3 minute philosophy: #thomasaquinas

after an clip of edison starts at 28 second mark - in summary what it says ......

roman catholic theologian who lived in 13th century

he was a fan of aristotle

he thought there were 2 ways to arrive at the truth
- reason or logic
- faith

he created 5 proofs that god exists - know as the quinquae viae

1) 1st mover argument - anything that moves must be set in motion by something else that was moving to begin with that thing was set in motion by something else and so on and so on - he argued there must have been a 1st mover - that which itself wasn't moved - otherwise nothing would have started to move to begin with

2) 1st cause - anything created must have itself been created - as nothing can create itself - but if nothing can create itself then nothing would have been created in the 1st place - so universe would have failed to exist - but does - therefore must have been a creator - itself not created - that caused the existence of everything else

3) the argument of contingency - things we observe today are not necessary to exist - but if nothing was necessary then nothing would exist - therefore something must be necessary - and that would be god

4) for us to judge anything good or bad we must judge it against something better - for this to be anything other than arbitary there must exist something which is the best possible thing

5) everything in the universe - whether alive or not - works towards some goal - but for this to work there must be some supreme intelligence directing the whole show

he was a great supporter of the technique of via negativa which seeks to understand god by eliminating those attributes that do not apply - essentially understanding god by understanding what he is not