School
University of AlbertaDepartment
Philosophy at St Joseph's CollegeCourse Code
PHIL249Professor
Matthew KosteleckyThis preview shows half of the first page. to view the full 2 pages of the document.
PHILOSOPHY 249
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS!
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Summa Theologia!: Treatise on God!
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Question 2: Does God Exist?!
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Article 1: Is the existence of God self-evident?!
Article 2: Is the existence of God demonstrable?!
Article 3: Does God exist?!
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for a moment, going back to last class on Being and Essence..."
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Glossary:!
Potency: essence, first actuality!
Actuality: being, second actuality!
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Aristotle's analogy for understanding the soul. If the eye were a body, what would be the soul of this body? Sight.
Sight is its first actuality. The second actuality is seeing. When the eye is closed, or I am sleeping, I have the first
actuality of sight. When I awake and look I am actualizing that, second actuality: seeing.!
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IN GOD, THERE IS NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND ACTUALITY!
- in God, there is no distinction between potency and actuality—no composition between what he could do and
what he is actually doing.!
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Quidity: the nature. quiditative knowledge - predications on a similitude. i.e. Human is rational animal.!
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because of time constraints, we deleted a reading: question 1 of this treatise. question 1 is about the relation
between philosophy (including all sciences and mathematics) and theology. Do we need theology? Aquinas says yes
we need theology.!
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BUT, Aquinas project becomes turning Theology into a Natural Science. THIS IS ABOUT METHOD.!
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Question 1: a) philosophy is good. b) that being said, it is not alone sufficient. c) I am going to turn theology into a
science.!
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this goes the way of any basic aristotelian science (so this is the context, Aquinas is trying to establish Theology as
a science):!
Q1: Method!
Q2: Is God?!
Q3: What God is (not).!
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Question 2:!
1. Is God Self-Evident (per se nota - is it known through itself / in itself)? No.!
2. Is God Demonstrable? Yes.!
3. Does God Exist? Yes.!
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he doesn't think God is self evident, but that doesn't mean he is indemonstrable. For something to need to be
demonstrated it must not be self-evident. There is some pessimism and some optimism mingling here.!
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Science in an Aristotelian form is all about demonstration. Demonstration for Aristotle is syllogistic: Socrates is a
man, men are mortal, therefore Socrates is mortal.!
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For Aristotle, the paradigm of science is the demonstratio#.!
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Syllogism:!
[major premise, proposition]!
[minor premise, proposition]!
[conclusion, proposition]!
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