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Why St. Thomas Aquinas Is Not an Aristotelian

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Why St. Thomas Aquinas Is Not an Aristotelian Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 1993 Why St. Thomas Aquinas an Aristotle Is Not Aristotelian by William F. Wertz,Jr. he accepted view today among many, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, is that St. Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1225-74) was an TAristotelian and as such an opponent of Plato (427-347 B.C.) . The truth, however, is that Thomas Aquinas actually devoted much of his adult life to defending the Christian fa ith from being subverted by the philosophy of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) , which was rapidly establish­ ing its hegemony over the intellectual thought of his day, and that through the influence of St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430), he adopted the method and most crucial conceptions of Plato's philosophy. The reason it is important to establish that Aquinas is not an Aristotelian, is that Aristotle's philosophy is contrary not only to the Christian fa ith, but also to true science. During Aquinas' time, a number of Popes, recognizing that the works of Aristotle, which had newly become available in Europe by way of the Arabs, were contrary to the Christian fa ith, had on several occasions fo rbidden their being read in the schools. But a simple ban on the reading of Aristotle's works was obviously insuffi­ cient, and may very well have even fu eled the crisis. Therefore, in order to effectively combat the influence of Aristotle, especially as his ideas were put into circulation through the writ­ ings of A verroes (A.D. 1126-98), Pope Urban IV entrusted the defense of the Christian fa ith against the influ­ ence of the philosophy of Aristotle, to Thomas Aquinas. This article is based upon a speech pre­ pared fo r and read to a convention sponsored by the Ibero-American Soli­ darity Movement (MSIA) in Tlaxcala, Mexico on May 28, 1992. Drawings by Pamela Emerson St. Th omas Aquinas © 1993 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. However, rather than explicitly attacking Aristotle's Both fo r Aquinas and Augustine, this is expressed in the philosophy as anti-Christian, Aquinas took the approach, concept that the Word is the Form of all fo rms and all which the Catholic Church has traditionally taken in things are created through it. respect to pre-Christian religions and philosophies; that In respect to the first conception-Plato's eternal is, not to reject anything that may happen to be true in ideas-Aquinas repeatedly cites Augustine's discussion them, while at the same time correcting that which is in a work entitled "Eighty-three Different Questions," fa lse from the standpoint of Christianity. in which Augustine writes: "Ideas are the primary fo rms In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas makes it clear not or the permanent and immutable reasons of real things only that this is the approach that he is taking to Aristotle, and they are not themselves fo rmed; so they are, as a but also that in so doing he is fo llowing in the footsteps consequence, eternal and ever the same in themselves, of St. Augustine. Citing St. Augustine's work entitled and they are contained in the divine intelligence." Aqui­ On Christian Doctrine, Aquinas writes as fo llows: nas clearly adopts this Platonic viewpoint in the Summa Th eologica, where he writes: "Ideas are types existing in As Augustine says, "If those who are called philoso­ the divine mind, as is clear from Augustine." phers said by chance anything that was true and In respect to the second conception-Plato's notion consistent with our fa ith, we must claim it fr om them of participation in the eternal ideas-Aquinas writes in as fr om unjust possessors. For some of the doctrines of the Summa Theologica that "this manner of speaking is the heathens are spurious imitations or superstitious common among the Platonists, with whose doctrines inventions, which we must be careful to avoid when Augustine was imbued; and the fa ilure to refer to this we renounce the society of heathens." Consequently, whenever Augustine, who was imbued with the doc­ has been to some an occasion of error." trines of the Platonists, fo und in their teaching any­ In his Metaphysics, in the section entitled "Critique of thing consistent with fa ith, he adopted it; and those Doctrine of Ideas," Aristotle explicitly rejects both the things which he fo und contrary to fa ith he amended. existence of eternal ideas and the notion of participation in them: "In addition, other things do not come 'from' Anyone who maintains that Thomas Aquinas was an the ideas in any of the usual senses of 'from.' But to Aristotelian opponent of Plato, based upon his criticism participate in them is to use empty words and poetic of Plato on some points and his apparent adoption of metaphors." Later in the same book Aristotle writes: Aristotle's terminology on others, has therefore misun­ " 'participation,' as we have said before, is nothing." derstood Aquinas' method. If one were to classify Aquinas as being in any current of thought, one would have to consider him an Augustin­ Aquinas' Method as Dialogue ian. Aquinas makes no criticism of Plato's philosophy Related to Aquinas' adoption of these two Platonic con­ which was not already made explicitly or implicitly by ceptions is his employment of Plato's method of dialogue, Augustine. Therefore, it is accurate to say that Aquinas as opposed to Aristotle's logic. In the Summa Th eologica, employed the Platonic method as corrected by Augustine to Aquinas' method is to present a negative thesis fo llowed amend those doctrines of Aristotle which were contrary by every conceivable argument that could be mustered to the Christian fa ith. in its defense. Next he asserts the contrary based either upon divine revelation or the right use of natural reason, fo llowed by his own reasoned answer. Finally, he re­ Plato's Ideas and sponds to each of the objections, which had been ad­ The Notion of vanced in support of the thesis under consideration. Obviously, this is not the method of syllogism. With Participation respect to each topic under discussion, Aquinas enters AQUINAS, LIKE St. Au­ into a dialogue with all those who have put fo rward gustine before him, adopted an argument contrary to the truth. Like Plato in his two of Plato's most impor­ dialogues, Aquinas then derives the truth from the pro­ tant conceptions, both of cess of negating these fa lse assertions. This negative which were' rejected by Ar­ approach is the hallmark of the Platonic method and is istotle: first, that God created the universe based upon reflected both in the works of Augustine and in the eternal ideas; and second, that all creatures participate works of Dionysius the Areopagite, another Christian in these ideas, which are located in the Divine Mind. theologian whose Platonic writings influenced Aquinas. 50 Thus, both in respect to his method and in his concep­ The many investigations which I carried on com­ tion of God and His relationship to His creation, Aquinas pelled me to recognize that our moderns do not do effectively aligned himself with the Platonic tradition of sufficient justice to Saint Thomas and to the other St. Augustine, who wrote in the City of God: "It is evident great men of that period, and that there is in the that none come nearer to us than the Platonists." theories of the scholastic philosophers and theologians Aquinas was also aware of the fa ct that in On Christian fa r more solidity than is imagined, provided that Doctrine, St. Augustine explained why he believed the these theories are employed a propos and in their philosophy of Plato was so much in harmony with Chris­ place. I am persuaded that if some careful and medi­ tative mind were to take the trouble to clarify and tian theology: direct their thoughts in the manner of analytic geome­ ters, he would find a great treasure of very important Did not the fa mous bishop [Ambrose], when he had truth, wholly demonstrable. considered the history of the pagans and fo und that Plato had traveled in Egypt during the time of Jere­ In his Discourse on Metaphysics, Leibniz goes so fa r as miah, show that Plato had probably been introduced to derive his entire refutation of Descartes' concept of to our literature by Jeremiah so that he was able to teach or to write doctrines that are justly com­ extension from Aquinas' notion of substantial fo rm. mended ? Although Augustine later concluded in the City of God, that Plato could not have seen Jeremiah (who had died earlier), and could not have read the scriptures (which had not yet been translated into Greek), he none­ The Transfinite theless insisted that Plato probably learned the contents PERHAPS THE clearest of the scriptures through an interpreter: way to distinguish between Aquinas and Aristotle is [T]hat which most of all inclines me almost to assent through an examination of to the opinion that Plato was not ignorant of those their respective views of the writings, is the answer which was given to the ques­ infinite, as they are reflected in the scientific debate at tion elicited fr om the holy Moses when the words of the end of the nineteenth century over the concept of God were conveyed to him by the angel; fo r, when the "transfinite," which was set fo rth by the German he asked what was the name of that God who was mathematician, Georg Cantor (1845-1918).
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