Tag: Philosophy of Religion

In Part 1 of this series, we introduced Aquinas’ argument from motion and provided some textual exegesis. Given the aforementioned exegesis and explanation, Aquinas’ argument from change can be formalized as follows: Read more “An Appraisal of Aquinas’ First Way: Formalization (Part 2)”

1. Introduction

The Five Ways of demonstrating God’s existence were given systematic treatment by arguably the most renowned and respected Christian philosopher of all time, St. Thomas Aquinas. Born in Italy in the thirteenth century, Aquinas sought to synthesize an Aristotelian framework with a Christian worldview. One integral aspect of this synthesis was Aquinas’ use of Aristotelian metaphysical notions in his arguments for God’s existence — notions such as actuality, potentiality, essence, efficient causation, natural teleology, and so on. In fact, Aquinas goes so far as to characterize his First Way as the more “manifest” way, indicating the centrality of Aristotelianism in his thought.¹ Read more “An Appraisal of Aquinas’ First Way: Introduction (Part 1)”