Peter Abelard (1072- 1142)
• Peter Abelard was a brilliant French lecturer, debater, theologian and philosopher. In a way he introduced works of Aristotle to the western Philosophy.
• Albert introduced a Dialectic Method of study in his book Sic et Non.
o He collected a list of 158 controversial theological questions and listed the arguments and counterarguments for the issues.
Realism versus Nominalism
• Universals: refer to the question of whether properties exist? Properties are qualities that two or more objects/individuals have in common. o For example: Redness, is a universal possessed by all red objects.
Realism
• Realists claim that universals are real.
Nominalism
• Nominalists refuse to accept universals and deny that they
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Albertus Magnus (1200-1280)
• He was the first western philosopher who incorporated the Aristotle’s philosophy into the Christian church. He tried to eradicate theological "errors" arisen from the Islamic and Jewish interpretation of Aristotle’s work. He demonstrated that Aristotle’s ideas were compatible with Christian theology.
• Magnus studied Aristotle’s views on
1. Sensation
2. Intelligence
3. Memory
• Magnus tried to demonstrate that rational power of humans could be used to achieve salvation.
• Magnus conducted careful observations and experiments of nature; and made substantial contributions to the field of botany.
• He was the first western scientist to categorized plants and animals in according to their characteristics and features.
His Titles
1. Doctor of the Church
2. Saint Albert the Great
3. Albert of Cologne
4. Patron Saint of Scientists
5. “Doctor Universalis” due to his comprehensive knowledge of medieval science and philosophy.
Death: November 15, 1280.
St.Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Early life
• Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225. He was the youngest son of a distinguished aristocratic family in Italy. His family wanted him to become a monk at Monte Cassino but instead he joined the Dominican order and became a
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The reconciliation of faith and reason
• Aquinas’s greatest achievement was the reconciliation of theology (faith) and philosophy (reason).
• Aquinas asserted that "both kinds of knowledge ultimately come from God” hence they were compatible. Not only were they not incompatible but they could work in collaboration.
• Thomas asserted that revelation guides reason and prevents it from making mistakes, whereas reason clarifies and demystifies faith. He believed that reason and faith cannot conflict as they lead to the ultimate reality i.e. God. They both play a vital role in perceiving and proving the existence of God.
• Thomas believed that by abiding the social laws of the state, people could earn eternal salvation in the afterlife.
Thomas identified three types of laws:
1. Natural
2. Positive
3. Eternal
Natural law encourages man to act in accordance with accomplishing his goals and directs his sense of right and wrong.
Positive law is the law of the state, and it is the manifestation of natural law.
Eternal law depends on reason; based on free will; it works towards the attainment of man's spiritual
Through my study of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Saint Augustine’s “The Confessions”, I discovered that both text involve a journey of finding real truths before acquiring a faith. This suggests that faith and reason are compatible because one must embark on journey in which they are educated about real truths before they are able to acquire a faith.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), son of a physician to the Macedonian ruler, was a Greek philosopher who studied virtually everything from logic to the sciences to ethics. He spent two decades under Plato’s tutelage in the Academy in Athens, then tutored abroad for twelve years, during which he taught Alexander the Great. He settled down afterwards in Athens and established his own school, the Lyceum. He stayed there until the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. caused an increase of anti-Macedonian sentiment, at which point he left the city and died shortly afterwards due to natural causes. Considered one of the most significant and influential figures of Western philosophy, he produced many written pieces, though most have not survived to this day. Many of those that have, however, are still being studied worldwide.
Religion was an important part to the medieval society and the development of medieval synthesis. An important person that contributed to this was Saint Thomas Aquinas between 1225-1274. His “Summa Theologica” was an important element that influenced the synthesis. The Summa Theologica simply means theological summary. His idea presents the highest example of the medieval synthesis of faith and reason. The summary included the proof of existence of God and man. It described the relationship between the two and how a man’s reconciliation with the Divine is possible through Christ. This shows that Aquinas believed the cosmological argument that shows proofs for the existence of God and its reason. Aquinas Summa Theologica also described the nature and purpose of human being. He devoted his attention to the nature of God and its role that show relationship between God and man. Aquinas tried to explain the origin and purpose of the universe. He also tried to show the different roles that live in the universe and their purpose. Aquinas never doubts...
Thomas Aquinas was born the 13th century in Italy. At fifteen, Thomas Aquinas was sent to the University of Naples. During this time, he was exposed to Aristotle. Although Aquinas did not agree with many of Aristotle’s arguments, he fell in love with his style of argument. It was also during this time he learned to use this method to preach, with other Dominicans. He went on to study with other friars in Cologne. Then, he was sent onto Paris where he settled the strike between the papal authority and the professors who taught Aristotle. In 1260, he wrote his master...
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. The contrasting nature of necessary beings and contingent beings is at the heart of this debate.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher, educator, and scientist. He was able to combine the thoughts of Socrates and Plato to create his own ideas and definition of rhetoric. He wrote influential works such as Rhetoric and Organon, which presented these new ideas and theories on rhetoric. Much of what is Western thought today evolved from Aristotle's theories and experiments on rhetoric.
It has been written that "since the day of Aristotle, probably no one man has exercised such a powerful influence on the thinking world as did St Thomas Aquinas." Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in Italy of a noble family, thus separated by 900 years to Aristotle. He received his first education at the Abbey of Monte Cassino, going on from there to the University of Naples. In 1243, he joined the Dominican monastic order at Cologin. His most influential teacher was another Dominican, Albertus Magnis, a German who wrote extensively on theological matters and questions of national science, especially biology. Thomas was also a highly successful lecturer, and travelled widely across Europe, particularly on the business of his order and the church.
He developed a new, non-Platonic theory of form, created a system of deductive reasoning for universal and existential statements, produced a theory of the cosmos, matter, life, and mind, and theorized about the relationship between ethics and politics and the nature of the good life(Young Students Encyclopedia). His system rival Plato’s for the next 2000 years. Aristotle was a firm believer that philosophy came from wonder, and that knowledge came from experience. He had a wealth of knowledge, from many experience; if he was correct about philosophy coming from wonder, he would have had to wonder quite a bit.
Otherwise, a society without the limitation of laws would undoubtedly come into disorder and chaos. In conclusion, it is indeed everyone’s responsibility to respect and obey the laws. But whether to disobey unjust laws calls for a prudent consideration of whether it is for any higher purpose.
Thomas Aquinas was a teacher of the Dominican Order and he taught that most matters of The Divine can be proved by natural human reason, while “Others were strictly ‘of faith’ in that they could be grasped only through divine revelation.” This was a new view on the faith and reason argument contradictory to both Abelard with his belief that faith should be based on human reason, and the Bernard of Clairvaux who argued that one should only need faith.
Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 into a noble family, where he lived in southern Italy. His family decided that he would be a church leader so at the age of six they sent him to the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, and at fourteen he was sent to the University of Naples for further studying. When he joined the scholarly dominican order at the age of 20, he wanted to pursue
reasoning, spirit, and natural wants are all part of human nature. In book 1 of The
of right and wrong buried within him. This sense guides people, culture, and even whole countries to act in certain ways. Thomas Aquinas called this innate sense the natural law. The natural law is established by God in order to make men more virtuous. When examined closely it is found that the natural law contains the precept of all law and, is at odds with certain laws that exist today, specifically abortion.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher. He was a student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. Together with other Greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates, he is considered to be one of the most important figures in Western Philosophy.
Justification by faith is of great importance, it is the foundation of our whole position and standing with God. Martin Luther wrote, “When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen.” John Calvin called it, “the main hinge on which religion turns.” Thomas Watson said, “Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity.” The issue of Justification was the primary dispute between the reformers and the Roman Catholic Church, and the problem was, and still is, between salvation by faith alone and salvation based on good works.