St. Thomas Aquinas Philosophy: Aristotelianism and Creation
Introduction to Thomistic Philosophy
Your philosophy guards evident relation with that of Aristotle, and was remote from Platonic theories. In Thomas's anthropology, man is explained applying the hylomorphic theory: human nature is matter and is composed of man and form. The soul confers corporeality onto form matter, and additionally provides sensory and intellectual operations. Upon dying, the body corrupts and rational operations cease.
Thomas distances himself from the Platonic theory that the soul is only essence, stating that the union of man and soul is natural. The body and soul do not have innate ideas; they have to form them starting from sensible experience, for which it needs a body. According to Aristotle, the union of body and soul is an inseparable effect. To this synthesis, the idea is added that the soul is immortal and does not disappear when man dies.
The Theory of Knowledge in St. Thomas
The theory of knowledge of Thomas follows the debt of the Aristotelian framework. To know is to capture forms; this is done through the operation of abstraction, enhancing Aristotle's view that knowledge begins with the senses. The senses capture particular objects and leave an image in our imagination or phantasy. The patient intellect produces concepts that formula trials and permit reasoning.
Truth means the fitness between the intellect and reality, with Thomas adding that things are measured by the models of God's intellect, which is the absolute Aristotelian truth.
Christianity, Neoplatonism, and Metaphysics
Reinterpreting Christianity and facing Christian neoplatonism, Thomas identified the Demiurge with God, an infinite mind containing the universals (ideas). Thomas separates the realm of philosophy, which centers on created and contingent natural beings, from the realm of theology and faith regarding the supernatural and veridical difference notifying beings.
God exists by Himself and other created beings exist by a Creator; that is, in them, essence and existence are distinct. Essence is what the thing is and matches directly, while existence is that the thing actually exists. Unlike Aristotle, Thomistic doctrine leads to the creation of finite things.
Types of Beings in Thomism
- God: Pure act and eternal.
- Angels: Forms without matter.
- Natural Beings: Formed matters.
The last two do not have their existence in themselves; they are precise in God's creative action. Rational demonstration of the existence of God is central to the philosophy of Thomas.