Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide (Beginner’s Guides) by Edward Feser (PDF)

Description

Charting the life and thought of this hugely influential medieval thinker.One of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the history of Western thought, St Thomas Aquinas established the foundations for much of modern philosophy of religion, and is infamous for his arguments for the existence of God. In this cogent and multifaceted introduction to the great Saint’s work, Edward Feser argues that you cannot fully understand Aquinas’ philosophy without his theology and vice-versa. Covering his thoughts on the soul, natural law, metaphysics, and the interaction of faith and reason, this will prove a indispensable resource for students, experts or the general reader.

User’s Reviews

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⭐This is an amazing introduction to the teaching of Aquinas. Feser’s main thesis is that most people do not understand Aquinas because they are beginning with different metaphysical assumptions than Aquinas. In other words, all of these bad caricatures of the five ways of Aquinas are based on fundamental misunderstandings and not looking at the metaphysical assumptions that Aquinas held to. Feser begins to remedy this problem by introducing us to Aquinas’ view of the four causes (material formal, efficient, final) as well as his teaching on being and essence. Feser argues that the rejection of the four causes is not based on any sort of good reason, but an unhealthy skepticism. Once we understand Aquinas’ metaphysics, we are in a position to look at his 5 ways or proofs for the existence of God.Feser notes that while most people quote Aquinas’ 5 ways from his Summa, the Summa was meant as a beginners guide to theology. Hence the demonstrations for God’s existence are not meant for skeptics but for those who already believe in God and need to organize their ideas about God’s existence. Feser mentions that the Aqunas’ full and thorough proofs for God’s existence worked out in detail may be found in Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles. Feser then spends several pages on each of the five ways. It is quite interesting because I too, unfortunately, had bought into the modern mindset that Aquinas’ 5 ways were just sort of old hat, similar to intelligent design, not too deep, and all more or less the same. Nothing could be further from eh truth. I was amazed at how careful and rigorous the proof from motion is when given in its full detail with all the necessray metaphysical background in place. This requires understanding of what Aquinas meant by motion, potentiality, action, and several other concepts. It was rewarding to spend some time pondering this proof because I realized how shallow much of my metaphysics really is. Feser was also able to explain how Aquinas argued that even if the universe could have existed for an infinite amount of time, it would still require a first cause. This idea had always bothered me, but Feser gave an excellent illustration and the idea is now quite clear in my mind.In discussing the 5 ways, Feser mentions how the 5 ways are all different from each other. Many people will blow off the first 3 ways, claiming that they are basically the same. Yet Feser looks a wide range of Aquinas’ writings on these ways and argues that he had different things in mind and different properties of God that the arguments would deduce. Feser also distinguishes between Aquinas’ argument by design and Paley’s argument from design. These are nothing alike and should not be confused, which is another common error. After the discussion of the five ways, Feser discusses the nature of man (psychology) and explains Aquinas’ view, in particular, of the soul. Again, here is a place where many people do not know what Aquinas taught. Aquinas did not think of the soul as an invisible ether that permeates the body or as some other kind of invisible entity. Rather, the soul is the form of the body; that which animates the body. This can be summed up in Aquinas’ theory of hylomorphism. Again, Aquinas’ metaphysics are crucial to understanding this concept. One particularly attractive aspect of Aquinas’ view of the human soul is that it does fall victim to the objection about “how does the soul (immaterial) interact with the body (material)?” often posed by skeptics. This question simply makes no sense on Aquinas’ hylomporphic view.This book is amazing. It is short, but one can spend hours upon hours pondering it, rereading the same passages to take in all the information and understand the metaphysics of Aquinas. The method of Aquinas was sanctioned in the encyclical Humani Generis and thus Aquinas’ teaching is well worth the time of any serious Catholic who wishes to be of one mind with the Church.

⭐There are two questions which any Christian who has struggled with doubt and who cares about having an intellectually rigorous worldview will have asked:1. What is the scope of fundamental Christian convictions?2. How confident can we be in the truth of those convictions?It seems that in our time the answers most commonly given to those questions are ‘very small’ and ‘not very’. To elaborate, many Christians seem to accept that modern science has unique, nearly exclusive authority to describe the world we live in and that scientific reasoning is the gold standard of rationality. It follows that theology is more a matter of hope than knowledge and that the best we can do is show that at least some, often greatly truncated, Christian truth claims are compatible with modern science. Modern Christian theology is an asthmatic, 90 pound weakling with heart trouble in the boxing ring of truth.Enter the doctor: Edward Feser’s Aquinas (and by extension Aquinas himself) is a blast of fresh air in those wheezing lungs, a jolt of current through that palpitating heart, and an injection of growth hormone into those wimpy muscles. Starting in Chapter 2 with an exposition of basic Aristotelian and Thomistic metaphysical concepts, including act and potency, form and matter, the four causes, essence and existence, and the nature of the transcendentals (like being, truth and goodness), Feser painstakingly demonstrates how these concepts explain the world we inhabit remarkably well, and remain plausible and defensible despite their development alongside erroneous scientific views. Not only that, but since science in any age rests upon (sometimes unexamined) metaphysical foundations (see the classic

⭐), Aquinas’ metaphysics presents itself as a particularly attractive set of foundations for the contemporary study of nature.Up to this point, the book would be of interest not just to readers interested in the history of ideas but also readers interested in formulating a comprehensive philosophy of nature. But the implications of this philosophy of nature for theology are astounding: as Dr. Feser shows in chapter 3, the observed reality of change, the distinction between essence and existence in contingent objects and the reality of final causation all inescapably imply the existence of God as understood by the great philosophical minds of all the major theistic religious traditions: the absolutely unique, simple, unconditioned, omnipotent Reality that grounds the existence and intelligibility of the world of our experience, and is itself perfect goodness, beauty and truth. Contrary to popular perception, Aquinas’ Five Ways of demonstrating God’s existence are sound and compelling once placed in their proper context of Aristotelian metaphysics, and once their conclusions are thoroughly analyzed they are seen to imply the attributes classically attributed to God. Since the reality of change, final causation and the distinction between essence and existence are readily observable, even to unbelievers, the existence and nature of God (at least to a certain extent) can be inferred on non-religious grounds, making Aquinas’ project a particularly compelling example of natural theology.In the remaining two chapters Dr. Feser explicates Thomistic views of human nature and ethics, which again are fairly straightforward applications of the Aristotelian metaphysical principles laid out in chapter 2. The Thomistic understanding of the soul is an alternative to both Cartesian dualism, which posits the existence of two distinct substances to explain mind-body interactions, and materialism, which reduces all mental activity to brain physiology. Thomistic ethics is premised upon human beings have a real nature, which identifies the good for humans as those actions which fulfil the ends intrinsic to that nature.When I reviewed Dr. Feser’s

⭐, I remarked that his exposition had almost persuaded me to become a Thomist, but that I still had some reservations. Aquinas has now pushed me all the way into that camp. I am now convinced that Thomism is the most promising metaphysical system for articulating the rationality of the Christian worldview, and that it gets the furniture of the world more nearly right than any other system. I look forward to digging deeper into Aquinas’ thought, to fill in the details of my newfound worldview.

⭐Prof Feser has taken a very complex topic and has made each theme understandable to the average reader. Extremely well put together, his approach weaves direct quotes into an understandable context, both within Thomson but also within modern philosophy. Really eye opening!!

⭐This is a book about Aquinas as much as it’s an introduction to Thomaistic Philosophy in general. It offers the basic arguments for the existence of God in ways a general public can easily understand, along with the most common objects raised against them by modern atheists.

⭐Let me be clear, this is a great book, but if you approached it knowing nothing about Thomas Aquinas and you don’t really understand basic philosophical terms you probably won’t enjoy this book. I would recommend perhaps listening to some on-line lectures about Aquinas first and once he has your interest then I would have a go at reading this as some parts can be quite challenging. It is very well written, well argued and good value for money and anyone who wants to advance their understanding of his philosophy won’t be disappointed.

⭐Somewhat harder work than I expected but a good solid introduction. We should all read more Aquinas and this can help.

⭐A bit dense in places, but it gave me a good understanding of the basic framework of St. Thomas Aquinas’ thought. Superior to this authors other book, The Last Superstition, as it covers much of the same ground but in a less polemic and more academic manner.

⭐This book provides a great introduction to the philosophy and underlying metaphysics of Aquinas; demonstrating the continuing relevance of such thought today.It contains one of the most lucid explanations of the famous Quinque Viae that I have ever read; refuting, also, commonly raised objections. Furthermore, there is an extensive list of further reading material for anyone looking to explore the philosophy of Aquinas in greater detail.A perfect start for the complete novice.

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