Aquinas’ Cosmological Arguments Essay

St. Thomas Aquinas’s first cosmological argument, the prime mover, defines things in the world as being either in a state of potentiality or in a state of actuality. Those things that are in potentiality are things that have the capability of being reduced to another form. Such as a boy is potentially a man, or tree is potentially a house. Things that are in a state of actuality are things that are currently reaching their potential; such as that boy becoming a man, or that tree becoming that house. Aquinas observed that all things in a state of actuality had to have been put into that state by something that was already in actuality. In thinking about this he concluded that there would have to be an infinite regress of actual things making potential things actual. He concluded that this would be impossible because given that, there would be no first mover. He instead, postulated that there must be a first mover. A being that never had potential but only has existed in a state of infinite actuality. That what we call God.

The philosopher Aquinas had a unique thought process on the way humans acquire knowledge. He believed that by being “born with a blank slate” humans could gain knowledge through experiences and other methods. Aquinas believed that the soul plays a major part in the inquiry of knowledge. Unlike philosophers of old he believed that the soul and body were intertwined. Working together to push the soul forward in its quest to gain knowledge in this life.

1. The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is based on the principle of cause and effect. What this basically means is that the universe was the effect of a cause, which was God. One of the oldest and most well known advocates of the Cosmological Argument was Thomas Aquinas who outlines his argument for the existence of God in his article entitled The Five Ways. The first way in his argument is deals with motion. Aquinas says that in order for something to be in motion something had to move it because it is impossible for something to move without the presence of some sort of outside force upon it. Therefore the world around us, nature, and our very existence could not have been put into motion without the influence of the

Aquinas’ argument is contradicted by a previously learned concept called Ockham’s Razor, which focuses on the simplest reasoning without any assumptions. The text from Summa Theologica contradicts this by creating the idea of an eternal God to explain the universe. The simplest idea would be to believe that the universe is eternal itself, rather than creating an exterior being. The idea behind Ockham’s Razor is that the simplest answer is the most easily testable and most likely. Where did the idea of God creating the universe even begin? This concept is far more complex than simply the universe created itself.

Paul Edward wrote an article, A Critique of Cosmological Argument which emphasizes his critics on Aquinas’ Five Ways. He argues on the argument of the existence of First Cause – a member which is not itself caused by any prior members claimed by Thomas Aquinas. Paul argues that even the argument is strong and sound, it doesn’t proves the existence of God; people can perceives it as the existence of super-powerful being. If finite being exist in the form of infinite being. We as human logically demands that infinite being to be rational, omnipotent, immaterial and eternal because that’s how God is defined – a Necessary Being. Edwards also does not acknowledge the argument regarding to an infinite series. To suppose that there is infinite series of

Thomas Aquinas’ five ways are his arguments of the five proofs that God exists in some form, these five ways have standard abjections. The arguments are named as follows: argument from motion, arguments from causation, arguments from contingency, argument from gradations of goodness, and the argument of governance. These are Aquinas’ theories of why things change, whatever is changing is being changed by something else.

Many philosophers have explored the cosmological argument, including Aquinas, in much depth, through his Five Ways in the Summa Theologica.

Thomas Aquinas was a theologian and philosopher who wrote Summa Theologica, which contains “The Five Ways”. In his second of the five ways, Aquinas uses two terms that the average individual may not be familiar with. The first term is efficient cause, which is the thing whose activity brings an object into being, or produces the event in question. The second term is first cause, which refers to something that causes other things to exist but was not caused to exist itself (an uncaused cause). In this paper, I will argue that Aquinas’ “second way” is an unsound argument for the existence of God.

Choose any 3 of the 5 ways and, in your own words, thoroughly explain the premises of the argument. Then explain how these proofs are consistent with Aquinas’ epistemology. One of the arguments that will be discussed in this paper is the Argument for Motion and Change. According to the Summa Theologiae, there is no possible way that God could exist on this Earth because he, first and foremost, would not have created all the evil that is present in this world and, second, everything that exists in the world originates from concepts and ideas, but not necessarily from God.

However, it seeks to point out the causes and effects in the universe instead of the motion of objects. Aquinas states, “... we do not find, nor indeed is it possible, that anything is the efficient cause of itself, for in that caseit would be prior to itself, which is impossible” (Aquinas 184). Here he is trying to avoid the problem of infinite regress once again. Aquinas is arguing that effects have causes but it cannot go back forever, there had to be a first thing that started the causes and effects which is

He believed in natural theology and thought that man could not understand God without God's assistance and guidance. The foundations of his proofs of God’s existence were based on his five basic beliefs about God. Aquinas wrote that God was: 1) simple as in having no parts, 2) perfect therefore lacking nothing, 3) infinite having no beginning and no end, 4) immutable as in never changing, and 5) one in essence and existence.

Third, is to observe the possibility and necessity that runs as it follows. They come into existence and pass out of existence. He found that things can exist and not exist. Therefore it is possible for everything not to exist and at some point nothing did exist. But it's said that nothing did exist. Therefore not all beings are possible but he said that something must exist. He also said that every necessary thing has a necessity caused by something else or it does not. So since it is impossible for an infinite series of causes to have necessary things, you must conclude that there is something that is necessary in itself and people say that this is God. Fourth, the world has characteristics and some are true. Some gradations are measured in relation to the maximum. So he feels that there must be something best. There must be something that causes goodness and perfection that we think is in the world and he calls this maximum God. Finally, he observes nature that is not animate and not intelligent objects act toward the possible purpose. He feels like they must be guided by a being that possesses knowledge and

Thomas Aquinas theorized five different logical arguments to prove the existence of God utilizing scientific hypotheses and basic assumptions of nature. In the fifth of his famous “Five Ways”, Aquinas sets forth the assumption that all natural bodies move toward an end. Since bodies are constantly moving in the best way possible to achieve that end, the path must be designed. God, of course, is the ultimate designer of the universe.

Here Aquinas argues that everything that happens is the cause of something, but nothing can cause itself. If we trace back a cause all the way back to the beginning of the world, it could not have caused itself. Therefore, God must have been the first cause. Aquinas’ third proof is the Argument from Contingency. We see that everything here on earth is finite. People die, empires fall. All things must come to an end. That means things had to have a beginning where nothing was in existence yet. How did things come into existence? God. Aquinas’s 4th argument is the Argument of Degrees. Here we judge things to be a certain degree of good or bad. But what are we comparing that to? If they have a certain degree of good and bad, then what is the greatest degree of good? And that must be God. Aquinas’s final argument is his Argument from Design. Perhaps one of his strongest arguments Aquinas says that there must be an intelligent designer behind everything. Random objects don’t have any brains to act the way they do. But they are directed in the way they act by God.

St. Thomas Aquinas is a famous philosopher from the medieval period who believed there was a god. One of Aquinas significant works in philosophy was his argument that God exists. In Aquinas' argument, or also known as Summa Theologica, he uses five arguments to support the claim that God exist and four of them are cosmological argument. Cosmological arguments are arguments that try to reason that god exists because of the universe or cosmos leads to the conclusion that god exists. His first argument is the Argument From Motion. In the argument of motion Aquinas observed that we live in a world and universe that things are continuously moving, and he also noticed that to make something move something has to move or start it moving. To Aquinas this means that everything that is moving must have been moved by something or someone and there had to be a time when the thing wasn't moving. The mover for the beginning of everything in Aquinas' argument is God. The second argument is the Argument From Causation which is very similar to the Argument From Motion. Aquinas thoughts were that everything that is caused had to be caused by something else. Nothing can cause it's self so there must be an thing that is uncaused and to Aquinas that thing is God because it can't go back forever. The Third argument is The Argument From Contingency. Contingency is a future or thing that could have not existed and Aquinas believe that the world can't always be contingent because then it could have