PHIL-P 140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Summa Theologica, Theological Virtues, Practical Reason
Document Summary
Treatises on happiness and virtue parts of uncompleted, massive summa theologica. Challenge to theology posed by influx of re-discovered works of aristotle. Aquinas"s "middle path" between rationalism and fideism: principled synthesis of (much of) aristotle"s philosophy with christianity. Natural and supernatural orders, systematized using similar methods. Anselm"s (d. 1109) charter: faith seeking understanding harmonizing & integrating faith and reason. Aquinas embraces much of arist"s basic framework. ( the philosopher ) But his christian theological commitments lead to important differences w/ aristotle. To a large extent it"s a matter of aristotle-plus: There is natural happiness, and natural virtues, described by natural law. ". And divine supernatural grace does not destroy nature, but brings it to fulfillment". Theological truths transform everything aristotle saw by embedding it in a larger context. Theoretical reason propositions (1st principles) theoretical argument a conclusion. Aquinas thinks there is a close analogy between theoretical reasoning about what to believe and practical reasoning about what we ought to do.
