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Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his disputed questions and commentaries on Aristotle are perhaps his most well-known works. In theology, his Summa Theologica is one of the most influential documents in medieval theology and continues to be the central point of reference for the philosophy and theology of the Catholic Church. In the encyclical Doctoris Angelici[1] Pope Pius X cautioned that the teachings of the Church cannot be understood without the basic philosophical underpinnings of Thomas' major theses:
The capital theses in the philosophy of St. Thomas are not to be placed in the category of opinions capable of being debated one way or another, but are to be considered as the foundations upon which the whole science of natural and divine things is based; if such principles are once removed or in any way impaired, it must necessarily follow that students of the sacred sciences will ultimately fail to perceive so much as the meaning of the words in which the dogmas of divine revelation are proposed by the magistracy of the Church.[2]
The Second Vatican Council described Thomas's system as the "Perennial Philosophy".[3]
St. Thomas Aquinas believed that truth is to be accepted no matter where it is found. His doctrines draw from Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers. Specifically, he was a realist (i.e., he, unlike the skeptics, believed that the world can be known as it is). He largely followed Aristotelian terminology and metaphysics, and wrote comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle, often affirming Aristotle's views with independent arguments. Thomas respectfully referred to Aristotle simply as "the Philosopher."[4] He also adhered to some neoplatonic principles, for example that "it is absolutely true that there is first something which is essentially being and essentially good, which we call God, ... [and that] everything can be called good and a being, inasmuch as it participates in it by way of a certain assimilation..."[5]
Shortly before Thomas died, his friend Reginald of Piperno implored him to finish his works. Thomas replied, "I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me."[6]
With the decree Postquam sanctissimus of 27 July 1914,[7] Pope St. Pius X declared that 24 theses formulated by "teachers from various institutions ... clearly contain the principles and more important thoughts" of Thomas. Principal contributors to the Church's official statement of the "24 Theses" of Thomism include Dominican philosopher and theologian Edouard Hugon of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum and Jesuit philosopher theologian Guido Mattiussi of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Thomas says that the fundamental axioms of ontology are the principle of non-contradiction and the principle of causality. Therefore, any being that does not contradict these two laws could theoretically exist,[8] even if said being were incorporeal.[9]
Thomas noted three forms of descriptive language when predicating: univocal, analogical, and equivocal.[10]
Further, the usage of "definition" that Thomas gives is the genus of the being, plus a difference that sets it apart from the genus itself. For instance, the Aristotelian definition of "man" is "rational animal"; its genus being animal, and what sets apart man from other animals is his rationality.[11]
[E]xistence is twofold: one is essential existence or the , 1.
In Thomist philosophy, the definition of a being is "that which is," which is composed of two parts: "which" refers to its quiddity (literally "whatness"), and "is" refers to its esse (the Latin infinitive verb "to be").[12] "Quiddity" is synonymous with essence, form and nature; whereas "esse" refers to the principle of the being's existence. In other words, a being is "an essence that exists."[13]
Being is divided in two ways: that which is in itself (substances), and that which is in another (accidents). Substances are things which exist per se or in their own right. Accidents are qualities that apply to other things, such as shape or color: "[A]ccidents must include in their definition a subject which is outside their genus."[14] Because they only exist in other things, Thomas holds that metaphysics is primarily the study of substances, as they are the primary mode of being.[15]
The Catholic Encyclopedia pinpoints Thomas's definition of quiddity as "that which is expressed by its definition."[16] The quiddity or form of a thing is what makes the object what it is: "[T]hrough the form, which is the actuality of matter, matter becomes something actual and something individual,"[17] and also, "the form causes matter to be."[18] Thus, it consists of two parts: "prime matter" (matter without form),[19] and substantial form, which is what causes a substance to have its characteristics. For instance, an animal can be said to be a being whose matter is its body, and whose soul[20] is its substantial form.[21][22] Together, these consist of its quiddity/essence.
All real things have the transcendental properties of being: oneness, truth, goodness (that is, all things have a final cause and therefore a purpose), etc.[23]
Aristotle categorized causality into four subsets in the Metaphysics, which is an integral part of Thomism:
"In one sense the term cause means (a) that from which, as something intrinsic, a thing comes to be, as the bronze of a statue and the silver of a goblet, and the genera of these. In another sense it means (b) the form and pattern of a thing, i.e., the intelligible expression of the quiddity and its genera (for example, the ratio of 2: 1 and number in general are the cause of an octave chord) and the parts which are included in the intelligible expression. Again, (c) that from which the first beginning of change or of rest comes is a cause; for example, an adviser is a cause, and a father is the cause of a child, and in general a maker is a cause of the thing made, and a changer a cause of the thing changed. Further, a thing is a cause (d) inasmuch as it is an end, i.e., that for the sake of which something is done; for example, health is the cause of walking. For if we are asked why someone took a walk, we answer, "in order to be healthy"; and in saying this we think we have given the cause. And whatever occurs on the way to the end under the motion of something else is also a cause. For example, reducing, purging, drugs and instruments are causes of health; for all of these exist for the sake of the end, although they differ from each other inasmuch as some are instruments and others are processes."—Metaphysics 1013a, trans. John P. Rowan, Chicago, 1961
Unlike many ancient Greeks, who thought that an infinite regress of causality is possible (and thus held that the universe is uncaused), Thomas argues that an infinite chain never accomplishes its objective and is thus impossible.[24] Hence, a first cause is necessary for the existence of anything to be possible. Further, the First Cause must continuously be in action (similar to how there must always be a first chain in a chain link), otherwise the series collapses:[25]
, II-I, Q.1, art.4.
Thus, both Aristotle and Thomas conclude that there must be an uncaused Primary Mover,[24][26][27][28] because an infinite regress is impossible.[29]
However, the First Cause does not necessarily have to be temporally the first. Thus, the question of whether or not the universe can be imagined as eternal was fiercely debated in the Middle Ages. The University of Paris's condemnation of 1270 denounced the belief that the world is eternal. Thomas's intellectual rival, St. Bonaventure, held that the temporality of the universe is demonstrable by reason.[30][31] Thomas's position was that the temporality of the world is an article of faith, and not demonstrable by reason; though one could reasonably conclude either that the universe is temporal or eternal.[32][33]
As per the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle,[34] Thomas defines "the good" as what all things strive for. E.g., a cutting knife is said to be good if it is effective at its function, cutting. As all things have a function/final cause, all real things are good. Consequently, evil is nothing but privatio boni, or "lack of good," as St. Augustine of Hippo defined it.[35]
, I, Q.48, art.1.
Commentating on the aforementioned, Thomas says that "there is no problem from the fact that some men desire evil. For they desire evil only under the aspect of good, that is, insofar as they think it good. Hence their intention primarily aims at the good and only incidentally touches on the evil."[36]
As God is the ultimate end of all things,[37] God is by essence goodness itself.[38] Furthermore, since love is "to wish the good of another,"[39] true love in Thomism is to lead another to God. Hence why St. John the Evangelist says, "Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."[40][41]
St. Thomas Aquinas holds that the which today are categorized as:
Despite this, Thomas also thought that sacred mysteries such as the Trinity could only be obtained through revelation; though these truths cannot contradict reason:
The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith, but are preambles to the articles; for faith presupposes natural knowledge, even as grace presupposes nature, and perfection supposes something that can be perfected. Nevertheless, there is nothing to prevent a man, who cannot grasp a proof, accepting, as a matter of faith, something which in itself is capable of being scientifically known and demonstrated.—, I, Q.2, art.2.
Thomas responds to the problem of evil by saying that God allows evil to exist that good may come of it,[45] (for goodness done out of free will is superior than goodness done from biological imperative) but does not personally cause evil Himself.[46]
See also Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange.
Thomas articulated and defended, both as a philosopher and a theologian, the orthodox Christian actus purus (Latin: "pure actuality").
Thomas held that not only does God have knowledge of everything,[55] but that God has "the most perfect knowledge," and that it is also true to say that God "is" his understanding.[57]
Aquinas also understands God as the transcendent cause of the universe, the "first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by him," the source of all creaturely being and the cause of every other cause.[61] Consequently, God's causality is not like the causality of any other causes (all other causes are "secondary causes"), because he is the transcendent source of all being, causing and sustaining every other existing thing at every instant. Consequently, God's causality is never in competition with the causality of creatures; rather, God even causes some things through the causality of creatures.[62]
Thomas was an advocate of negative theology, which says that because God is infinite, people can only speak of God by analogy, for some of the aspects of the divine nature are hidden (Deus absconditus) and others revealed (Deus revelatus) to finite human minds. Thomist philosophy holds that we can know about God through his creation (general revelation), but only in an analogous manner.[63] For instance, we can speak of God's goodness only by understanding that goodness as applied to humans is similar to, but not identical with, the goodness of God. Further, he argues that sacred scripture employs figurative language: "Now it is natural to man to attain to intellectual truths through sensible objects, because all our knowledge originates from sense. Hence in Holy Writ, spiritual truths are fittingly taught under the likeness of material things."[64]
In order to demonstrate God's creative power, Thomas says: "If a being participates, to a certain degree, in an 'accident,' this accidental property must have been communicated to it by a cause which possesses it essentially. Thus iron becomes incandescent by the action of fire. Now, God is His own power which subsists by itself. The being which subsists by itself is necessarily one."[24]
In addition to agreeing with the Aristotelian definition of man as "the rational animal,"[11] Thomas also held various other beliefs about the substance of man. For instance, as the essence (nature) of all men are the same,[65] and the definition of being is "an essence that exists,"[13] humans that are real therefore only differ by their specific qualities. More generally speaking, all beings of the same genus have the same essence, and so long as they exist, only differ by accidents and substantial form.[66]
Thomists define the soul as the substantial form of living beings.[67] Thus, plants have "vegetative souls," animals have "sensitive souls,"[20] while human beings alone have "intellectual" – rational and immortal – souls.[68]
For Aristotle, the soul is one, but endowed with five groups of faculties (dunámeis): (1) the "vegetative" faculty (threptikón), concerned with the maintenance and development of organic life; (2) the appetite (oretikón), or the tendency to any good; (3) the faculty of sense perception (aisthetikón); (4) the "locomotive" faculty (kinetikón), which presides over the various bodily movements; and (5) reason (dianoetikón). The . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 29, 2010 from New Advent.
The appetite of man has two parts, rational and irrational. The rational part is called the will, and the irrational part is called passion.
Thomas affirms Aristotle's definition of happiness as "an operation according to perfect virtue,"[69][70] and that "happiness is called man's supreme good, because it is the attainment or enjoyment of the supreme good."[71] Regarding what the virtues are, Thomas ascertained the cardinal virtues to be prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. The cardinal virtues are natural and revealed in nature, and they are binding on everyone. There are, however, three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity (which is used interchangeably with love in the sense of agape). These are supernatural and are distinct from other virtues in their object, namely, God.[72]
In accordance with Roman Catholic theology, Thomas argues that humans can neither wish nor do good without divine grace.[73] However, "doing good" here refers to doing good per se: man can do, moved by God even then but "only" in the sense in which even his nature depends on God's moving, things that happen to be good in some respect, and are not sinful, though if he has not grace, it will be without merit, and he will not succeed in it all the time. Therefore, happiness is attained through the perseverance of virtue given by the Grace of God,[74] which is not fully attained on earth;[75] only at the beatific vision.[76][77] Notably, man cannot attain true happiness without God.[56][78]
Regarding emotion (used synonymously with the word "passion" in this context), which, following St. John Damascene,[79] Thomas defines as "a movement of the sensitive appetite when we imagine good or evil," Thomism repudiates both the Epicurean view that happiness consists in pleasure (sensual experiences that invoke positive emotion),[80][81] and the Stoic view that emotions are vices by nature.[82] Thomas takes a moderate view of emotion, quoting St. Augustine: "They are evil if our love is evil; good if our love is good."[83] While most emotions are morally neutral, some are inherently virtuous (e.g. pity)[84] and some are inherently vicious (e.g. envy).[85]
Thomist ethics hold that it is necessary to observe both circumstances[86] and intention[87] to determine an action's moral value, and therefore Thomas cannot be said to be strictly either a deontologicalist or a consequentialist. Rather, he would say that an action is morally good if it fulfills God's antecedent will.[88]
Of note is the Christian philosophy, the doctrine of Just War was expounded by Thomas with this principle. He says:
In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war is to be waged... Secondly, a , II-II, Q.40, art.1.
Thomism recognizes four different species of law, which he defines as "an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated":[89]
The development of natural law is one of the most influential parts of Thomist philosophy.Romans 2:15, that the "work of the law [is] written in [the Gentiles'] hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them."
Thomas argues that the Mosaic covenant was divine, though rightfully only given to the Jews before Christ;[96] whereas the New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant[97] and is meant for all humans.[98]
Thomas argues that there is no contradiction between God's providence and human free will:
... just as by moving natural causes [God] does not prevent their acts being natural, so by moving voluntary causes He does not deprive their actions of being voluntary: but rather is He the cause of this very thing in them; for He operates in each thing according to its own nature.—, I., Q.83, art.1.
Thomas argues that God offers man both a prevenient grace to enable him to supernaturally good works, and cooperative grace within the same. The relation of prevenient to grace to voluntariness has been the subject of further debate; the position known, here, as "Thomist", was originated by Domingo Báñez[99] and says that God gives an additional grace (the "efficient grace") to the predestined which makes them accept, while Luis de Molina held that God distributes grace according to a middle knowledge, and man can accept it without a different grace. Molinism is a school that is part of Thomism in the general sense (it originated in commentaries to St. Thomas), yet it must be born in mind that, here, Thomism and Molinism oppose each other. (The question has been declared undecided by the Holy See.)
"Whatever is in our intellect must have previously been in the senses."—St. Thomas Aquinas, the peripatetic axiom.[100]
Thomas adhered to the correspondence theory of truth, which says that something is true "when it conforms to the external reality."[101] Therefore, any being that exists can be said to be true insofar that it participates in the world.[102]
Aristotle's De anima (On the Soul) divides the mind into three parts: sensation, imagination and intellection. When one perceives an object, his mind composites a sense-image. When he remembers the object he previously sensed, he is imagining its form (the image of the imagination is often translated as "phantasm"). When he extracts information from this phantasm, he is using his intellect.[103] Consequently, all human knowledge concerning universals (such as species and properties) are derived from the phantasm ("the received is in the receiver according to the mode of the receiver"[104]), which itself is a recollection of an experience. Concerning the question of "Whether the intellect can actually understand through the intelligible species of which it is possessed, without turning to the phantasms?" in the Summa Theologica, Thomas quotes Aristotle in the sed contra: "the soul understands nothing without a phantasm."[105] Hence the peripatetic axiom. (Another theorem to be drawn from this is that error is a result of drawing false conclusions based on our sensations.)[106]
Thomas's epistemological theory would later be classified as empiricism, for holding that sensations are a necessary step in acquiring knowledge, and that deductions cannot be made from pure reason.[107]
Aquinas shifted Scholasticism away from neoplatonism and towards Aristotle. In this he was influenced by contemporary Islamic philosophy, especially the work of Averroes. The ensuing school of thought, through its influence on Catholicism and the ethics of the Catholic school, is one of the most influential philosophies of all time, also significant due to the number of people living by its teachings.
Before Thomas's death, Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, forbade certain positions associated with Thomas (especially his denial of both universal hylomorphism and a plurality of substantial forms in a single substance) to be taught in the Faculty of Arts at Paris. Through the influence of traditional Augustinian theologians, some theses of Thomas were condemned in 1277 by the ecclesiastical authorities of Paris and Oxford (the most important theological schools in the Middle Ages). The Franciscan Order opposed the ideas of the Dominican Thomas, while the Dominicans institutionally took up the defense of his work (1286), and thereafter adopted it as an official philosophy of the order to be taught in their studia. Early opponents of Thomas include William de la Mare, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, and Jon Duns Scotus.
Early and noteworthy defenders of Aquinas were his former teacher Albertus Magnus, the ill-fated Richard Knapwell, William Macclesfeld, Giles of Lessines, John of Quidort, Bernard of Auvergne, and Thomas of Sutton. The canonization of Aquinas in 1323 led to a revocation of the condemnation of 1277. Later, Aquinas and his school would find a formidable opponent in the via moderna, particularly in William of Ockham and his adherents.
Thomism remained a doctrine held principally by Dominican theologians, such as Giovanni Capreolo (1380–1444) or Tommaso de Vio (1468–1534). Eventually, in the 16th century, Thomism found a stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, through for example the Dominicans Francisco de Vitoria (particularly noteworthy for his work in natural law theory), Domingo de Soto (notable for his work on economic theory), John of St. Thomas, and Domingo Báñez; the Carmelites of Salamanca (i.e., the Salmanticenses); and even, in a way, the newly formed Jesuits, particularly Francisco Suárez, and Luis de Molina.
The modern period brought considerable difficulty for Thomism.[108] By the 19th century, Aquinas's theological doctrine was often presented in seminaries through his Jesuit manualist interpreters, who adopted his theology in an eclectic way, while his philosophy was often neglected altogether in favor of modern philosophers. And in all this, the Dominican Order, was having demographic difficulties. Pope Leo XIII attempted a Thomistic revival, particularly with his 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris and his establishment of the Leonine Commission, established to produce critical editions of Thomas's opera omnia. This encyclical served as the impetus for the rise of Neothomism, which brought an emphasis on the ethical parts of Thomism, as well as a large part of its views on life, humans, and theology, are found in the various schools of Neothomism. Neothomism held sway as the dominant philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council, which seemed to confirm the significance of Ressourcement theology. Thomism remains a school of philosophy today, and influential in Catholicism, though "The Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others."[109] According to one of its proponents, Alasdair MacIntyre, a Thomistic Aristotelianism is the best philosophical theory so far of our knowledge of external reality and of our own practice.
In recent years, the cognitive neuroscientist Walter Freeman proposes that Thomism is the philosophical system explaining cognition that is most compatible with neurodynamics, in a 2008 article in the journal Mind and Matter entitled "Nonlinear Brain Dynamics and Intention According to Aquinas."
Thomas's doctrines, because of their close relationship with those of Jewish philosophy, found great favor among Jews. Judah Romano (born 1286) translated Thomas's ideas from Latin into Hebrew under the title Ma'amar ha-Mamschalim, together with other small treatises extracted from the "Contra Gentiles" ("Neged ha-Umot").
Eli Habillo (1470) translated, without the Hebrew title, the "Quæstiones Disputatæ," "Quæstio de Anima," his "De Animæ Facultatibus," under the title "Ma'amar be-KoḦot ha-Nefesh," (edited by Jellinek); his "De Universalibus" as "Be-Inyan ha-Kolel"; "Shaalot Ma'amar beNimẓa we-biMehut."
Abraham Nehemiah ben Joseph (1490) translated Aquinas's "Commentarii in Metaphysicam." According to Moses Almosnino, Isaac Abravanel desired to translate the "Quæstio de Spiritualibus Creaturis." Abravanel indeed seems to have been well acquainted with the philosophy of Aquinas, whom he mentions in his work "Mif'alot Elohim" (vi. 3). The physician Jacob Zahalon (d. 1693) translated some extracts from the Summa contra Gentiles.
Thomas did not disdain to draw upon Jewish philosophical sources. His main work, the Summa Theologica, shows a profound knowledge not only of the writings of Avicebron (Ibn Gabirol), whose name he mentions, but also of most Jewish philosophical works then existing.
Thomas pronounces himself energetically[110] against the hypothesis of the eternity of the world, in agreement with both Christian and Jewish theology. But as this theory is attributed to Aristotle, he seeks to demonstrate that the latter did not express himself categorically on this subject. "The argument," said he, "which Aristotle presents to support this thesis is not properly called a demonstration, but is only a reply to the theories of those ancients who supposed that this world had a beginning and who gave only impossible proofs. There are three reasons for believing that Aristotle himself attached only a relative value to this reasoning..."[111] In this, Thomas paraphrases Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, where those reasons are given.[112]
Thomism began to decline in popularity in the modern period,[108] which was inaugurated by René Descartes' works Discourse on the Method in 1637 and Meditations on First Philosophy in 1641. The Cartesian doctrines of mind-body dualism and the fallibility of the senses implicitly contradicted Aristotle and Thomas:
But, meanwhile, I feel greatly astonished when I observe [the weakness of my mind, and] its proneness to error. For although, without at all giving expression to what I think, I consider all this in my own mind, words yet occasionally impede my progress, and I am almost led into error by the terms of ordinary language. We say, for example, that we see the same wax when it is before us, and not that we judge it to be the same from its retaining the same color and figure: whence I should forthwith be disposed to conclude that the wax is known by the act of sight, and not by the intuition of the mind alone, were it not for the analogous instance of human beings passing on in the street below, as observed from a window. In this case I do not fail to say that I see the men themselves, just as I say that I see the wax; and yet what do I see from the window beyond hats and cloaks that might cover artificial machines, whose motions might be determined by springs? But I judge that there are human beings from these appearances, and thus I comprehend, by the faculty of judgment alone which is in the mind, what I believed I saw with my eyes.—Meditations on First Philosophy, Med. II, §13.
In describing Thomism as a philosophy of common sense, G. K. Chesterton wrote:
Since the modern world began in the sixteenth century, nobody's system of philosophy has really corresponded to everybody's sense of reality; to what, if left to themselves, common men would call common sense. Each started with a paradox; a peculiar point of view demanding the sacrifice of what they would call a sane point of view. That is the one thing common to Hobbes and Hegel, to Kant and Bergson, to Berkeley and William James. A man had to believe something that no normal man would believe, if it were suddenly propounded to his simplicity; as that law is above right, or right is outside reason, or things are only as we think them, or everything is relative to a reality that is not there. The modern philosopher claims, like a sort of confidence man, that if we will grant him this, the rest will be easy; he will straighten out the world, if he is allowed to give this one twist to the mind... Against all this the philosophy of St. Thomas stands founded on the universal common conviction that eggs are eggs. The Hegelian may say that an egg is really a hen, because it is a part of an endless process of Becoming; the Berkelian may hold that poached eggs only exist as a dream exists, since it is quite as easy to call the dream the cause of the eggs as the eggs the cause of the dream; the Pragmatist may believe that we get the best out of scrambled eggs by forgetting that they ever were eggs, and only remembering the scramble. But no pupil of St. Thomas needs to addle his brains in order adequately to addle his eggs; to put his head at any peculiar angle in looking at eggs, or squinting at eggs, or winking the other eye in order to see a new simplification of eggs. The Thomist stands in the broad daylight of the brotherhood of men, in their common consciousness that eggs are not hens or dreams or mere practical assumptions; but things attested by the Authority of the Senses, which is from God.—Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, p. 147.
Since the modern world began in the sixteenth century, nobody's system of philosophy has really corresponded to everybody's sense of reality; to what, if left to themselves, common men would call common sense. Each started with a paradox; a peculiar point of view demanding the sacrifice of what they would call a sane point of view. That is the one thing common to Hobbes and Hegel, to Kant and Bergson, to Berkeley and William James. A man had to believe something that no normal man would believe, if it were suddenly propounded to his simplicity; as that law is above right, or right is outside reason, or things are only as we think them, or everything is relative to a reality that is not there. The modern philosopher claims, like a sort of confidence man, that if we will grant him this, the rest will be easy; he will straighten out the world, if he is allowed to give this one twist to the mind...
J. A. Weisheipl O.P. empahsizes that within the Dominican Order the history of Thomism has been continuous since the time of Aquinas: "Thomism was always alive in the Dominican Order, small as it was after the ravages of the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic occupation. Repeated legislation of the General Chapters, beginning after the death of St. Thomas, as well as the Constitutions of the Order, required all Dominicans to teach the doctrine of St. Thomas both in philosophy and in theology."[113] An idea of the longstanding historic continuity of Dominican Thomism may be derived from the list of people associated with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Outside the Dominican Order Thomism has had varying fortunes leading some to periodize it historically or thematically. Weisheipl distinguishes "wide" Thomism, which includes those who claim to follow the spirit and basic insights of St. Thomas and manifest an evident dependence on his texts, from "eclectic" Thomism which includes those with a willingness to allow the influence of other philosophical and theological systems in order to relativize the principles and conclusions of traditional Thomism. John Haldane gives an historic division of Thomism including 1) the period of Aquinas and his first followers from the 13th to 15th centuries, a second Thomism from the 16th to 18th centuries, and a Neo-Thomism from the 19th to 20th centuries.[114] One might justifiably articulate other historical divisions on the basis of shifts in perspective on Aquinas' work including the period immediately following Aquinas' canonization in 1325, the period following the Council of Trent, and the period after the Second Vatican Council. Romanus Cessario thinks it better not to identify intervals of time or periods within the larger history of Thomism because Thomists have addressed such a broad variety of issues and in too many geographical areas to permit such divisions.[115]
The first period of Thomism streaches from Aquinas' teaching activity beginning in 1256 at Paris to Cologne, Orvieto, Viterbo, Rome, and Naples until his canonization in 1325. In this period his doctrines "were both attacked and defended" as for example after his death (1274) the condemnations of 1277, 1284 and 1286 were counteracted by the General Chapters of the Dominican Order and other disciples who came to Aquinas' defense.[116]
Responding to prevailing philosophical rationalism during the Enlightenment Salvatore Roselli, professor of theology at the College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome,[117] published a six volume Summa philosophica (1777) giving an Aristotelian interpretation of Aquinas validating the senses as a source of knowledge.[118] According to historian J.A. Weisheipl in the late 18th and early 19th centuries "everyone who had anything to do with the revival of Thomism in Italy, Spain and France was directly influenced by Roselli’s monumental work.[119]
The Thomist revival that began in the mid-19th Century, sometimes called "neo-scholasticism" or "neo-Thomism," can be traced to figures such as Vatican II.
While the Second Vatican Council took place from 1962-1965 Cornelio Fabro was already able to write in 1949 that the century of revival with its urgency to provide a synthetic systematization and defense of Aquinas' thought was coming to an end. Fabro looked forward to a more constructive period in which the original context of Aquinas' thought would be explored.[121]
A summary of some recent and current schools and interpretations of Thomism can be found, among other places, in La Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti, 2002, by Battista Mondin, Being and Some 20th Century Thomists, 2003, by John F. X. Knasas as well as in the writing of Edward Feser[122]
Scholastic Thomism identifies with the philosophical and theological tradition streaching back to the time of St. Thomas. It focuses not only on exegesis of the historical Aquinas but also on the articulation of a rigorous system of orthodox Thomism to be used as an instrument of critique of contemporary thought. Due to its suspicion of attempts to harmonize Aquinas with non-Thomistic categories and assumptions Scholastic Thomism has sometimes been called "Strict Observance Thomism."[123] A discussion of recent and current Scholastic Thomism can be found in La Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti (2002) by Battista Mondin,[124] which includes such figures as Sofia Vanni Rovighi (1908-1990),[125] Cornelio Fabro (1911-1995), Carlo Giacon (1900-1984),[126] Tomas Tyn O.P. (1950-1990), Abelardo Lobato O.P. (1925-2012), Leo Elders[127] (1926- ) and Giovanni Ventimiglia (1964- ) among others. Fabro in particular emphasizes Aquinas' originality, especially with respect to the actus essendi or act of existence of finite beings by participating in being itself. Other scholars such as those involved with the "Progetto Tommaso"[128] seek to establish an objective and universal reading of Aquinas' texts.[129]
The Cracow Circle has been called "the most significant expression of Catholic thought between the two World Wars."[130] The Circle was founded by a group of philosophers and theologians that in distinction to more traditional neo-scholastic Thomism embraced modern formal logic as an analytical tool for traditional Thomist philosophy and theology.[130] Inspired by the logical clarity of Aquinas, members of the Circle held both philosophy and theology to contain "propositions with truth-values…a structured body of propositions connected in meaning and subject matter, and linked by logical relations of compatibility and incompatibility, entailment etc." "The Cracow Circle set about investigating and where possible improving this logical structure with the most advanced logical tools available at the time, namely those of modern mathematical logic, then called 'logistic'." [131] Perhaps the most famous exponent of the Cracow Circle is Józef Maria Bocheński O.P. (1902 – 1995), author of A History of Formal Logic (1961), and one of the preeminent twentieth-century historians of logic. Bocheński completed a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1934 where he taught logic until 1940. Other members included Jan Salamucha[132] and Jan F. Drewnowski.
Étienne Gilson (1884–1978), the key proponent of this approach to Thomism, tended to emphasize the importance of historical exegesis but also to deemphasize Aquinas's continuity with the Aristotelian tradition, and like Cornelio Fabro of the Neo-scholastic school, to highlight the originality of Aquinas's doctrine of being as existence. He was also critical of the Neo-Scholastics' focus on the tradition of the commentators, and given what he regarded as their insufficient emphasis on being or existence accused them of "essentialism" (to allude to the other half of Aquinas's distinction between being and essence). Gilson's reading of Aquinas as putting forward a distinctively "Christian philosophy" tended, at least in the view of his critics, to blur Aquinas's distinction between philosophy and theology.[133] Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) introduced into Thomistic metaphysics the notion that philosophical reflection begins with an "intuition of being," and in ethics and social philosophy sought to harmonize Thomism with personalism and pluralistic democracy. Though "existential Thomism" was sometimes presented as a counterpoint to modern existentialism, the main reason for the label is the emphasis this approach puts on Aquinas's doctrine of existence. Contemporary proponents include Joseph Owens and John F. X. Knasas.[120]
Unlike the first three schools mentioned, this approach, associated with Joseph Maréchal (1878–1944), Karl Rahner (1904–84), and Bernard Lonergan (1904–84), does not oppose modern philosophy wholesale, but seeks to reconcile Thomism with a Cartesian subjectivist approach to knowledge in general, and Kantian epistemology in particular. It seems fair to say that most Thomists otherwise tolerant of diverse approaches to Aquinas's thought tend to regard transcendental Thomism as having conceded too much to modern philosophy genuinely to count as a variety of Thomism, strictly speaking, and this school of thought has in any event been far more influential among theologians than among philosophers.[120]
This approach, which derives its name from the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland where it is centered, is also sometimes called "phenomenological Thomism." Like transcendental Thomism, it seeks to combine Thomism with certain elements of modern philosophy. In particular, it seeks to make use of the phenomenological method of philosophical analysis associated with Edmund Husserl and the personalism of writers like Max Scheler in articulating the Thomist conception of the human person. Its best-known proponent is Karol Wojtyla (1920–2005), who went on to become Pope John Paul II.[120] However, unlike transcendental Thomism, the metaphysics of Lublin Thomism places priority on existence (as opposed to essence), making it an existential Thomism that demonstrates consonance with the Thomism of Étienne Gilson. It should be noted that the phenomenological concerns of the Lublin school are not metaphysical in nature as this would constitute idealism. Rather, they are considerations which are brought into relation with central positions of the school, such as when dealing with modern science, its epistemological value, and its relation to metaphysics.[136]
However, unlike transcendental Thomism, the metaphysics of Lublin Thomism places priority on existence (as opposed to essence), making it an existential Thomism that demonstrates consonance with the Thomism of Étienne Gilson. It should be noted that the phenomenological concerns of the Lublin school are not metaphysical in nature as this would constitute idealism. Rather, they are considerations which are brought into relation with central positions of the school, such as when dealing with modern science, its epistemological value, and its relation to metaphysics.[136]
This approach to Thomism is described by John Haldane, its key proponent, as "a broad philosophical approach that brings into mutual relationship the styles and preoccupations of recent English-speaking philosophy and the concepts and concerns shared by Aquinas and his followers" (from the article on "analytical Thomism" in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, edited by Ted Honderich). By "recent English-speaking philosophy" Haldane means the analytical tradition founded by thinkers like Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, which tends to dominate academic philosophy in the English-speaking world. Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001) and her husband Peter Geach are sometimes considered the first "analytical Thomists," though (like most writers to whom this label has been applied) they did not describe themselves in these terms, and as Haldane's somewhat vague expression "mutual relationship" indicates, there does not seem to be any set of doctrines held in common by all so-called analytical Thomists. What they do have in common seems to be that they are philosophers trained in the analytic tradition who happen to be interested in Aquinas in some way; and the character of their "analytical Thomism" is determined by whether it tends to stress the "analytical" side of analytical Thomism, or the "Thomism" side, or, alternatively, attempts to emphasize both sides equally.[137][138]
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