Aquinas and the Contingency of Human Actions: A Millennial Debate - Research Paper

Introduction

The contingency of human actions is a millennium-long debate that is yet to be settled. Scholars and other interested parties cannot seem to agree on the topic, and even the insights of early scholars such as Thomas Aquinas cannot seem to provide answers on the topic. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican theologian and considered as one of the most influential thinkers of the middle ages. St. Aquinas, as he is commonly known, is also the father of the Thomistic school of theology. Historians have yet to establish his date of birth, but "there seems to be a general agreement today on 1224/25."

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Born from an influential family in Roccasecca, Italy, Aquinas spent a good part of his childhood in a monastery where he left at the age of "fourteen or fifteen"; and traveled to Naples where he joined another monastery. According to Jean-Pierre, Thomas went ahead to study liberal arts and philosophy, which were the "obligatory prerequisites for approaching theology." Naples, along with Palermo, Salerno were among the places that Aristotelian science, Greek medicine, and Arabic Astronomy were flourishing at the time;and that provided Thomas with the chance to get exposure to these concepts and philosophies. Jean-Pierre thinks that Thomas could have been familiar with Aristotle's natural philosophy and metaphysics from a very early age. After a scandal with his family concerning his choice of the Dominican order, Thomas ended up retaining profound esteem for Benedictine ideals all his life.

According to Jean-Pierre, for most scholars, they have considerable knowledge of Thomas' "abstract philosophical and theological writings" than his personality. Furthermore, they are the aggravated commentators who are "more concerned about logic than Thomas himself." Such an imbalance in the study of St. Aquinas leads is one of the factors that contribute to disagreements that exist in scholarly literature. Lack of consensus exists on whether St. Aquinas was actually in Paris, and for those who agree on his presence in Paris, they believe that he did not study Theology while in Paris. While some hold that he was a student of Theology, a good number of scholars argue that he only studied arts while in Paris. That forms an integral part of the topic of Aquinas's view on the contingency of human actions because St. Thomas ascribed to Aristotelian philosophy, whose study was officially banned in Paris.

As a person who is inclined to Aristotle's school of thought, Aquinas's view on human actions was likely in line with those of Aristotle. However, if he was in Paris, then his studies and insight on the topic might have been negatively affected because it was illegal. Therefore, the disagreement on his stay in Paris is one that extends beyond his personal life. Thomas would grow to occupy two great schools of thought in the thirteenth century. "One "affective" of Augustinian tendencies, the other "speculative" of Aristotelian orientation."These two schools of thought influenced the way Thomas spoke and thought about religious faith, and as a product of the gifts of intelligence and wisdom that accompany it. They also form the basis of Aquinas's views on the contingency of humans' actions, which this paper seeks to establish and assert whether contingency affects human existence.

Problem Statement

The literature on Aquinas and his theological school of thought is quite considerable. However, interpretation may be lost to the reader, and that has created some overlaps and gaps in philosophy concerning his view of human actions. For one, Aquinas subscribed to more than one school of thought, which means he was likely to have more than one view of human actions. As already mentioned, Aquinas had Augustine tendencies and Aristotelian orientation. Which means in his view of human actions, one can derive two schools of thought.

Even following on Aquinas's literary work, one can spot some inconsistencies or changes in his school of thought. In De ueritate, faith is taken as a speculative virtue with scant value on practical order. That is not the same case in Secunda Pars. Faith, which is also the end of all human desires and actions, must work through charity. "The Lord who knows what is good for you gives you this precept that you may not pull down His temple, which you have begun to be." "Faith, therefore, becomes practical, as does the speculative intellect, by extension."St. Augustine gains an increasing influence on Aquinas's thoughts and thinking as he enters maturity. Some scholars have suggested seeking the cause of the change in some deep spiritual experience that affected Thomas' personality and perception of reality.

Nevertheless, the changing perspective of Aquinas's philosophical view is evident in some of his literary works, such as Catena aureu and Summa Theologica. It also shows that human experiences and actions shape Aquinas's philosophy. Some of his own and others of the people around him. Therefore, Aquinas school of thought presents an opportunity for settling the research problem that exists in regards to scholarly work on the contingency of human actions.

Furthermore, there exists a divide and lack of consensus when it comes to addressing the issue of human actions. As it stands, there are two main opposing thoughts on the subject. A section of scholars and philosophers such as Sir Francis Galton, Bertrand Russell, and even Christian philosophers such as Bishop Berkeley were ascribed to the idea that human actions were deterministic. On the other side of the ring, there is another set of scholars, such as Augustine and John Duns Scotus, who claimed evidence of free will in human actions. It is, therefore, up to modern scholars to try and find a solution to these disagreements.

Terms Definition

Contingency, as used in this research work, will refer to an event whose occurrence remains possible but without certainty.

Scientia, as used in this research, refers to the perfect work reason, consists of just such a grasp.

Maxim will be used as an expression of a general rule, truth, or principles, especially concerning philosophy.

Human Action will refer to the action as is undertaken by someone consciously to achieve something and performed at a time (usually in a period) at which a given agent has an awareness of what he or she is doing as an acting subject.

Contingent means that it does not exist in and of itself but has the source of its existence in another being.

Theology, as used in the research work, is the study of God and religious belief.

Hypothesis

The primary goal of the research studies is to identify the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas regarding the contingency of human actions. Since Aquinas partly subscribed to Aristotle's and Augustine school of thought, the paper theorizes that his philosophical standing was that human actions are for the sake of some end that is viewed as useful or functional by oneself.

Second, the study also expects to find a correlation between contingency and human actions as theorized by Thomas Aquinas. Therefore, it is based on the expectation that the paper theorizes that contingency affects human existence.

Third, the question of free will is one that has to be answered if the paper expects to meet its objective of establishing the view of Thomas Aquinas on the contingency of human actions. In that case, human actions can either be pre-determined or in-determined. That leads to the third hypothesis of the research. The study theorizes that Thomas Aquinas believed that humans are free in their will.

Research Background

There is considerable research that has already been done on the topic. In this research, I managed to compile a host of different literary works that include primary and secondary sources. Some of the earliest literary works on the topic are those written by St. Aquinas himself. In Catena Aureau, Aquinas makes commentaries about the gospel of Mathew. In the literary work, one finds one of the earliest insights into Aquinas's view of the contingency of human actions. According to Aquinas, "But acts which are known to be in themselves sin, are not to be done as with a good purpose; but such works only as are either good or bad, according to the motives from which they are done are either good or bad and are not in themselves sins." From that quote, one can see the first of Aquinas's view on the nature of human actions. The ethicality of actions is dependent on the motive behind their execution. Nevertheless, the quote also demonstrates some fragments of Aristotelian ethics. The quote demonstrates that the goal of human actions is towards meeting a particular end.

The same line of thinking is carried forward in Aquinas's other works. In On Love and Charity, he uses the phrase, "Ea quae sunt ad finem,"; which refers to things that work for or towards an end. In that sense, it carries the weight of actions that work towards intelligent creatures' ultimate end. As a theological philosopher, it is expected of Aquila to offer an explanation for human actions based on religion, or Christianity to be specific. Furthermore, as a student of ethics, he believed that the finality of human actions should be to achieve some good. It is while discussing God's care that he makes a bold declaration that all particular events depend on contingency.

However, making such a bold declaration puts Aquinas, own belief in jeopardy because he was a staunch Christian. If nothing can be predicted with absolute certainty, then how does God know the future? Does it mean that he is not as all-knowing as he is supposed to be? Moreover, in that case, does necessity have a place in creation? The fact that events can be other than what they are means puts the place of necessity in creation into question. Far from it. According to Aquinas, "there are things in creation that absolutely must be." Therefore, concerning the agent who created them, creatures have no potential of not being. However, the creator has the power of giving them "being, or of stopping the influx of being in them."

Nevertheless, again, that presents another problem. According to Aquinas, the further a creature is from God, the closer it is not to be. There is no paradox in creatures existing without necessity. Since got does not act out of necessity, there is no absolute necessity for a creature to be. That statement seems to contradict Aquinas's earlier claim of the need for creatures having the potentiality of not being. The question of free will is one that researchers such as Zeglen have set out to answer. Zeglen's research will be an essential part of this paper as it sets out to find the answer to one of the hypotheses of this research work. It can also help address the Thomistic noetics that seem at odds with their postmodern counterparts.

Literature Review

The State of Research

Numerous scholars have weighed in on the topic of the contingency of human actions. Some serious questions have been raised, especially regarding the relationship between contingency and divinity. Researchers such as Te Velde have posed the question, "Does the classical metaphysical notion of providence leave room for real contingency in the world?" The logic behind the question is that the whole notion of providence is tainted with some level of determinism. Scholars such as Aquinas had to prove there is a contingency in a world where everything occurs to a pre-established divine plan.

Both Aquinas and Augustine think that God posses the knowledge to contingent events, and the prophecy of future events depends on God's knowledge. St. Aquinas proposes three reasons that might explain the failure of God to exercise providence over some matters despite possessing the foreknowledge. First is that he is ignorant that it is good t...