Aquinas, Thomas
Publié le 18/01/2010
Extrait du document
Aquinas lived an active, demanding academic and ecclesiastical life that ended while he was still in his forties. He nonetheless produced many works, varying in length from a few pages to a few volumes. Because his writings grew out of his activities as a teacher in the Dominican order and a member of the theology faculty of the University of Paris, most are concerned with what he and his contemporaries thought of as theology. However, much of academic theology in the Middle Ages consisted in a rational investigation of the most fundamental aspects of reality in general and of human nature and behaviour in particular. That vast domain obviously includes much of what is now considered to be philosophy, and is reflected in the broad subject matter of Aquinas' theological writings. The scope and philosophical character of medieval theology as practised by Aquinas can be easily seen in his two most important works, Summa contra gentiles (Synopsis [of Christian Doctrine] Directed Against Unbelievers) and Summa theologiae (Synopsis of Theology). However, many of the hundreds of topics covered in those two large works are also investigated in more detail in the smaller works resulting from Aquinas' numerous academic disputations (something like a cross between formal debates and twentieth-century graduate seminars), which he conducted in his various academic posts. Some of those topics are taken up differently again in his commentaries on works by Aristotle and other authors. Although Aquinas is remarkably consistent in his several discussions of the same topic, it is often helpful to examine parallel passages in his writings when fully assessing his views on any issue. Aquinas' most obvious philosophical connection is with Aristotle. Besides producing commentaries on Aristotle's works, he often cites Aristotle in support of a thesis he is defending, even when commenting on Scripture. There are also in Aquinas' writings many implicit Aristotelian elements, which he had thoroughly absorbed into his own thought. As a convinced Aristotelian, he often adopts Aristotle's critical attitude toward theories associated with Plato, especially the account of ordinary substantial forms as separately existing entities. However, although Aquinas, like other medieval scholars of western Europe, had almost no access to Plato's works, he was influenced by the writings of Augustine and the pseudo-Dionysius. Through them he absorbed a good deal of Platonism as well, more than he was in a position to recognize as such. On the other hand, Aquinas is the paradigmatic Christian philosopher-theologian, fully aware of his intellectual debt to religious doctrine. He was convinced, however, that Christian thinkers should be ready to dispute rationally on any topic, especially theological issues, not only among themselves but also with non-Christians of all sorts. Since in his view Jews accept the Old Testament and heretics the New Testament, he thought Christians could argue some issues with both groups on the basis of commonly accepted religious authority. However, because other non-Christians, 'for instance, Mohammedans and pagans - do not agree with us about the authority of any scripture on the basis of which they can be convinced… it is necessary to have recourse to natural reason, to which everyone is compelled to assent - although where theological issues are concerned it cannot do the whole job', since some of the data of theology are initially accessible only in Scripture (Summa contra gentiles I.2.11). Moreover, Aquinas differed from most of his thirteenth-century Christian colleagues in the breadth and depth of his respect for Islamic and Jewish philosopher-theologians, especially Avicenna and Maimonides. He saw them as valued co-workers in the vast project of philosophical theology, clarifying and supporting doctrine by philosophical analysis and argumentation. His own commitment to that project involved him in contributing to almost all the areas of philosophy recognized since antiquity, omitting only natural philosophy (the precursor of natural science). A line of thought with such strong connections to powerful antecedents might have resulted in no more than a pious amalgam. However, Aquinas' philosophy avoids eclecticism because of his own innovative approach to organizing and reasoning about all the topics included under the overarching medieval conception of philosophical Christian theology, and because of his special talents for systematic synthesis and for identifying and skilfully defending, on almost every issue he considers, the most sensible available position.
«
part in an academic disputation.
Having failed in his efforts to shake his best student's arguments on this occasion, Albert declared, 'We call him the dumb ox, but in his teaching he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world' .
In 1252 Aquinas returned to Paris for the course of study leading to the degree of master in theology, roughly the equivalent of a twentieth-century PhD.
During the first academic year he studied and lectured on the Bible; the final three yearswere devoted to delivering in lecture form his commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences , a standard requirement for the degree at that time (see Lombard, P. ).
Produced in 1253-6, Aquinas' massive commentary (often referred to as the Scriptum super libros Sententiarum (Commentary on the Sentences) is the first of his four theological syntheses.
It contains much valuable material, but because it is superseded in many respects by his great Summa contra gentiles (Synopsis [of Christian Doctrine] Directed Against Unbelievers) and Summa theologiae (Synopsis of Theology) the Scriptum has not yet been studied as much as it should be.
During that same four-year period, Aquinas produced De ente et essentia (On Being and Essence) , a short philosophical treatise written for his fellow Dominicans at Paris.
Although it owes something to Avicenna's Metaphysics , De ente is distinctively Aquinas' own, expounding many of the concepts and theses that remained fundamental to his thought throughout his career (see §9 below).
2 First Paris regency In the spring of 1256, Aquinas was appointed regent master (professor) in theology at Paris, a position he held until the end of the academic year 1258-9.
Quaestiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth) is the first of his sets of disputed questions and the most important work he produced during those three years.
It grew out of his professorship, which obliged him to conduct several formal public disputations eachyear.
Quaestiones disputatae de veritate consists of twenty-nine widely ranging Questions, each devoted to some general topic such as conscience, God's knowledge, faith, goodness, free will, human emotions and truth (the first Question, from which the treatise gets its name).
Each Question is divided into several Articles, and the 253 articles are the work's topically specific units: for example, q.
1, a.
9 is 'Is there truth in sense perception? ' The elaborate structure of each of those articles, like much of Aquinas' writing, reflects the 'scholastic method' , which, like medieval disputations in the classroom, had its ultimate source in Aristotle 's recommendations in his Topics regarding cooperative dialectical inquiry.
Aquinas' philosophical discussions in that form typically begin with a yes/no question.
Each article then develops as a kind of debate.
It begins with arguments for theanswer opposed to Aquinas' own position; these are commonly, if somewhat misleadingly, called 'objections' .
Next come the arguments sed contra (but, on the other hand), which are in later works often reduced to a single citation of some generally accepted authority on Aquinas' side of the issue.
The sed contra is followed by Aquinas' reasoned presentation and defence of his position.
This is the master's 'determination' of the question, sometimes called the 'body' of the article (indicated by 'c' in references).
An article normally concludes with Aquinas' rejoinders to each of the objections (indicated by 'ad 1', and so on, in references).
Conducting 'disputed questions' was one of the duties of a regent master in theology, but the theology faculty also provided regular opportunities for 'quodlibetal questions' , occasions on which a master could, if he wished, undertake to provide replies to any and all questions proposed by members of the academic audience.
These occasions were scheduled, for themaster's own good, during the two penitential seasons of the church year.
Aquinas seems to have accepted this challenge on at least five of the six such occasions occurring during his first regency at Paris, producing Quaestiones quodlibetales (Quodlibetal Questions) in which he offers his considered judgment on issues ranging from whether the soul is to be identified with its powers to whether the damned behold the saints in glory.
Aquinas' commentaries on Boethius ' De trinitate (On the Trinity) and De hebdomadibus (sometimes referred to as 'How Substances are Good' ) are his other philosophically important writings from this period of his first regency.
Although several philosophers had commented on those Boethian treatises in the twelfth century, thesubsequent influx of Aristotelian works had left them almost universally disregarded by the time Aquinas wrote his commentaries(see Aristotelianism, medieval ; Boethius, A.M.S. ).
No one knows why or for whom he wrote them, but he might well have undertaken these studies for his own edification on topics that were then becoming important to his thought.
The De trinitate commentary ( Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate ) presents Aquinas' views on the relationship of faith and reason and on the methods and interrelations of all the recognized bodies of organized knowledge, or 'sciences' .
Boethius ' De hebdomadibus is the locus classicus for the medieval consideration of the relation between being and goodness.
Dealing with this topic in his commentary on that treatise, Aquinas also produced his first systematic account of metaphysical participation, oneof the important Platonist elements in his thought.
Participation, he claims, obtains when the metaphysical composition ofsomething includes, as one of the thing's metaphysical components, X, which also belongs, to something else that is X in its own right in a way that is presupposed by the first thing's having X.
In this way a running man participates in running, human being participates in animal, and an effect participates in its cause (see also §9 below) (see Platonism, medieval ).
3 Naples and Orvieto: Summa contra gentiles and biblical commentary Aquinas' activities between 1259 and 1265 are not well documented, but he seems definitely to have left his professorship at Paris at the end of the academic year 1258-9.
He probablyspent the next two years at a Dominican priory in Naples, working on the Summa contra gentiles , which he had begun in Paris and which he subsequently finished in Orvieto where, as lector, he was in charge of studies at the Dominican priory until 1265.Summa contra gentiles is unlike Aquinas' three other theological syntheses in more than one respect.
Stylistically, it is unlike the earlier Scriptum and the later Summa theologiae in not following the scholastic method; instead, it is written in ordinary prose divided into chapters, like his Compendium theologiae (Compendium of Theology) which he seems to have written.
»
↓↓↓ APERÇU DU DOCUMENT ↓↓↓
Liens utiles
- Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas
- Aquinas, Thomas
- Les compliments de thomas diafoirus
- MONDE ABSENT (Le) d'Henri Thomas (résumé)
- Art POÉTIQUE FRANÇAIS, de Thomas Sebillet / de Jean Vauquelin de La Fresnaye