Bonus Lecture: Thomas Aquinas, Soul’s Powers (Faculties), Cognition & Proof of God’s Existence

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
(1225-1274). Painting attributed to Botticelli, 1481-82.

Video Link – Thomas Aquinas, Soul’s Powers (Faculties), Cognition & Proof of God’s Existence

Contents of Video

Aquinas’ hylomorphism
– Soul and body are distinguishable realities, ‘incomplete substances’; but together they form one substance, the human being.
– The Soul as a Subsisting Form Configuring Matter.
– Soul survives death (contra Aristotle).
– Powers (faculties) of the human soul.

Aquinas on Cognition-Knowledge
– Common sense, phantasia, agent intellect, possible intellect.
– Sensible species, phantasms
– Active intellect & intelligible species, inner word or concept, possible intellect
– Four different stages – the reception of sensible species; their processing into phantasms; the abstraction of intelligible species; and their processing into intellected intentions.

Arguments for Existence of God
– The First Way: God, the Prime Mover
– The Second Way: God, the First Cause
– The Third Way: God, the Necessary Being
– The Fourth Way: God, the Absolute Being
– The Fifth Way: God, the Grand Designer

You can watch the video at
Thomas Aquinas, Soul’s Powers (Faculties), Cognition & Proofs God’s Existence

Forthcoming Uploads – New series of videos on Biblical-Nicene Trinitarianism vs Early Heresies.

Bonus Lecture: Aristotle Matter-Form & Aquinas Essence-Existence

VIDEO LINK – Aristotle Matter-Form & Aquinas Essence-Existence

Contents of Lecture
Part 1. Basic Concepts in Aristotle’s Philosophy
Basic agreements and disagreements between Plato and Aristotle
Aristotelian realist metaphysics
Matter, Form and Substance
Categories
Hylomorphism – matter + form
Path to knowledge – experience, abstraction and insight into universals.
The Four Causes – 1) matter, 2) form, 3) agency/efficiency, 4) purpose /teleology
Potentiality-Actuality in a hierarchical dynamic universe
Prime Mover – Pure Actuality

Part 2. Thomas Aquinas (Introductory Comments)
Essence & Existence of God.
Contrast between Aquinas & Avicenna
Exod. 3:14 – Act prior to existence
Aquinas as a moderate realist (vs Plato extreme realist). Universals exist in the intellect, but they have an immediate basis in reality.

You can watch the video at
VIDEO LINK – Aristotle Matter-Form & Aquinas Essence-Existence