Thomas Aquinas is an Italian philosopher, a follower of Aristotle. He was a teacher, a minister of the Dominican Order, and an influential religious figure of his time. The essence of the thinker's teaching is the unification of Christianity and the philosophical views of Aristotle. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas affirms the primacy of God and his participation in all earthly processes.
Biographical facts
Approximate years of life of Thomas Aquinas: from 1225 to 1274. He was born in the Roccasecca castle, located near Naples. Thomas's father was a feudal baron, and gave his son the title of abbot of the Benedictine monastery. But the future philosopher chose to engage in science. Thomas ran away from home and joined a monastic order. During the order's trip to Paris, the brothers kidnapped Thomas and imprisoned him in a fortress. After 2 years, the young man managed to escape and officially took a vow, becoming a member of the order and a student of Albertus Magnus. He studied at the University of Paris and Cologne, became a teacher of theology and began writing his first philosophical works.
Thomas was later called to Rome, where he taught theology and served as an adviser on theological issues to the Pope. After spending 10 years in Rome, the philosopher returned to Paris to take part in popularizing the teachings of Aristotle in accordance with Greek texts. Before this, a translation made from Arabic was considered official. Thomas believed that the Eastern interpretation distorted the essence of the teaching. The philosopher sharply criticized the translation and sought a complete ban on its distribution. Soon, he was again called to Italy, where he taught and wrote treatises until his death.
The main works of Thomas Aquinas are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Philosophia. The philosopher is also known for his reviews of treatises by Aristotle and Boethius. He wrote 12 church books and the Book of Parables.
Fundamentals of philosophical teaching
Thomas distinguished between the concepts of “philosophy” and “theology”. Philosophy studies questions accessible to reason and touches only those areas of knowledge that relate to human existence. But the possibilities of philosophy are limited; man can only know God through theology.
Thomas formed his idea of the stages of truth on the basis of the teachings of Aristotle. The ancient Greek philosopher believed that there are 4 of them:
- experience;
- art;
- knowledge;
- wisdom.
Thomas placed wisdom above other levels. Wisdom is based on the revelations of God and is the only way of Divine knowledge.
According to Thomas, there are 3 types of wisdom:
- grace;
- theological - allows you to believe in God and Divine Unity;
- metaphysical - comprehends the essence of being using reasonable conclusions.
With the help of reason, a person can realize the existence of God. But the questions of the appearance of God, the resurrection, and the Trinity remain inaccessible to her.
Types of being
The life of a person or any other creature confirms the fact of his existence. The opportunity to live is more important than the true essence, since only God provides such an opportunity. Every substance depends on divine desire, and the world is the totality of all substances.
Existence can be of 2 types:
- independent;
- dependent.
True being is God. All other beings depend on him and obey the hierarchy. The more complex the nature of a being, the higher its position and the greater the freedom of action.
Combination of form and matter
Matter is a substrate that has no form. The appearance of a form creates an object and endows it with physical qualities. The unity of matter and form is the essence. Spiritual beings have complex essences. They do not have physical bodies; they exist without the participation of matter. Man is created from form and matter, but he also has an essence that God has endowed him with.
Since matter is uniform, all creatures created from it could be the same shape and become indistinguishable. But, according to God's will, form does not determine the being. The individualization of an object is formed by its personal qualities.
Ideas about the soul
The unity of soul and body creates the individuality of a person. The soul has a divine nature. It was created by God to give man the opportunity to achieve bliss by joining his Creator after the end of earthly life. The soul is an immortal independent substance. It is intangible and inaccessible to the human eye. The soul becomes complete only at the moment of unity with the body. A person cannot exist without a soul; it is his life force. All other living beings do not have a soul.
Man is an intermediate link between angels and animals. He is the only one of all corporeal beings who has the will and desire for knowledge. After bodily life, he will have to answer to the Creator for all his actions. A person cannot get close to angels - they have never had a bodily form, in their essence they are flawless and cannot commit actions that contradict divine plans.
A person is free to choose between good and sin. The higher his intellect, the more actively he strives for good. Such a person suppresses animal aspirations that denigrate his soul. With every action he moves closer to God. Inner aspirations are reflected in appearance. The more attractive an individual is, the closer he is to the divine essence.
Types of knowledge
In the concept of Thomas Aquinas there were 2 types of intelligence:
- passive - needed for the accumulation of sensory images, does not take part in the thinking process;
- active - separated from sensory perception, forms concepts.
To know the truth, you need to have high spirituality. A person must tirelessly develop his soul, endow it with new experiences.
There are 3 types of knowledge:
- reason - gives a person the ability to form reasoning, compare them and draw conclusions;
- intelligence - allows you to understand the world by forming images and studying them;
- mind is the totality of all spiritual components of a person.
Cognition is the main calling of a rational person. It elevates him above other living beings, ennobles him and brings him closer to God.
Ethics
Thomas believed that God is absolute good. A person striving for good is guided by the commandments and does not allow evil into his soul. But God does not force a person to be guided only by good intentions. It gives people free will: the ability to choose between good and evil.
A person who knows his essence strives for good. Believes in God and the primacy of his plan. Such an individual is full of hope and love. His aspirations are always prudent. He is peaceful, humble, but at the same time brave.
Political Views
Thomas shared Aristotle's opinion about the political system. Society needs management. The ruler must maintain peace and be guided in his decisions by the desire for the common good.
Monarchy is the optimal form of government. A single ruler represents the divine will; he takes into account the interests of individual groups of subjects and respects their rights. The monarch must submit to church authority, since the ministers of the church are servants of God and proclaim His will.
Tyranny as a form of power is unacceptable. It contradicts the highest plan and contributes to the emergence of idolatry. The people have the right to overthrow such a government and ask the Church to choose a new monarch.
Evidence for the Existence of God
Answering the question about the existence of God, Thomas provides 5 evidence of His direct influence on the world around us.
Movement
All natural processes are the result of movement. The fruits will not ripen until the flowers appear on the tree. Each movement is subordinate to the previous one, and cannot begin until it ends. The first movement was the appearance of God.
Producing cause
Each action occurs as a result of the previous one. A person cannot know what the original cause of an action was. It is acceptable to assume that God became her.
Necessity
Some things exist temporarily, are destroyed and appear again. But some things need to exist constantly. They create the possibility for the appearance and life of other creatures.
Degrees of being
All things and all living beings can be divided into several stages, in accordance with their aspirations and level of development. This means that there must be something perfect, occupying the top level of the hierarchy.
Every action has a purpose. This is only possible if the individual is guided by someone from above. It follows from this that a higher mind exists.
1. The doctrine of the soul of Thomas Aquinas
2. Thomas' personalism
3. Substantiality of man
4. Connection between soul and body
5. Posthumous existence of the soul
6. Angels
7. Man in the teachings of Thomas Aquinas
8. Animals and heredity
9. Intelligence
Thomas Aquinas. Doctrine of the soul
Thomas rejected Plato's idea, which was supported and developed by Augustine, the mystics and the Franciscan school, that only the soul is a person, and the body is not a part, but an instrument of the soul. In his opinion, as in the opinion of Aristotle, the body also belongs to human nature.
If the soul and body are parts of a person, then how are they interconnected? They are interconnected as form and matter. According to the Aristotelian tradition, Thomas understood the soul as a form of organic essence, as an actual prerequisite for this essence. The human soul is the form of man. This is a rational soul, since rational knowledge is a characteristic feature that is inherent in man and distinguishes him from the animal world. However, a person also manifests himself through other actions: for example, he perceives the world through his senses. But can it have other forms? No, since the activity of the mind is the highest type of activity, and the highest form already includes the lower ones. The Franciscan school considered it impossible to connect in one principle such different phenomena as thinking and physical functions, and was proud of the fact that it included physical functions in the functions of the soul and said that many forms coexist in man. The uniqueness of form was one of those provisions of Thomas that was most attacked by his opponents. He could not refuse it, because he was convinced that in order to be a single substance, a person must have a single form.
Thomas's hylemorphism in his interpretation of man, his assertion that man is not only the soul itself and that the soul is a form of the body, and not an independent substance - this was the most daring, most risky part of his philosophy. But he showed that this position can be reconciled with Christianity and that Christianity does not require either disembodied spiritualism, or dualism of soul and body, or independence of the soul. Contrary to his original position, Thomas defended the idea of the psychophysical unity of man. Although this view had ancient sources going back to Aristotle, it was the most modern in spirit.
Thomas' Personalism
There are not 3 souls in a person, but only one. The entire soul is present entirely in every particle of the body.
The soul, according to Thomas, does not exist before earthly life, but is created by God at the moment of either conception or birth.
The soul acquires knowledge not as a result of memories, as in Plato, but thanks to sensory perception, in which the knowledge of ideas illuminated by the intellect is clothed.
Created immaterial (incorporeal) substances, such as angels, as well as the intellect, i.e., the rational part of the human soul, are composite (not simple) due to the difference between their essence and existence; material substances are characterized by a double composition: from matter and form, as well as essence and existence. In man, the immaterial substance (the rational soul) simultaneously performs the function of form in relation to the body. The form (soul) imparts existence to the body (animates it), having received it from the act of being. Each creature or thing has one substantial form, which determines the genus-species characteristics of the thing, its “whatness”. The individual difference between things that are identical in appearance is due to matter, which acts as an individualizing principle (the principle of individuation).
The introduction of the concept of an act of being different from form allowed Thomas to abandon the assumption of a plurality of substantial forms in one and the same thing. His predecessors and contemporaries, including Bonaventure, could not take advantage of Aristotle’s teaching about the existence of a single substantial form in every thing (from which the statement about the soul as the substantial form of the body followed), since then with the death of the body the soul would have to disappear, because the form cannot exist without the whole, whose form it is. To avoid an undesirable conclusion, they were forced to admit that the soul, along with the body, is a substance consisting of its form and its own (spiritual) matter, which continues to exist after the disappearance of the body. But then a person, or any thing, since many forms coexist in it, turns out to be not one substance, but consists of several (material) substances. The assumption of the act of being as an act that creates not only a thing, but also a form, allows us to solve this problem. After the death of the body, the rational soul remains a substance, but not a material one, consisting of form and spiritual matter, but an immaterial one, consisting of essence and existence, and, therefore, does not cease to exist. The uniqueness of the substantial form in man, as in any other substance, explains the unity inherent in each of them.
Objecting to Siger of Brabant, who argued that the rational part of the soul is an impersonal substance common to all people, Thomas insists on the existence of a separate, personal soul for each person. Following Aristotle, his doctrine of the soul is consistently personalistic.
Substantiality of Man
Christianity has never considered man in the Platonic tradition - that the body is the shackles of the soul, the grave of the soul. For a Christian, the body is as valuable as the soul, and a person must glorify God both in his body and in his soul. On the day of the Last Judgment, every person will be resurrected in his entirety - not only the soul, but also the body.
Such confidence is not compatible with Plato’s doctrine of the soul as the essence of man. Therefore, Thomas Aquinas again turns to the teachings of Aristotle, which, according to Thomas, is much more consistent with Christian teachings than Plato’s, for, according to Aristotle, the essence of man is the soul, understood as the entelechy of the body (i.e., the active principle that turns possibility into reality ), therefore the soul is not something fundamentally different from the body. The soul is the form of the body, i.e. its entelechy is completeness, actuality. Man, according to Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, is a single substance, therefore the body and soul are not different substances.
On this path, however, another difficulty awaits Thomas Aquinas, for in addition to faith in the resurrection in the flesh, every Christian is also driven by faith in the immortality of his soul. How to combine these 2 concepts, seemingly incompatible: belief in the resurrection of the dead and belief in the immortality of the soul?
Albert the Great drew attention to the complexity of this problem. He pointed out that the soul can be considered in two ways: as a soul in itself (according to Plato), and in relation to the body - as a form. It is clear that this solution is purely eclectic and does not combine Platonic and Aristotelian concepts harmoniously.
Thomas Aquinas is still more inclined to the Aristotelian concept: the soul is a form of the body that has vital potential, but the form is immortal. He makes a significant amendment to Aristotle, because for Stagirite, form cannot exist outside the body, it can only be thought of separately from the body. According to Aquinas, the soul is a form with substantiality. A clear shift in attitude towards Platonism: Thomas agrees with Plato that man owes his substantiality to nothing other than the soul. However, the soul, being a substance, has its entelechy, its reality only in unity with the body. Therefore, the soul, being a substance, does not exist without the body, therefore man is a complete substance. A soul without a body, Thomas points out, is an incomplete substance. The body is not the shackles of the soul, not its grave, but its necessary complement. The nature of the soul is such that it requires a body in order to control it. The soul is the form of the body, therefore it actualizes this body, imparts unity to man and resides in the entire body; it cannot be said that the soul is located in any one organ.
The soul requires a body, since one of its essences is the vital principle. It is not for nothing that a living being is always understood as an animate being. To be animate and to be alive, Thomas argues, are the same thing. The soul is a vital principle, and it cannot exist without bringing life into inert matter, therefore the soul cannot exist without a body.
The human soul is incorruptible, however, only from the point of view of the future, but not the past, i.e. Thomas recognized immortality, but denied the pre-existence of the soul before its entry into the body.
Connection between soul and body
Man is a substantial connection between soul (form) and body (matter). This connection is inextricable - the soul and body form an integral unit of the substance of a person, who is thereby defined as a mental-physical being. Although the soul as an anima separata (separated soul) can exist after the death of the body and, therefore, is immortal, it, as a human soul, needs a body, since for knowledge it needs sensory perception.
Thus, man stands, one might say, at the center of creation: thanks to his mind, he is involved in the world of pure spirit, thanks to his body, to the world of matter. The human soul as a form takes its place in the hierarchy of existence, ascending from inanimate things through plants and animals to man. The soul contains various abilities: vegetative (life force), sensitive (sensory perception), appetitive (instinctive-volitional), motive (spatial-motor) and rational (reasonable).
The ability of sensory perception, in turn, is divided into individual feelings, a general feeling (embracing the objects of individual senses), the ability of representation (storing individual sensory images), the sensory ability of judgment (simple, aimed at specific situations) and active memory. The mind is divided into potential (intellectus possibilis) and active (intellectus agens). This introduces a distinction between human cognitive ability and real, actual knowledge.
The cognitive process itself can be depicted as follows: the body first generates an image in a separate sense organ, from there it enters the general sense in order to be imprinted in the idea as a separate image (species sensibilis). For now we remain in the realm of the sensory. But since the potential mind is directed towards the general (species intelligibilis), the active mind is brought into action. It abstracts (extracts) the general form from the sensory individual and thereby makes knowledge possible in the potential mind.
Posthumous existence of the soul
The main manifestation of life is movement and cognition. Therefore, the soul, ensouling the body, is not the body, that is, the soul is not a material substance, but is the entelechy (completeness) of the body. The soul is not eternal. God creates a soul for each specific person. The soul is created by God for a specific body and is always proportionate to it, that is, the soul is the entelechy of this particular body. Therefore, the soul does not lose its individuality even after the death of the body; it remains an individuality adapted to a specific body. The soul can exist separately, but this existence is defective, incomplete, for a soul without a body is an incomplete substance. A soul without a body lives an incomplete life in anticipation of the Last Judgment and the general resurrection from the dead, and then the soul intended for a specific body will again acquire this body and the person will again become a complete substance.
In his understanding of man, Thomas Aquinas also shares the Aristotelian position that the human soul is a combination of plant, animal and rational parts; Aquinas calls them vegetative, sensual and intelligible. Unlike Aristotle, Thomas does not see the difference between these parts, or potencies of the soul, for the soul is the substantial form of the body (that is, it gives existence, unity to the body), and therefore, being a certain beginning, cannot have several beginnings in itself .
The difference between man and other animals is only that his soul can perform all 3 functions: nutritional and growth (vegetative) and communicate passions and sensations to man (through the sensual soul), and provide rational, intelligent knowledge.
Among earthly beings the human soul occupies the highest place, and among intellectual substances the intelligible soul occupies the lowest place. The human soul, different from the Angels, cannot comprehend the truth directly; The nature of the soul is such that it knows the truth only through the senses, therefore the soul necessarily presupposes and requires a body.
Among the capabilities and abilities of the soul, Thomas Aquinas distinguishes 2 groups: there are functions of the soul that are performed without the body (thinking and will), and there are functions that are performed only through the body (sensations, growth, nutrition). The first (thinking and will) are preserved even after the soul leaves the body, the second (the abilities of the plant and animal souls) remain in the soul only virtually, that is, potentially, as a kind of opportunity for the further connection of the soul with the body after the resurrection.
Angels
At the pinnacle of creation are the angels. They are not corporeal or even material creations, therefore, St. Thomas does not share with other theologians the position that every created thing consists of matter and form. Although angels are not simple, since they are created. In order to place the first level of creation as close to the Creator as possible, Thomas strives to endow the angels with the highest perfection compatible with the state of the creatures. Angels, therefore, must be understood as being as simple as possible for a created being. It is clear that such simplicity could not be complete. For if angels were absolutely free from all connection, they would be a pure act of being, which is God. Because angels receive their existence from God, they, like all creations, consist of their own essence and their own existence. This connection is enough to place them infinitely below God, but the angels do not include anything else. They have no matter and, therefore, no principle of individuation in the ordinary sense of the word; each angel is more a species than an individual, in itself forming an irreducible step in the ladder leading down to corporeality.
Angels are not equal to each other; they are divided into ranks. Each angel is the only representative of his species [there are no consubstantial angels], for angels are incorporeal and therefore can only differ in their species differences, and not in their position in space.
Each of the angels receives from the immediately superior angel an intelligible form or first distribution of divine light; and each of them adapts this enlightenment to himself, clouding and sharing it with the immediately inferior angelic Intelligentsia.
At the same time, Thomas complicated and simplified finite existence. The introduction of the connection of essence and being into the nature of angels allowed Thomas, without attributing to them the simplicity of God, to exclude gymmorphism from the structure of angels. On the other hand, by introducing the concept of the act of being, Thomas eliminated the plurality of forms in the compound. As long as there is no actus essendi distinct from form, there is no reason why being should not include a plurality of substantial forms held together, ordered by the highest of them.
It is obvious that even the teaching of Aristotle, where there is no connection between essence and esse, was urgently required to attribute only one substantial form to each actually existing substance; but this kind of understanding of the unity of man doomed to death the union of soul and body, in which the soul is a form. The Aristotelian unity of substantial form turned out to be inapplicable to the soul, directly created by God in the body and separate from it. How can the human soul be the only substantial form of its body, if, as Thomas pointed out “On Being and Essence,” it should be considered among separate substances: “in substantis separatis, scilicet in anima, intelligentiis et causa prima.” Before the introduction of the act of substantial form, theologians hesitated for a long time before excluding other forms. On the contrary, such an exception became possible and necessary as soon as Thomas established esse as an act of form. It became possible due to the fact that the rational soul, after the death of its body, still remains a substance consisting of its own essence and its own act of being, so it can still “subsist.” The necessary exclusion of other forms became due to the fact that when understanding a form as the true addressee of its own act of being, the connection of esse with several different substantial forms would serve as the beginning of several different actually existing beings (things, creations). Radical rejection of binarium famosissimum, i.e. from hylomorphism and plurality of forms was realized thanks to the introduction by Thomas Aquinas of a new metaphysical concept of being, and not due to a more correct understanding of Aristotle’s metaphysics.
Man in the teachings of Aquinas
In this descending hierarchy of creations, the appearance of man and, accordingly, matter signifies a unique step. Man still belongs to the ranks of those who exist immaterially thanks to the soul, but his soul is not pure intelligence like that of the angels. The soul coincides with the intellect, because it is also the principle of knowledge, aimed at a certain kind of intelligibility; but does not coincide with the intelligentsia, being essentially an act and form of the body. Of course, the human soul is a spiritual substance, but one whose essence is to be the form of a body and to constitute with it a natural unity of the same nature as any combination of matter and form, namely “man.” Therefore, the human soul is on the lowest level of spiritual creations, and is furthest from the perfections of the divine mind. On the other hand, since it is the form of the body and dominates it in this way, the soul of man signifies the boundary, a kind of horizon, between the realm of pure Intelligence and the sphere of corporeal beings.
In this sense, this teaching complicates the structure of man, in another sense it simplifies it. In Thomism, man (like all corporeal beings) is two-part. It consists, firstly, of soul and body, the unity of which is not simply a special case of the union of form and matter in corporeal beings. Being a form, the human intellect makes matter a human body, and man himself into “what” is. In the order of “whatnesses,” including essence and quality, form is the highest. There is not even a form for the form. Human intellect is the highest formal act by which a certain being is a man; and by reason of which the actions of this being are human actions. It is through the form of the “soul” that this existence reaches all the constituent elements of the human being, including the living cells of his body; but before transmitting existence the soul receives it in the act of its own creation. Thus, every corporeal being, including man, is a double unification of both form and matter, and essence with its act of being. In this structure of esse, the act of being is the cornerstone of the whole. He is an act even for form; accordingly, he is an act of acts and the perfection of formal perfections.
Each way of being has its own way of knowing. Having become the immediate form of the body, the human soul loses the blizh attributed to it. Augustine's ability to directly comprehend the intelligible world. Without a doubt, the fading reflection of the divine rays still remains in us, we still remain part of the divine light, since the human purpose is to search in things for a trace of the intelligibility that was effective during their (things) formation. The active intellect, as an accessory to the human soul, is that natural force that brings us closest to the angels. Although our intellect does not provide us with innate intelligible forms, since it cannot even directly perceive them either in individual substances or in God, it itself, being a form, is supported by other sensible forms. Its highest task is the knowledge of the first principles, which at least virtually preexist us, being the first concepts of the intellect. The perfection of the operating intellect lies precisely in virtually containing concepts and being able to form them; at the same time, its weakness is rooted in the inability to form concepts outside of connection with our perception of sensory things. Thus, the source of human knowledge is in the senses, as a result of the interaction of material things, senses and intellect.
Animals and heredity
The souls of animals, unlike the souls of people, do not have immortality.
The mind is a part of the soul of every person; Averroes was wrong in asserting that there is only one mind, to which different people participate. The soul is not transmitted hereditarily with the seed, but is created anew in each person.
True, a difficulty arises in this connection: when a child is born from an illegitimate spouse, one might think that God is an accomplice in adultery. But this is a sophistical objection. – There is also a weighty objection, which St. Augustine; it concerns the hereditary transmission of original sin. After all, it is the soul that sins, and if the soul is not passed on hereditarily, but is created anew, then how can it inherit the sin of Adam? But St. Thomas is not included in the discussion of this issue.
Intelligence
Man himself, as a combination of matter and form, is unique among a huge number of natures, that is, material bodies, each of which has its own form. The component that isolates and individualizes these natures is the matter of each of them; the component common to all of them is their form, therefore knowledge must consist in abstracting from things the universal component contained in them. This is the task of abstraction - the most characteristic action of the human intellect. Sensibly perceived objects influence the senses, imprinting themselves on them as species; which, even being devoid of corporeal matter, bear traces of the corporeality and particularity of the objects that caused them. Strictly speaking, they are not intelligible, but can be made so by removing from them traces of their sensory origin. This is the advantageous role of the acting intellect. By addressing the senses and illuminating them with its own light, the intellect illuminates and transforms them. Being himself an intelligible being, he discovers in natural forms the effectively intelligible and virtually universal and abstracts it. A type of correspondence between a person and things is established by analogy with their structure. The human soul is endowed with passive and active intellect. The species of sensible things enter into it through the senses, where they represent individual existences, given together with their individual characteristics. Sensible species are thus intelligible only virtually, in possibility, but not in reality. On the other hand, the rational soul has both an active intellect - an active ability that can make sensory species actually intelligible, and a passive intellect - a passive ability to perceive species abstracted from particular definitions. Abstract cognition is the abstraction of intelligible forms by the active intellect and their perception by the passive intellect.
Abstraction is the first operation of the intellect, which develops concepts or simply ideas. Since nothing is affirmed or denied in them, these concepts can be neither true nor false. The next operation of the intellect, judgment, consists of connecting or separating simple ideas with the help of a connective, namely, the verb “is.” A judgment is true when what it affirms or denies corresponds to reality. Things come first. Through sensory cognition and abstraction, the intellect becomes like things as they are.
Through judgment, the intellect asserts the existence of things when they exist, or their non-existence when they do not exist. Propositions, therefore, must be either true or false. They are true if they agree with the essence of their objects. Although, ultimately, the truth of a judgment is based more on the being of a thing than on its essence, since the very name “being” indicates the act of being that brings them into existence.
Judgments are combined into conclusions, the latter, in turn, are built into evidence, the conclusions of which are scientifically knowable.
In the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, the logic of judgment and the art of proof in general remain the same as they were in the logic of Aristotle. Moreover, Thomas retained the Aristotelian concepts of “science” and “learning”, understood as a body of conclusions derived from principles by means of necessary syllogistic inference.
Lit: Lega V.P. History of Western Philosophy
V. Tatarkevich. History of philosophy. Ancient and medieval philosophy
E. Gilson “History of Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages” Published on the website:
The most famous moderate realist is the philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225/1226-1274). Thomas is an aristocrat, the son of a count, a Dominican monk, and the founder of the philosophy of Thomism. Thomas' teacher was Albert von Bolstedt (Albert the Great). Thomas Aquinas wrote the works “Summa Theologica”, “Summa against the Gentiles”. He was a teacher of philosophy and theology at European universities; in his work he relied on the heritage of ancient philosophers and the works of Aristotle. For his broad erudition, Thomas was called the “universal doctor,” and for his loyalty to church teaching, he was called the “angelic doctor.” In 1323 he was canonized and in 1567 recognized as the fifth teacher of the church. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII declared the teachings of Thomas the only true philosophy of Catholicism. From this time, neo-Thomism began as a modern philosophical movement, which is the official philosophy of the Vatican. The characteristic, essential features of neo-Thomism are: rationalism, discipline of thought, the ability to coexist with scientific theories, objectivity opposed to arbitrariness in the field of faith, etc.
Thomas's ontology recognizes the existence of real being, which means everything that is and that can be. Being is such as it is given to a person in his feelings. The world is considered by the philosopher as a hierarchical system with four stages: 1) inanimate nature; 2) the world of plants; 3) the animal world; 4) the world of people, forming a transition to the divine sphere. The creator of the world is God, but he has not yet finished building the world. At the heart of the Divine creation of the world is the “eternal law” - Divine Providence. God is eternal, absolutely perfect spirit, pure form and the source of all forms. Its knowledge by man is carried out through the study of Divine creation. Lyubomirov D.E. Philosophy of the Middle Ages: Textbook / D.E. Lyubomirov. - SPb.: SPbGLTA,. 2009. - 44 p.
As for universals, according to Thomas, they exist: 1) before things - in the Divine mind; 2) in things, since things were created by God, and 3) after things - in the concepts of the human mind. A thinking person discovers universals in the world created by God. Both spirit and matter have high value. The material world is not an “evil principle”; it is as sacred as the mind. According to Thomas, there is a difference between theology and philosophy: the first comes from God to his creations, and philosophy, on the contrary, ascends to God from his creations and thereby complements theology. The basic principle of Thomas's philosophy is the principle of harmony of faith and reason; reason is capable of proving the existence of God. Philosophy and religion contain such general principles that are revealed by both reason and faith. Truth can be reached through both faith (the short path) and science (the long path using evidence). Truth cannot be revealed only through revelations, since they are a rare phenomenon that holy people receive. Ordinary people simply believe in God.
Thomas's intellectual, rational greatness manifested itself in the understanding that one cannot believe contrary to reason. It is better to understand than to simply believe. Mere faith in authority is clearly not enough. Authority must be justified and proven. If faith becomes too unearthly, it will weaken. That is why faith must make way and give room to reason.
Analyzing the problem of man, Thomas believed that he is a personal connection of soul and body. Separately, neither the body nor the soul is a person. Each person has a unique soul, which he receives from God at the moment of his birth and is immortal, not dying along with the human body. The human soul is a pure form, a spiritual, incorporeal phenomenon. In general, like Aristotle, Thomas distinguishes three types of soul: the vegetative (in plants), the sensory (in animals) and the human, rational soul, the function of which is thinking. The human soul performs the functions of the vegetative and sensory souls, its functions are manifested in nutrition, reproduction, and sensory perception. The human soul has such abilities as will, reason, imagination, memory, judgment, it is capable of both sensory and intellectual knowledge. Intellectual perception is the highest cognitive ability of a person. Intelligence is personal intelligence and is a part of the whole.
In the system of socio-political views, Thomas, like Aristotle, believed that man is a political animal, this quality distinguishes him from other creatures. The creation of the state was mediated by the human mind, but it happened by the will of God. Among the known forms of government, Thomas prefers monarchy, believing that the entire Christian world forms a single state, governed by the Pope as the viceroy of God on Earth. In addition to church power, the Pope has secular power. State power is given by God.
In his work “Summa Theologica” Thomas proves the existence of God in the following way: there is movement, which means there is also a prime mover; it is God; there is a cause, therefore there is a first cause; God appears to her; there is chance and necessity in the world; the most necessary thing in the world is God; everything that exists has a greater or lesser degree of perfection; the most perfect thing in the world is God; there is a goal, everything in the world goes towards a certain goal. God directs all things towards a goal. Thomas Aquinas. Five proofs of the existence of God. Internet resource: http://www.medievalmuseum.ru/medieval_philosophy_aquinas.htm
Thomas's analysis of the vital problem of property is versatile. He views property as a gift from God to man. No member of society should have more than is necessary to satisfy his needs, and any property should serve the common good. The abundance of the rich can be used to meet the needs of the needy.
Extreme realists include Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) and Guiphomme of Champeaux (1070-1121), who argued that universals exist before things, and people are not reality, such is “humanity.” From the point of view of realism, universals exist objectively and prior to individual things; the general is reality in the form of a certain essence. Anselm considered faith to be the basis of rational knowledge. He derived the existence of God from the very concept of God (ontological proof of the existence of God). Anselm formulates four proofs of the existence of God. In three of them he proves the existence of the Creator based on consideration of creations. These proofs are based on two premises: 1) all creations differ from each other in the degree of possessing some kind of perfection; 2) things endowed with perfection in varying degrees receive their relative perfection from perfection as such, perfection to the highest degree. For example, every thing is good. We desire things because they are certain benefits. But things are not equally good, and not one of them has all the fullness of good. They are good because they participate to a greater or lesser extent in the Good itself, the cause of all partial relative goods. Good in itself is a primary Being that surpasses everything that exists, and we call this Being God Stolyarov A.A. Aiselm of Canterbury. Evidence for the existence of God. Internet resource: http://filosof.historic.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000004/st122.shtml
Thus, in the bosom of medieval European philosophy, the human intellect developed, the ability to think rationally and logically was formed and developed. During this period, philosophers continued to study the problems of ontology, epistemology, anthropology and social philosophy, and originally analyzed the problem of the relationship between the general and the individual, the material and the spiritual, faith and reason.
11. Thomas Aquinas and his doctrine of the soul
The expansion of the rights of science led to the fact that by the 13th century. the theory of two truths, somewhat paraphrased in Thomism - a theory developed by the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas - was already called upon to protect faith from scientific evidence. Trying to reconcile science and faith, Thomas Aquinas wrote that they actually have two different truths, but if the truth of science contradicts the truth of faith, science must yield to it.
The works of Plato and Aristotle, whose concepts gradually acquired an increasingly orthodox character, also began to have an increasing influence on the psychology of the Middle Ages. Many major scientists of that time (Ibn Rushd, F. Aquinas) were followers of Aristotle, proving that their interpretation of this theory was the only correct one.
During the Middle Ages, scholasticism reigned in the intellectual life of Europe (from the Greek “scholasticos” - schoolboy, scientist). This special type of philosophizing (“school philosophy”), which dominated from the 11th to the 16th centuries, boiled down to a rational justification of Christian doctrine using logical techniques.
There were various currents in scholasticism; The general attitude was towards commenting on texts. Positive study of the subject and discussion of real problems were replaced by verbal tricks. The Catholic Church initially banned the legacy of Aristotle, which appeared on the intellectual horizon of Europe, but then began to “master” it and adapt it according to its needs. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) handled this task most subtly, whose teaching was later canonized in the papal encyclical (1879) as truly Catholic philosophy (and psychology) and received the name Thomism (somewhat modernized today under the name neo-Thomism).
Thomism developed in contrast to the elemental materialistic interpretations of Aristotle, in the depths of which the concept of dual truth arose. At its origins stood Ibn Roshd, who relied on Aristotle. His followers in European universities (Averroists) believed that the incompatibility with the official dogma of the ideas about the eternity (and not the creation) of the world, about the annihilation (and not immortality) of the individual soul allows us to assert that each of the truths has its own area. What is true for one area may be false for another, and vice versa.
Thomas defended one truth - religious, “descending from above.” He believed that reason should serve her as earnestly as religious feeling. He and his supporters managed to deal with the Averroists at the University of Paris. But in England, at Oxford University, the concept of dual truth triumphed, becoming the ideological prerequisite for the success of philosophy and the natural sciences.
Describing mental life, Thomas Aquinas laid out its various forms in the form of a kind of ladder - from lower to higher. In this hierarchy, each phenomenon has its place, boundaries are established between all things, and it is clearly defined what should be where. Souls (vegetative, animal, human) are located in a stepped series; within each of them are abilities and their products (sensation, idea, concept).
The concept of introspection, which originated with Plotinus, became the most important source of religious self-deepening in Augustine and again emerged as a support for a modernized theological psychology in Thomas Aquinas. The latter presented the work of the soul in the form of the following diagram: first it performs an act of cognition - the image of an object (sensation or concept) appears to it; then she realizes that she performed this act; finally, having completed both operations, the soul “returns” to itself, no longer recognizing an image or an act, but itself as a unique entity. Before us is a closed consciousness, from which there is no exit either to the body or to the outside world.
Thomism thus turned the great ancient Greek philosopher into a pillar of theology, into “Aristotle with a tonsure” (a tonsure is a shaved place on the top of the head - a sign of belonging to the Catholic clergy).
12. Development of psychology in the Arab world
From the 8th to the 12th centuries. a large amount of psychological research was carried out in the East, where the main psychological and philosophical schools moved from Greece and Rome. The following fact was important: Arab scientists insisted that the study of the psyche should be based not only on philosophical concepts about the soul, but also on data from the natural sciences, especially medicine.
At that time, in the caliphate, which spread from Central Asia to Spain, not only religious and philosophical views other than Islam were allowed, but also natural science research, including the study of the functioning of the senses and the brain, was not prohibited.
Thus, the famous scientist of that time, Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039), made a number of important discoveries in the field of psychophysiology of perception. His natural-scientific approach to the organs of perception (primarily the visual system) was determined by the first attempt in the history of psychological thought to interpret their functions based on the laws of optics. The important thing was that these laws are accessible to experience and mathematical analysis. Ibn al-Haytham accepted the construction of an image of an external object in the eye according to the laws of optics as the basis for visual perception. He argued that this process is determined by external, physical reasons, since in the future direct optical effects are joined, albeit unconsciously, by additional mental acts, thanks to which the perception of the shape of surrounding objects, their size, volume, etc. arises.
Not limiting himself to general considerations about the dependence of phenomena on physical (optical) factors and laws, Ibn al-Haytham experimentally studied such important phenomena as binocular vision, color mixing and the effects observed in this case, the phenomenon of contrast, etc. He convincingly argued that for a full-fledged Perceiving objects requires eye movement - movement of the visual axes. Thanks to this, the body automatically performs operations that represent a kind of judgment about the location of perceived things, their distance from a person, and their relationship to each other. In the event that the impact of objects was short-term, the eye has time to correctly perceive only objects already familiar to the person, which have left traces in the nervous system. If traces of past impressions have not yet accumulated, then the laws of optics are not enough to explain how impressions about the surrounding world arise. These laws should be combined with the laws by which the nervous system works.
The works of another outstanding Arab thinker, Ibn Sina (Latinized name Avicenna, 980–1037), who was one of the most outstanding doctors in the history of medicine, were also of great importance for psychology.
His teaching developed during the era of the socio-economic prosperity of the Caliphate, a huge empire from India to the Pyrenees, which was formed as a result of the Arab conquests. The culture of this state absorbed the achievements of many peoples who inhabited it, as well as the Hellenes, Hindus, and Chinese.
Ibn Sina was an encyclopedist; his work was not limited to medicine and psychology, but he achieved his greatest achievements in these areas.
In his philosophical works, Ibn Sina developed the so-called theory of two truths, which was of great importance for the development of not only psychology, but also other sciences in the medieval period. In psychology, this theory helped to remove the subject of its study from the general subject of theology. Thus, psychology opened up a field of its own research, independent of religious postulates and scholastic syllogisms. The theory of two truths proved that there are two independent, like parallel lines, truths - faith and knowledge. Therefore, the truth of knowledge, without coming into contact or contradiction with religion, has the right to its own field of research and its own methods of studying man. Accordingly, two doctrines about the soul developed - religious-philosophical and natural science.
Studying the process of cognition, Ibn Sina emphasized that in every thing there is a universal that makes it similar to other objects of a given class, as well as something different from others, an individual that characterizes this particular thing. Such different properties exist in all surrounding objects, including humans, and they are the subject of study by various sciences. Based on this, the scientist argued that medicine and psychology have a special subject. Philosophy explores the existent, the plural in every thing, while medicine and psychology study the concrete, the individual.
The generalized knowledge accumulated by centuries of experience in studying the behavior of living beings and their manifestations, which practical medicine deals with, was presented in Ibn Sina’s treatise “The Canon of Medical Science.” This treatise was popular for several centuries not only in the East, but also in Western Europe (starting from the 12th century, when it was translated into Latin). In Europe, this treatise eclipsed the works of the great doctors of antiquity, Hippocrates and Galen. This alone suggests that Ibn Sina did not limit himself to the ideas about the functions of the body that previous science had accumulated, but enriched his teaching with new information and generalizations. It should be borne in mind that medicine was not then understood as a highly specialized area of healing. It covered explanations that later began to be attributed to such disciplines as chemistry, botany, astronomy, geography, etc. And of course, all these disciplines contained empirical knowledge, skillfully generalized by Ibn Sina into the “psychological picture of man.”
Ibn Sina's position on the dependence of mental phenomena on physiological ones concerned the sensitivity of the body, its ability to respond to external stimuli, as well as its emotional states. Knowledge of the functions of the soul was aimed at knowledge of the material, organic body, accessible to sensory observation, the influence of medicinal and surgical agents, etc.
In all cases, Ibn Sina appealed to his medical experience. He was one of the first researchers in the field of developmental psychophysiology, studying the connection between the physical development of the body and its psychological characteristics in different age periods. At the same time, he attached great importance to education: it is through education, he taught, that the psyche influences the body, so that it, being an active force, is capable of changing the physiological properties of this organism in a certain direction. A special place was given to the feelings and affects that a child experiences at different age periods. Affects usually arise when communicating with parents, when they influence the child. Accordingly, by causing certain affects in a child, adults shape his nature, his body, the entire system of his psychophysiological functions.
There is information that in a number of cases he acted as an excellent psychotherapist, in particular, he cured a young man who was dying of exhaustion due to his reluctance to eat. The treatment used a technique that in modern science is called an associative experiment.
Ibn Sina is also credited with staging an experiment that foreshadowed the study of a phenomenon called experimental neurosis. The two rams were given the same food. But one was feeding under normal conditions, while a wolf stood on a leash near the second. Fear influenced the feeding behavior of this ram. Although he ate, he quickly lost weight and died. The above gives reason to see in Ibn Sina the beginnings of the experimental psychophysiology of emotional states.
Another famous Arab thinker, Ibn Rushd (Latinized name Averroes, 1126–1198) lived in Spain and then in Morocco, where he served as a judge and court physician. His major works were an original commentary on the works of Aristotle. This commentary acquired the significance of an independent teaching, which had a great influence on Western European thought in the Middle Ages. We especially note Ibn Rushd’s idea that religion can be considered as a belief that contains philosophical truth in an allegorical form.
Ibn Rushd argued that, following Aristotle, it is necessary to study the inextricable connections between the functions of the body and those sensations, feelings, thoughts that a person experiences as processes inherent in his soul. As a doctor, Ibn Rushd carefully studied the structure of the human body and its sense organs, showing the dependence of the perception of the surrounding world on the properties of the nervous system.
Ibn Rushd's main conclusion was that along with the disintegration of the body, the individual soul of a person is also destroyed. At the same time, the Arab thinker put forward an unusual idea that the mind, universal for all people, is preserved after the disintegration of the body and this testifies to the godlikeness of man.
Ibn Rushd emphasized that a person’s capabilities in comprehending the truth are unlimited, and it is only important to teach people to think correctly, to instill in them the desire to think. The general ability to think, to understand the world and its laws, being innate, is inherent in every person. This separation of mind and soul was one of the most important tenets of Ibn Rushd's theory and became the object of criticism from theologians. He also emphasized that the ability to think is potential. Just as the sun affects the eye, causing a sensation of light in it, so the universal mind, Ibn Rushd believed, influencing our potential abilities, causes thoughts in us. For their actualization and awareness, certain conditions are necessary, in particular cognitive motivation, external impressions, and good teachers.
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The expansion of the rights of science led to the fact that by the 13th century. theory of two truths, somewhat paraphrased in Thomism - a theory developed by the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas, - was already called upon to protect faith from scientific evidence. Trying to reconcile science and faith, Thomas Aquinas wrote that they actually have two different truths, but in the event that the truth of science contradicts the truth of faith, science must yield to it.
The works of Plato and Aristotle, whose concepts gradually acquired an increasingly orthodox character, also began to have an increasing influence on the psychology of the Middle Ages.
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Many major scientists of that time (Ibn Rushd, F. Aquinas) were followers of Aristotle, proving that their interpretation of this theory was the only correct one.
Martsinkovskaya. History of psychology
During the Middle Ages, scholasticism reigned in the mental life of Europe (from the Greek “scholasticos” - schoolboy, scientist). This special type of philosophizing (“school philosophy”), which dominated from the 11th to the 16th centuries, boiled down to a rational justification of Christian doctrine using logical techniques.
There were various currents in scholasticism; The general attitude was towards commenting on texts. Positive study of the subject and discussion of real problems were replaced by verbal tricks. The Catholic Church initially banned the legacy of Aristotle, which appeared on the intellectual horizon of Europe, but then began to “master” and adapt it according to its needs. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) handled this task most subtly, whose teaching was later canonized in the papal encyclical (1879) as truly Catholic philosophy (and psychology) and received the name Thomism (somewhat modernized today under the name neo-Thomism).
Thomism developed in contrast to the elemental materialistic interpretations of Aristotle, in the depths of which the concept of dual truth arose. At its origins stood Ibn Roshd, who relied on Aristotle. His followers in European universities (Averroists) believed that the incompatibility with the official dogma of the ideas about the eternity (and not the creation) of the world, about the annihilation (and not immortality) of the individual soul allows us to assert that each of the truths has its own area. What is true for one area must be false for another, and vice versa.
Thomas defended one truth - religious, “descending from above.” He believed that reason should serve her as earnestly as religious feeling. He and his supporters managed to deal with the Averroists at the University of Paris. But in England, at Oxford University, the concept of dual truth triumphed, becoming the ideological prerequisite for the success of philosophy and the natural sciences.
Thomas Aquinas and his doctrine of the soul. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Thomas Aquinas and his doctrine of the soul." 2015, 2017-2018.
