Biographical Background
Thomas Aquinas lived from 1225 to 1274 and is one of the greatest scholastic philosophers. Born into an Italian noble family, he joined the Dominican order against his family's wishes. He studied under Albert the Great and taught in Paris, Naples, and elsewhere.
The thirteenth century saw the recovery of Aristotle's works in the Latin West. Aquinas' great project was to integrate Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology. His major works include Summa Theologiae, Summa Contra Gentiles, On Being and Essence, and commentaries on Aristotle.
Philosophical Thought
Aquinas held that faith and reason cannot ultimately contradict each other because both come from God. Reason can know some truths, such as the existence of God and the basic principles of natural law. Other truths, such as the Trinity and Incarnation, require revelation.
His famous Five Ways argue for God's existence from features of the world: motion, efficient causality, contingency, degrees of perfection, and teleological order. These are not ontological arguments from the concept of God; they begin with experience and move toward a first cause or ultimate explanation.
Aquinas developed the distinction between essence and existence. In finite beings, what a thing is and that it is are distinct. Only in God are essence and existence identical. God is not merely the highest being but subsistent being itself.
He adopted Aristotle's form-matter theory and teleology. Natural things have ends, and human nature is directed toward fulfillment. Ethics therefore depends on human nature and the final end. Complete happiness is the vision of God, but earthly life also involves virtue, reason, and community.
His natural law theory states that rational creatures participate in eternal law. Human beings naturally recognize basic goods such as life, procreation, education, truth, and social order. Human law should be grounded in natural law.
Aquinas' importance lies in synthesis. He integrated Aristotle, Christian doctrine, metaphysics, ethics, law, and theology into a vast and ordered system. His thought became central to Catholic philosophy and remains one of the major alternatives in metaphysics and moral theory.
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