Thomas Quinque viae Aquinas His life and Thomas

Thomas“Quinque viae” Aquinas His life and

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.

Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood. The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. As one of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order. . . acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools. ”

The Quinque viæ, Five Ways, or Five Proofs are Five arguments regarding the existence of God summarized by the 13 th century Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his book, Summa Theologica.

st 1 proof: FIRST MOVER Some things are in motion, anything moved is moved by another, and there can't be an infinite series of movers. So there must be a first mover (a mover that isn't itself moved by another). This is God.

nd 2 proof: FIRST CAUSE Some things are caused, anything caused is caused by another, and there can't be an infinite series of causes. So there must be a first cause (a cause that isn't itself caused by another). This is God.

rd 3 proof: NECESSARY BEING Every contingent being at some time fails to exist. So if everything were contingent, then at some time there would have been nothing -and so there would be nothing now -- which is clearly false. So not everything is contingent. So there is a necessary being. This is God.

th 4 proof: GREATEST BEING Some things are greater than others. Whatever is great to any degree gets its greatness from that which is the greatest. So there is a greatest being, which is the source of all greatness. This is God.

5 th proof: INTELLIGENT DESIGNER Many things in the world that lack intelligence act for an end. Whatever acts for an end must be directed by an intelligent being. So the world must have an intelligent designer. This is God.

5 proofs Motion Design Degrees Causality Contingency

They are not necessarily meant to be self-sufficient “proofs” of God’s existence; as worded, they propose only to explain what it is “all men mean” when they speak of “God”. Many scholars point out that St. Thomas’s actual arguments regarding the existence and nature of God are to be found liberally scattered throughout his major treatises, and that the five ways are little more than an introductory sketch of how the word “God” can be defined without reference to special revelation (i. e. , religious experience).