Aquinas and Scotus on the Metaphysical Foundations of Morality
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What Has Athens to Do with Mormonism?
Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU Arrington Student Writing Award Winners Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lectures 12-2012 What has Athens to do with Mormonism? Benjamin Wade Harman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/arrington_stwriting Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Harman, Benjamin Wade, "What has Athens to do with Mormonism?" (2012). Arrington Student Writing Award Winners. Paper 9. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/arrington_stwriting/9 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lectures at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arrington Student Writing Award Winners by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. What has Athens to do with Mormonism? Benjamin Wade Harman In his lecture, Terryl Givens presents one with a new way to approach the prophecy of Enoch that was received by Joseph Smith. Contained in this short narrative is a new, innovative conception about God that differs greatly from traditional Christianity. This notion is that of a passible deity, a God that is susceptible to feeling and emotion. It is a God who weeps, a God who is vulnerable and suffers emotional pain. God, as defined by the Christian creeds, is one who lacks passions.1 Givens, in drawing attention to the passible deity, is illuminating just a small portion of a much larger tension that exists between Mormonism and traditional Christianity. The God of Mormonism is not just a slight modification of the God of the creeds. Traditionally Christians, who now will be referred to as orthodox, have endorsed a view of deity that is more or less in line with the God of Classical Theism, or the God of the philosophers. -
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death
The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Williams Honors College, Honors Research The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Projects College Spring 2020 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death Christopher Choma [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the Christianity Commons, Epistemology Commons, European History Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religion Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Recommended Citation Choma, Christopher, "St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death" (2020). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1048. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1048 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death By: Christopher Choma Sponsored by: Dr. Joseph Li Vecchi Readers: Dr. Howard Ducharme Dr. Nathan Blackerby 2 Table of Contents Introduction p. 4 Section One: Three General Views of Human Nature p. -
Philosophy of Natural Law
4YFPMWLIHMR-RWXMXYXI W.SYVREP7IT PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL LAW Justice K. N. Saikia Former Judge Supreme Court of India. Director General National Judicial Academy By philosophy of law, for the purpose of this article, is meant the pursuit of wisdom, truth and knowledge of law by use of reason. In other words, philosophy of law means the ratlonal investigation and study of the basic ideal and principles of law. The philosophy of natural law is the subject of this article. Longing for a Higher Law - In the human bosom there has always been a longing for a higher law than those made by the community itself. The divine theory of law, the theory of natural law, and the principles of natural justice are some theories or notions found in fulfilment of this longing. Divine laws are those ascribed to God. Divine rights of kings were supposed to have been derived from God. Laws which are claimed to be God-made, may not be amendable by man; and their reasoning and provisions also not to be ques- tioned by man. Greek thinkers from Homer to the Stoics, and reflections of Plato and Aristotle mainly provide the beginning of systematic legal thinking. In Homer, law is embodied in the themistes which the kings receive from Zeus as the divine source of all earthly justice which is still identical with order and authority. Solon the great Athenian lawgiver appeals to Dike, the daughter of Zeus, as a guarantor of justice against earthly tyranny, violation of rights and social injustice. The Code of Hamurapi was handed over by the Sun god. -
Thomas Aquinas and Irenaeus on the Divine and Natural Law
Randall B. Smith University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas [email protected] 13 (2020) 2: 175–187 ORCID: 0000-0003-4262-4279 ISSN (print) 1689-5150 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/BPTh.2020.007 ISSN (online) 2450-7059 Thomas Aquinas and Irenaeus on the Divine and Natural Law Abstract. Thomas’s account of the natural law owes a large debt to Aristotle and other early Greek philosophers back to Heraclitus. This debt has long been known and dis- cussed. Largely unrecognized, however, are the crucial influences of the early Greek Fathers of the Church who mediated this classical philosophical heritage to the Chris- tian world. They were the first to set out the relationship between the natural law, the Old Law, and grace which would have a decisive influence on Aquinas’s famous “trea- tise on law” in the Summa of Theology. In this paper, I analyze Thomas’s mature work on the natural law in STh I–II, qq. 90–108 and show how the roots of this view can be traced to the earliest Church, especially in the writings of the second century bishop and martyr, St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Of special interest is how Irenaeus transformed the Greek-Aristotelian notion of physis and “natural law” within the context of his discus- sion of the goodness of creation and the Mosaic Law, contrary to the popular Gnostic views of his day. Keywords: Thomas Aquinas; Ireneaus; natural law; divine law; Mosaic Law; Old Law; Adversus Haereses. 1. A Common Narrative about the Natural Law: The Missing Historical Piece common narrative about the natural law divides its development -
FR. WILLIAM B. GOLDIN, S.T.D. Intro to St. Thomas Aquinas the Sources of Catholic Theology
FR. WILLIAM B. GOLDIN, S.T.D. CLASS 2, SACRA DOCTRINA: INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGY 3 SEPTEMBER 2020 ST. IRENAEUS CHURCH—CYPRESS, CALIFORNIA Intro to St. Thomas Aquinas The Sources of Catholic Theology Finishing Class 1: Faith and Reason in the Scholastic Period I. Theology as Scientia: Intro to Saint Thomas Aquinas Class 2, Part I: Theology as Scientia: Intro to Saint Thomas Aquinas I. The Contribution of St. Thomas Aquinas to Theology II. How to Read Aquinas ST Ia, q. 1, aa. 1, 2, and 8: Article 1. Whether, besides philosophy, any further doctrine is required? Objection 1. It seems that, besides philosophical science, we have no need of any further knowledge. For man should not seek to know what is above reason: "Seek not the things that are too high for thee" (Sirach 3:22). But whatever is not above reason is fully treated of in philosophical science. Therefore any other knowledge besides philosophical science is superfluous. Objection 2. Further, knowledge can be concerned only with being, for nothing can be known, save what is true; and all that is, is true. But everything that is, is treated of in philosophical science—even God Himself; so that there is a part of philosophy called theology, or the divine science, as Aristotle has proved (Metaph. vi). Therefore, besides philosophical science, there is no need of any further knowledge. On the contrary, It is written (2 Timothy 3:16): "All Scripture, inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice." Now Scripture, inspired of God, is no part of philosophical science, which has been built up by human reason. -
Aquinas's Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost
Aquinas’s Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost: A Rare Glimpse of Thomas the Preaching Friar Peter A. Kwasniewski and Jeremy Holmes1 (1) INTRODUCTION Friar Thomas of the Order of Preachers For seven centuries St. Thomas Aquinas has been revered as the Church’s supreme dogmatic or speculative theologian. In the course of this long history, he has also, though perhaps less widely, been recognized as a scriptural exegete of considerable subtlety and insight.2 It is fair to say, however, that he is rarely thought of as a preacher. Indeed, the conventional image of him—that of an abstracted, solitary genius, aloof from the cares of the world, pacing the halls in pursuit of an argument, plunged into a literary apostolate of staggering dimensions—seems to exclude preaching from the round of activities in which he could have been realistically engaged. His popular nickname, the Angelic Doctor, though very well suited to the loftiness of his thought and the purity of his person, might convey the impression that Thomas, like Moses during the revela- tion of the Law, spent his days at the summit of God’s mountain, unseen by the people.3 Yet those who know more about the saint and his times have good reason for calling into question the fidelity of such a portrait to its flesh-and-blood original.4 Thomas gave himself heart and soul to a new religious community whose very identity was bound up with the mission of public preaching: the Dominicans, or more properly, the Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum, the order of preaching brethren. -
Divine Utilitarianism
Liberty University DIVINE UTILITARIANISM A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Masters of Arts in Philosophical Studies By Jimmy R. Lewis January 16, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………...……………..……....3 Statement of the Problem…………………………….………………………….3 Statement of the Purpose…………………………….………………………….5 Statement of the Importance of the Problem…………………….……………...6 Statement of Position on the Problem………………………...…………….......7 Limitations…………………………………………….………………………...8 Development of Thesis……………………………………………….…………9 Chapter Two: What is meant by “Divine Utilitarianism”..................................11 Introduction……………………………….…………………………………….11 A Definition of God.……………………………………………………………13 Anselm’s God …………………………………………………………..14 Thomas’ God …………………………………………………………...19 A Definition of Utility .…………………………………………………………22 Augustine and the Good .……………………………………………......23 Bentham and Mill on Utility ……………………………………………25 Divine Utilitarianism in the Past .……………………………………………….28 New Divine Utilitarianism .……………………………………………………..35 Chapter Three: The Ethics of God ……………………………………………45 Divine Command Theory: A Juxtaposition .……………………………………45 What Divine Command Theory Explains ………………….…………...47 What Divine Command Theory Fails to Explain ………………………47 What Divine Utilitarianism Explains …………………………………………...50 Assessing the Juxtaposition .…………………………………………………....58 Chapter Four: Summary and Conclusion……………………………………...60 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..64 2 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Statement of the -
Empiricism, Stances, and the Problem of Voluntarism
Swarthmore College Works Philosophy Faculty Works Philosophy 1-1-2011 Empiricism, Stances, And The Problem Of Voluntarism Peter Baumann Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy Part of the Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Peter Baumann. (2011). "Empiricism, Stances, And The Problem Of Voluntarism". Synthese. Volume 178, Issue 1. 27-36. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-009-9519-7 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy/13 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Empiricism, Stances and the Problem of Voluntarism Peter Baumann Synthese 178, 2011, 207-224 Empiricism can be very roughly characterized as the view that our knowledge about the world is based on sensory experience. Our knowledge about the world is "based" on sensory experience in the sense that we could not know what we know without relying on sense experience. This leaves open the possibility that sense experience is only necessary but not sufficient for the knowledge based upon it1-as long as the non-empirical elements are not themselves sufficient for the relevant piece of knowledge.2 The basing relation is not just a genetic one but also a justificatory one: Sense experience does not only lead to beliefs which happen to count as knowledge but also qualifies them as knowledge. In his important book The Empirical Stance Bas van Fraassen characterizes traditional empiricism at one point in a more negative way-as involving the rejection of "metaphysical" explanations which proceed by postulating the existence of something not 1 "But although all our cognition commences with experience, yet it does not on that account all arise from experience." (Kant, CpR, B1). -
Some Suggestions for Divine Command Theorists
Some Suggestions for Divine Command Theorists WILLIAM P. ALSTON I The basic idea behind a divine command theory of ethics is that what I morally ought or ought not to do is determined by what God commands me to do or avoid. This, of course, gets spelled out in different ways by different theorists. In this paper I shall not try to establish a divine command theory in any form, or even argue directly for such a theory, but I shall make some suggestions as to the way in which the theory can be made as strong as possible. More specifically I shall (1) consider how the theory could be made invul nerable to two familiar objections and (2) consider what form the theory should take so as not to fall victim to a Euthyphro-like di lemma. This will involve determining what views of God and hu man morality we must take in order to enjoy these immunities. The son of divine command theory from which I begin is the one presented in Robert M. Adams's paper, "Divine Command Meta ethics Modified Again.''1 This is not a view as to what words like 'right' and 'ought' mean. Nor is it a view as to what our concepts of moral obligation, rightness and wrongness, amount to. It is rather the claim that divine commands are constitutive of the moral status of actions. As Adams puts it, "ethical wrongness is (i.e., is identical with) the propeny of being contrary to the commands of a loving God.''2 Hence the view is immune to the objection that many per sons don't mean 'is contrary to a command of God' by 'is morally wrong'; just as the view that water is H 20 is immune to the objec- 303 William P. -
Catholicism and the Natural Law: a Response to Four Misunderstandings
religions Article Catholicism and the Natural Law: A Response to Four Misunderstandings Francis J. Beckwith Department of Philosophy, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76710, USA; [email protected] Abstract: This article responds to four criticisms of the Catholic view of natural law: (1) it commits the naturalistic fallacy, (2) it makes divine revelation unnecessary, (3) it implausibly claims to establish a shared universal set of moral beliefs, and (4) it disregards the noetic effects of sin. Relying largely on the Church’s most important theologian on the natural law, St. Thomas Aquinas, the author argues that each criticism rests on a misunderstanding of the Catholic view. To accomplish this end, the author first introduces the reader to the natural law by way of an illustration he calls the “the ten (bogus) rules.” He then presents Aquinas’ primary precepts of the natural law and shows how our rejection of the ten bogus rules ultimately relies on these precepts (and inferences from them). In the second half of the article, he responds directly to each of the four criticisms. Keywords: Catholicism; natural law theory; Aquinas; naturalistic fallacy The purpose of this article is to respond to several misunderstandings of the Catholic view of the natural law. I begin with a brief account of the natural law, relying primarily on the work of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church’s most important theologian on this subject. Citation: Beckwith, Francis J.. 2021. I then move on and offer replies to four criticisms of the natural law that I argue rest on Catholicism and the Natural Law: A misunderstandings: (1) the natural law commits the so-called “naturalistic fallacy,” (2) the Response to Four Misunderstandings. -
FROM Foundations to Spirals the Final Stage of the Puzzle Will
CHAPTER EIGHT From fouNDatioNS to spiraLS The final stage of the puzzle will therefore be to answer the following question: if as Feyerabend says, knowledge is now ‘without founda- tions’, does that therefore also entail the epistemic anarchy which Feyerabend advocates, or is it possible to salvage the rather more ordered construction which is theological science? Enlightenment foundationalism and reductionism Logical positivism represented the most systematic formulation of enlightenment (and empiricist) foundationalism,1 and Feyerabend’s correct critique (theory ladenness/determinedness of observations) of this particular form of foundationalism is over-stretched to rather shaky conclusions (theoretical pluralism, counter-inductivism, relativ- ism, voluntarism), not shared by other more moderate critics of logical positivism. Torrance for instance, like most theologians, rejects logical positivism, welcoming a renewed ‘dynamic integration’2 between the theoretic and empirical components of modern physics. It is not obvious, at least from a developmental psychological or cog- nitive point of view, why foundationalism provides an ideal metaphor for knowledge or the methods of its acquisition. The two features of foundationalism which were attractive to enlightenment thought were 1 See Oberdan in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, “The Vienna Circle’s ‘anti-foundationalism’ ”. Vol. 49/2, p. 297–308, for a ‘traditional’ account of Schlick’s work as foundational against the ‘anti-foundational’ interpretation of Uebel. For another anti-foundationalist account of logical positivism see M. Friedman, Reconsidering logical positivism, CUP, Cambridge, 1999. Here we have adopted a more conventional account of logical positivism, firstly because it is beyond the scope of this book to weigh arguments within the philosophy of science regarding traditional and revisionist accounts of logical positivism – but more importantly because our major players Feyerabend, in particular, Torrance, McGrath (e.g. -
Letting Scotus Speak for Himself
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Medieval Philosophy and Theology 10 (2001), 173–216. Printed in the United States of America. provided by eCommons@Cornell Copyright C 2003 Cambridge University Press 1057-0608 DOI: 10.1017.S1057060801010076 Letting Scotus Speak for Himself MARY BETH INGHAM Loyola Marymount University In “The Unmitigated Scotus,” Thomas Williams calls for another, better reading of the Subtle Doctor: one in which he is able to “speak for himself.”1 In this and other articles, Williams criticizes recent Scotist scholarship for its misguided attempt to save Scotus from “the unpalatable position” he actually held, that is, a libertarian voluntarist divine command moral philosophy.2 He presents his position as one that, finally, allows Scotus to speak for himself. Williams’s position involves three distinct claims. First, that Scotus’s voluntarism is not moderate. Second, that he defends a libertarian notion of freedom, both in the divine and human wills. Third, that, as a result of the first two claims, natural reason is unable to know moral truths without some sort of supernatural revelation or immediate moral intuition. While these are clearly related, they must be argued for independently of one another. For example, Scotus could be a moderate voluntarist about the human will and a libertarian about the divine will. Additionally, he might be both a moderate voluntarist and nonlibertarian who defends some sort of supernatural requirement for moral judgment. So, even if the radical voluntarist, libertarian divine command claim in its most extreme form is unwarranted, one might defend it in a more nuanced formulation.