Selected Philosophical Writings

by Aquinas, Thomas; McDermott, Timothy

• ISBN13: 9780192835857
• ISBN10: 0192835858
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-08-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) saw religion as part of the natural human propensity to worship. His ability to recognize the naturalness of this phenomenon and simultaneously to go beyond it--to explore, for example, spiritual revelation--makes his work as fresh and readable today as it was seven centuries ago. This accessible new translation offers thirty-eight substantial passages not only from the indispensable Summa Theologicae, but from many other works, fully illustrating the breadth and progression of Aquinas's philosophy. It is an ideal introduction to this key figure in the philosophy of religion.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi	(22)
Note on Sources and Text	xxxiii	(1)
Select Bibliography	xxxiv	(3)
SELECTED PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS	xxxvii
I Structures of Thought	1	(50)
1. On Natural Science, Mathematics, and Metaphysics [Expositio super Librum Boethii de Trinitate, 2 [questions 5-6]]	1	(50)
II Structures of Things in General	51	(64)
2. Being, Unity, Goodness, Truth [Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate, 1.1-3, 21.1]	51	(14)
3. Actual and Potential Being [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 1.1]	65	(2)
4. Matter, Form, Agent, and Goal [De Principiis Naturae, complete]	67	(13)
5. Substance and Accidents, Action and Passion [In Aristotelis Libros Physicorum, 3.5]	80	(10)
6. Essence and Existence [De Ente et Essentia, complete]	90	(25)
III The Ladder of Being	115	(80)
7. General Overview [Summa contra Gentiles, 4.11]	115	(2)
8. How Elements are Present within Compounds [De Mixtione Elementorum, complete]	117	(4)
9. Life, or Soul and its Abilities [Quaestio Disputata de Spiritualibus Creaturis, 11]	121	(8)
10. Levels of Life [Quaestio Disputata de Anima, 13]	129	(9)
11. Inner and Outer Senses [Sentencia Libri de Sensu (De Memoria)]	138	(7)
12. Mind (a) [Summa Theologiae, 1a.79.2-3]	145	(5)
13. Mind (b) [Summa contra Gentiles, 2.77]	150	(2)
14. Mind (c) [Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate, 8.6]	152	(4)
15. Feelings [Summa Theologiae, 1a2ae.22-3]	156	(13)
16. Will as Rational Desire [Summa contra Gentiles, 2.47-8]	169	(2)
17. Free Will [Quaestiones Disputatae de Malo, 6]	171	(13)
18. Soul in Human Beings [Quaestio Disputata de Anima, 1]	184	(8)
19. My Soul is not Me [Super Epistolam Primam Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios, 15]	192	(3)
IV God In Himself	195	(56)
20. There Exists a God [Summa Theologiae, 1a.2.1-3]	195	(7)
21. God is his Own Existence [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 7.2]	202	(7)
22. Eternity and Time [Summa Theologiae, 1a.10.1, 4]	209	(5)
23. Do we Have Words for God? [Summa Theologiae, 1a.13.1-6, 12]	214	(16)
24. How we Know One Simple God by Many Concepts [Super I Sententiarum, 2.1.3]	230	(10)
25. How God Knows Many Things by One Simple Idea [Summa contra Gentiles, 1.50, 53]	240	(2)
26. God's Power [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 1.3, 7]	242	(9)
V God as the Beginning of Things	251	(64)
27. Creation as God's Doing [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 3.1-3]	251	(12)
28. Did Creation Occur in Time? [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 3.17]	263	(7)
29. Providence (a): The Ordered Universe [Summa contra Gentiles, 3.97-8]	270	(7)
30. Providence (b): Chance and Freedom [In Aristotelis Librum Peri Hermeneias, 1.14]	277	(7)
31. Providence (c): How Evil is Caused [Summa contra Gentiles, 3.10]	284	(5)
32. Providence (d): Does God Cause Evil? [Quaestiones Disputatae de Malo, 3.1-2]	289	(8)
33. Is God at Work in Nature and in Will? [Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia, 3.7-8]	297	(18)
VI God as the End of Things	315	(111)
34. God as Goal of Human Living [Super IV Sententiarum, 49.1]	315	(27)
35. Moral Action [Summa Theologiae, 1a2ae.18-20]	342	(48)
36. Virtue [Summa Theologiae, 1a2ae.55-6]	390	(19)
37. Law [Summa Theologiae, 1a2ae.90-1]	409	(12)
38. Love of God as Virtue [Quaestio Disputata de Caritate, 2]	421	(5)
Notes	426	(21)
Index	447