Aquinas described how people were looked into two
different ways and not just one; one being the supernatural and the
other one being the natural.Saint Thomas Aquinas' Five Proofs for
the Existence of God.Scientific reasoning has brought humanity to
incredibly high levels of sophistication in all realms of
knowledge.
For Saint Thomas Aquinas, his passion involved the scientific
reasoning of God. The existence, simplicity and will of God are
simply a few topics which Aquinas explores in the Summa Theologica.
Through arguments entailing these particular topics, Aquinas forms
an argument that God has the ability of knowing and willing this
particular world of contingent beings.
B. FORMULATION OF FIVE WAYSTheQuinque vi(Latin, usually
translated as "Five Ways" or "Five Proofs") are fivelogical
argumentsregarding theexistence of Godsummarized by the
13th-centuryCatholicphilosopher and theologianSt. Thomas Aquinasin
his bookSumma Theologica. They are:
1. THE UNMOVED MOVERThe argument of theunmoved mover, orex motu,
argues that God must be the firstcause of motion in the universe.
It is therefore a form of thecosmological argument.2. THE ARGUMENT
OF CAUSE Some things are caused. Everything that is caused is
caused by something else.
3. THE ARGUMENT OF CONTINGECY Another face of the cosmological
argument,argument from contingency(ex contingentia): Many things in
the universe may either exist or not exist and are all finite. Such
things are calledcontingent beings.4. THE ARGUMENT FROM DEGREE
Theargument from degreeor gradation (ex gradu). It is heavily based
upon the teachings of theancient GreekphilosopherAristotle.
5. THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN Theteleological argumentor argument
from "design" (ex fine), which claims that many things in the
Universe possessfinal causesthat must be directed by God:
C. THE FIRST WAY OF SAINTC.1 ETYMOLOGY: Theunmoved
mover(AncientGreek: ,[1]ho ou kinomenon kine, "that which moves
without being moved") or prime mover(Latin:primum movens) is
amonotheisticconcept advanced byAristotle, a polytheist,as a
primary cause or "mover" of all the motion in theuniverse.
C.2DEPICTION:As is implicit in the name, the "unmoved mover" moves
other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book
12 (Greek "") of hisMetaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved
mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating
only the perfect contemplation: itself contemplate.ng.
He equates this concept also with the Active Intellect. This
Aristotelian concept had its roots incosmologicalspeculations of
the earliest Greek "Pre-Socratic" philosophers and became highly
influential and widely drawn upon inmedieval
philosophyandtheology.St. Thomas Aquinas,It
employsAristotle'sdichotomy ofpotentiality and actuality. It goes
thus: Some things are in motion. A thing cannot, in the same
respect and in the same way, move itself: it requires a mover.
Aninfinite regressof movers is impossible. Therefore, there is an
unmoved mover from whom all motion proceeds. This mover, everyone
callsGod.C.3 LOGICAL SYLLOGISM:-Nothing can move itself-For any
object to move, something must move the object___Therefore, if any
object moves, then there must be a mover.
St. Thomas Aquinas called this Unmoved Mover GOD. Why? Because
God is eternal, from everlasting. God has no beginning and no end.
Why doesnt it make sense to humans? Because were locked in a
dimension called time.
C.4.THE ARGUMENT OF UNMOVED MOVERThe first and more manifest way
is the argument from motion. It is certain, and evident to our
senses, that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever
is in motion is put in motion by another, for nothing can be in
motion except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is in
motion; whereas a thing moves inasmuch as it is in act. For motion
is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality
to actuality. But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to
actuality, except by something in a state of actuality. Thus that
which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially
hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it. Now it
is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality
and potentiality in the same respect, but only in different
respects.For what is actually hot cannot simultaneously be
potentially hot; but it is simultaneously potentially cold. It is
therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a
thing should be both mover and moved, i.e. that it should move
itself. Therefore, whatever is in motion must be put in motion by
another. If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in
motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and
that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because
then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other
mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are
put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because
it is put in motion by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to
arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this
everyone understands to be God.C.4.1 Evident to our senses in
motionthe movements from actuality to potentiality, Things are
acted on.C.4.2 Whatever is moved is moved by something else.
Potentiality is only moved by actuality. (An actual oak tree is
what produces the potentiality of an acorn.)C.4.3 unless there is a
First Mover, there can be no motions. To take away the actual is to
take away the potential. (Hence, which came first for Aristotle,
the chicken or the egg?)
CHAPTER IIA. THE SECOND WAY OF SAINTA.1 ETYMOLOGY: The
difference between the arguments from causationin fieriandin esseis
a fairly important one.In fieriis generally translated as
"becoming", whilein esseis generally translated as "in essence".In
fieri, the process of becoming, is similar to building a house.
Once it is built, the builder walks away, and it stands on its own
accord. (It may require occasional maintenance, but that is beyond
the scope of the first cause argument.)A.2 DEPICTION: Innatural
theology, acosmological argumentis anargumentin which the existence
of a unique being, generally identified with or referred to asGod,
isdeducedorinferred as highly probablefrom facts or alleged fact
concerning causation. It is traditionally known as anargument from
universal causation, anargument from first cause. It goes thus:
Some things are caused. Everything that is caused is caused by
something else. An infinite regress of causation is impossible.
Therefore, there must be an uncaused cause of all that is caused.
This cause, everyone calls God.
A.3 LOGICAL SYLLOGISM:There exists things were caused or created
by other things.-Nothing can be cause of itself(or create
itself).-There can not be endless string of things causing other
things to exist.___Therefore, there must be an uncaused first
cause.
A.4 THE ARGUMENT FROM UNCAUSED CAUSEThe second way is from the
nature of the efficient cause. In the world of sense we find there
is an order of efficient causes. There is no case known (neither is
it, indeed, possible) in which a thing is found to be the efficient
cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is
impossible. Now in efficient causes it is not possible to go on to
infinity, because in all efficient causes following in order, the
first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate
is the cause of the ultimate cause, whether the intermediate cause
be several, or only one. Now to take away the cause is to take away
the effect. Therefore, if there be no first cause among efficient
causes, there will be no ultimate, nor any intermediate cause. But
if in efficient causes it is possible to go on to infinity, there
will be no first efficient cause, neither will there be an ultimate
effect, nor any intermediate efficient causes; all of which is
plainly false. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient
cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.
B. THE THIRD WAY OF SAINTB.1 ETYMOLOGY: The Argument from
possibili et necessario or possibility and necessity.B.2 DEPICTION:
Many things in the universe may either exist or not exist and are
all finite. Such things are calledcontingent beings. It is
impossible for everything in the universe to be contingent, for
then there would be a time when nothing existed, and so nothing
would exist now, since there would be nothing to bring anything
into existence, which is clearly false. Therefore, there must be a
necessary being whose existence is not contingent on any other
being or beings. We call this being God.B.3 LOGICAL
SYLLOGISM:-Contingent beings are caused (every contingent being
depends on another being). -Not every being can be contingent
(there must be something that isnt dependent on anything
else.)_____________________________________Therefore, this
necessary being is GOD.
B.4.ARGUMENT FROM POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITYThe third way is
taken from possibility and necessity, and runs thus. We find in
nature things that are possible to be and not to be, since they are
found to be generated, and to corrupt, and consequently, they are
possible to be and not to be. But it is impossible for these always
to exist, for that which is possible not to be at some time is not.
Therefore, if everything is possible not to be, then at one time
there could have been nothing in existence. Now if this were true,
even now there would be nothing in existence, because that which
does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing.
Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have
been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even
now nothing would be in existence which is absurd. Therefore, not
all beings are merely possible, but there must exist something the
existence of which is necessary. But every necessary thing either
has its necessity caused by another, or not. Now it is impossible
to go on to infinity in necessary things which have their necessity
caused by another, as has been already proved in regard to
efficient causes. Therefore we cannot but postulate the existence
of some being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving
it from another, but rather causing in others their necessity. This
all men speak of as God.
CHAPTER IIIA. THE FOURTH WAY OF SAINTA.1 ETYMOLOGY: Theargument
from degreeor gradation (ex gradu).A.2 DEPICTION: Theargument from
degreesor thedegrees of perfection argumentis anargument for the
existence of Godfirst proposed by mediaevalRoman
CatholictheologianThomas Aquinasas one of thefive waysto
philosophically argue in favor ofGod's existence in hisSumma
Theologica. It is based onperfection. Contemporary Thomist scholars
are often in disagreement on the metaphysical justification for
this proof.It is heavily based upon the teachings of theancient
GreekphilosopherAristotle. It goes thus: Varying perfections of
varying degrees may be found throughout the universe. These degrees
assume the existence of an ultimate standard of perfection.
Therefore, perfection must have a pinnacle. This pinnacle is what
we call God.
A.3. LOGICAL SYLLOGISM:-Qualities of things differ (everything
in the universe has different level of quality).There are many
different levels of quality.-There must be a perfect standard by
which all such qualities are measuredTherefore, these perfections
are contained in GOD (perfection personalized).Something in the
universe might be perfect to a degree, but not a perfect
perfection.A.4. THE ARGUMENT FROM DEGREEThe fourth way is taken
from the gradation to be found in things. Among beings there are
some more and some less good, true, noble and the like. But more
and less are predicated of different things, according as they
resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum, as
a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles
that which is hottest; so that there is something which is truest,
something best, something noblest and, consequently, something
which is uttermost being; for those things that are greatest in
truth are greatest in being, as it is written in Metaph. ii.[3]Now
the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as
fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things.
Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the
cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and
this we call God.
B. THE FIFTH WAY OF SAINT B.1 ETYMOLOGY: Theteleological
argumentor argument from "design" (ex fine), which claims that many
things in the Universe possessfinal causesthat must be directed by
God.B.2 DEPICTION: This must be: All natural bodies in the world
act towards ends. These objects are in themselves unintelligent.
Acting towards an end is a characteristic of intelligence.
Therefore, there exists an intelligent being that guides all
natural bodies towards their ends. We call this being God.B.3
DEFENSEDawkins says the fifth argument claims the necessity of a
designer, considering that biological life has complexity which
appears designed. Howeverevolutionvianatural selectionexplains its
complexity and diversity, andabiogenesisexplains its origin
Paul Almond criticized the logic behind the third argument in
his writing. Specifically he argued that one cannot prove that an
object exists based only on the possibility that it exists. In
other words, a "most perfect being" possibly exists, but does not
necessarily exist.
B.4. LOGICAL SYLLOGISM:-There is an observable universe and
order in nature.-Common sense (also known as judgment, by using the
5 senses) tells us that nature works in such way.-A person can
conclude that everything was designed by an intelligence designer.
Therefore, God is the intelligence Designer of all physical laws of
nature and order in the universe.
B.5. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE GOVERNANCE OF THE WORLDThe fifth way
is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which
lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this
is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same
way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not
fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end. Now
whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it
be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence;
as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some
intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to
their end; and this being we call God.\
