1、Thomas Aquinas, Other Medieval contending schools,Philosophy of religion,6,Background Information of Renaissance,It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. - Blaise Pascal,Focus of the

2、philosophy in the Middle Ages:,Universals Proofs for Gods existence The relation between faith and reason sources: Greek, Christianity, Jewish, Muslim thought,Boethius (ca. 480-524波愛修)： has been called by the first of the scholastic philosophers. Despite the use of his mathematical texts in the earl

3、y universities, it is his final work, the Consolation of Philosophy, that assured his legacy in the Middle Ages and beyond.,This work is cast as a dialogue between Boethius himself, at first bitter and despairing over his imprisonment, and a personification of philosophy. Topics: God, fortune, freed

4、om and evil. Alternately composed in prose and verse, the Consolation teaches acceptance of hardship in a spirit of philosophical detachment from misfortune. Parts of the work are reminiscent of the Socratic method of Platos dialogues, as the spirit of philosophy questions Boethius and challenges hi

5、s emotional reactions to adversity.,Consolation of Philosophy was written during Boethius one year imprisonment while awaiting trial, and eventual horrific execution, for the crime of treason by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in Rome and was brought d

6、own by treachery. This experience inspired the text, which reflects on how evil can exist in a world governed by God, and how happiness can be attainable amidst fickle fortune, while also considering the nature of happiness and God. It has been described as by far the most interesting example of pri

7、son literature the world has ever seen.,His influence Boethius engages questions such as the nature of predestination and free will, why evil men often prosper and good men fall into ruin, human nature, virtue, and justice. He speaks about the nature of free will versus determinism when he asks if G

8、od knows and sees all, or does man have free will. Boethian influence can be found nearly everywhere in Geoffrey Chaucers poetry, e.g. in Troilus and Criseyde, The Knights Tale, The Clerks Tale, The Franklins Tale, The Parsons Tale and The Tale of Melibee, in the character of Lady Nature in The Parl

9、iament of Fowls and some of the shorter poems, such as Truth, The Former Age and Lak of Stedfastnesse.,Universal Theory,Boethius is the first to solve the problem of universals raised by Porphyry. The central issue throughout the Middle Ages is how to relate the objects of human thought and the obje

10、cts that exist outside the mind . Objects outside the mind are individual and many, whereas objects in the mind are single or universal. What, then, is the relation between these general words and these specific objects and people?,In Porphyrys Introduction to Aristotles Categories, he raised three

11、questions:,1). Do genera really exist in nature, or are they merely constructions of our minds?,2). If they are realities, are they material or immaterial?,3). Do they exist apart from sensible things or somehow in them.,Boethius Answer,1). They exist both in things and in our minds. 2). They exist

12、both concretely in things and immaterially or abstractly in our minds. 3). They exist both in things and apart from them in our minds.,Pseudo-Dionysius, also known as Pseudo-Denys（偽狄奧尼西）, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century whose Corpus Areopagiticum (bef

13、ore 532) was pseudonymously ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite。 His surviving works include Divine Names, Mystical Theology,Celestial Hierarchy and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.,Johannes Scotus Eriugena (愛留根納 c. 815877) was an Irish theologian, Neoplatonist philosopher, and poet. He is known for havin

14、g translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius. The Division of Nature: 1. Nature that creates and is not created 2. Nature that is created and creates 3. Nature that is created and doesnt create 4. Nature that neither creates nor is created,Exaggerated Realism (極端實在主義）： Genera

15、 exists in reality and individual thing share in these universals. Universal is a real thing. Roscellinus (1050-1125洛色林) Norminalism(唯名論）: His argument was that only individuals exist in nature. Genera are not real things. Conceptualism/Moderate realism (概念論、溫和的實在論）： Universality must be ascribed pr

16、incipally to words.,Anselm(1033-1109安瑟爾謨): RealismOntological argument,1. People seek to enjoy what they consider good. Since we can compare things with each other as being more or less good, these things must share in one and the same goodness. This goodness must be good-in-itself and as such is th

17、e supreme good. One could use the same argument as applied to greatness. There must therefore be something which is the best and greatest of all.,2. Everything that exists, exists either through something or through nothing. Obviously, it cannot come out of nothing. The only remaining alternative, t

18、hen, is to say that a thing is caused either by something else or by itself. It can not be caused by itself because before it is, it is nothing. To say that it is caused by something else could mean that things cause each other, which is also absurd. There must be therefore something that alone is f

19、rom itself and that causes all other things to be, and this is God.,3. There are various degrees or levels of being, whereby animals have a higher being than plants, and people have a higher being than animals. Using a line of reasoning similar to the first argument, Anselm concluded that unless we

20、continued to move up through an infinite number of levels, we must arrive at a highest and most perfect being, than which there is none more perfect.,Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274托馬斯阿奎那),The great achievement of Thomas Aquinas was that he brought together the insights of classical philosophy and Christi

21、an theology.,Aquinas perfected the scholastic method. The term scholasticism is derived from the intellectual activity carried on in the medieval cathedral schools, and its proponents were called doctores scholastici. Eventually, scholasticism came to refer to the dominant system of thought develope

22、d by the doctors in the schools and to the special method they utilized in teaching philosophy.,Scholastic philosophy was an attempt to put together a coherent system of traditional thought together rather than a pursuit of genuinely novel forms of insight.,Thomas holds that there is some overlappin

23、g between philosophy and theology. For the most part, however, philosophy and theology are two separate and independent disciplines. Wherever reason is capable of knowing something, faith, strictly speaking, is unnecessary, and what faith uniquely knows through revelation can not be known by natural

24、 reason alone. Both philosophy and theology deal with God, but the philosopher can only infer that God exists and cannot by reflecting upon the objects of sensation understand Gods essential nature.,Aquinas believed that the existence of God is neither obvious nor unprovable. In the Summa Theologica

25、, he considered in great detail five reasons for the existence of God. These are widely known as the quinquae viae, or the Five Ways. Proofs from motion Efficient cause Necessary being Perfection Order in the world,Proofs from Motion, Efficient Cause and Necessary Being,Things do not simply start mo

26、ving by themselvesa first cause of motion. The simultaneous sequence of efficient causes in the natural worlda first efficient cause. The must be some necessary beingwhose existence is explained by itselfwhich accounts for possible beings. The must also be something which is to all beings the cause

27、of their being, goodness, and every other perfection. Some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their ends.,His main works: The Summa Contra Gentiles (反異教大全/哲學(xué)大全) Summa Theologica( 神學(xué)大全） His theory: Faith and Reason There is a connection between the aims of philosophy

28、and theology since they are both concerned with truth. Wherever reason is capable of knowing something, faith is unnecessary, and what faith uniquely knows through revelation cannot be known by natural reason alone.,William of Ockham (c. 1288 - c. 1348) was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic

29、 philosopher. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the fourteenth century. Although commonly known for Occams razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, William of Ockham also

30、produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology. 、 Ockhams razor: “what can be explained on fewer principles is explained needlessly by more”(如無必要，切勿增加實體）。 Terminism（詞項主義）/nominalism,Philosophy of religion,Philosophy of religion deals with our religious beliefs-through philosophical enqui

31、ry. Philosophers of religion devote most of their attention to the important issues such as the nature of God, and the arguments to prove Gods existence. Is there a God? What is the nature of the divine? Can the existence of God be proved or disproved? Is religious faith reasonable or unreasonable?

32、What difference does the existence or non-existence of God make to our lives? Three such main arguments: ontological argument ; cosmological arguments; teleological arguments,1. The Ontological Argument,According to Saint Anselm (1033-1109), God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. G

33、od is the being than whom nothing greater can be conceived, and if God did not actually exist, our concept of God would be the concept of a being less great than one who does exist, and it is the latter idea that we do possess. Therefore, God exists.,2. The Cosmological Argument,Saint Thomas Aquinas

34、 (1225-1274) and Samuel Clarke (1675-1729 were among the chief proponents of the cosmological argument. There are various forms of the cosmological argument, but they all have their starting point with familiar facts of experience: that things exist in the universe, events occur, causes operate, and

35、 they all require a cause or an explanation. And, it is argued, the only thing that can provide this is God.,3. The Teleological Argument (argument from design),Of all arguments, the one with widest appeal is the teleological argument (from the Greek telos, or “purpose”), or argument from design. Mo

36、re than any other it appeals to empirically observable features of the universe and attempts to infer from these that God exist not necessarily God the creator, or God the first cause, but God as cosmic designer. Observe the world carefully, the argument runs, and you cannot help coming to the concl

37、usion that it contains abundant evidence of order and design evidence that a “master architect” has been at work. Not blind chance but order and purpose govern the universe, and evidence of purposiveness permeates it. And when there is purpose, there must be a purposer; where there is design, there

38、must be a designer.,Is belief in God (or Gods) justified?,What else is there?,a. deism: God does not sustain the material universe but only created it and thereafter lets it run by itself like a piece of machinery.,b. theism: God both created and sustains or guides the universe.,c. atheist: one deni

39、es that any supernatural being exists.,d. agnostic: one who withholds judgment either way.,e. monotheism: holds there is only one such supreme power.,f. polytheism: holds there are many such powers.,Discussion,What empirical evidence does Aquinas cite to sustain his arguments for the existence of Go

40、d? What role does God play in the universe according to Aquinas? How does Aquinas use logic to argue that there must be a first mover? Why is some sort of religious belief found in all known cultures?,Philosophy of Renaissance,The Renaissance (rebirth) was a period of transition between the theologi

41、cal philosophy of the Middle Ages and modern thought, in which Latin began to lose its role of the standard language for philosophical discussion. The study of classics (especially Plato and Neoplatonism) and of the humane arts, such as history and literature enjoyed a new popularity. The concept of

42、 man became the central object of philosophical reflection (most notably in Montaigne and Pico della Mirandola). With the loosening of theological structures on thought, the Renaissance renewed interest in natural philosophy, as with Francis Bacon . This coincided with a revival of magic, hidden way

43、s of knowing and mastering nature (in Pico）. Ethical and political philosophy was revived by the work of Machiavelli and Francis Bacon. Within Christianity itself, these new movements dovetailed closely with the Reformation.,The Middle Ages: the sky hung low, suggesting a close bond between heaven a

44、nd earth, accordingly, between philosophy and theology. Renaissance: with the revived attention to Plato, interest in Epicureanism, Stoicism, and even skepticism was rekindled. A new breed also emerged, namely humanism, which emphasized the study of classical authors and the central role of human re

45、ason in discovering truth and structuring the community.,Pico della Mirandola (1463 1494) was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for

46、which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man (論人的尊嚴)which has been called the Manifesto of the Renaissance, and a key text of Renaissance humanism.,What makes humanity so special? God tells Adam, “You can degenerate into the forms of the lower animals, or climb upward by your souls reason

47、, to a higher nature which is divine.”,Importance of human quest for knowledge In the Oration, Pico justified the importance of the human quest for knowledge within a neo-Platonic framework. He writes that after God had created all creatures, he conceived of the desire for another, sentient being wh

48、o would appreciate all his works, but there was no longer any room in the chain of being; all the possible slots from angels to worms had been filled. So, God created man such that he had no specific slot in the chain. Instead, men were capable of learning from and imitating any existing creature. W

49、hen man philosophizes, he ascends the chain of being towards the angels, and communion with God. When he fails to exercise his intellect, he vegetates. Pico did not fail to notice that this system made philosophers like himself among the most dignified human creatures.,Mans ascent of the chain of be

50、ing The idea that men could ascend the chain of being through the exercise of their intellectual capacities was a profound endorsement of the dignity of human existence in this earthly life. The root of this dignity lay in his assertion that only human beings could change themselves through their ow

51、n free will, whereas all other changes in nature were the result of some outside force acting on whatever it is that undergoes change. He observed from history that philosophies and institutions were always in change, making mans capacity for self-transformation the only constant. Coupled with his b

52、elief that all of creation constitutes a symbolic reflection of the divinity of God, Picos philosophies had a profound influence on the arts, helping to elevate writers and painters from their medieval role as mere artisans to the Renaissance ideal of the artist as genius.,Niccol di Bernardo dei Mac

53、hiavelli (1469 1527) Like Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli is considered a typical example of the Renaissance Man. He is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavellis death. Although he privately circulated The Prin

54、ce among friends, the only work he published in his lifetime was The Art of War, about high-military science. Since the sixteenth century, generations of politicians remain attracted and repelled by the cynical approach to power posited in The Prince and his other works. Whatever his personal intent

55、ions, which are still debated today, his surname yielded the modern political word Machiavellianismthe use of cunning and deceitful tactics in politics.,A double standard of behavior: The masses need to follow Christian ethics as a necessary means of securing peace within society. Rulers must have the freedom to adjust their acts to the requirements of each occasion without feeling bound to any objective moral rules. Machiavelli felt that the attitudes of the masses continually shift