It is worth noting that Aquinas' aesthetic theory, especially the concept of "Cratas", greatly influenced the literary style of modern writer James Joyce, who praised Aquinas as the second philosopher in western philosophy after Aristotle. The influence of Aquinas' aesthetic view can also be observed in the works of Italian symbolist umberto Ecker, who also wrote a paper on Aquinas' aesthetic view.
Over the centuries, many biographies of Aquinas have been published, the most famous of which was written by Stiehl Burton.
Thomas's theological and philosophical thoughts are summarized in his main work, The Encyclopedia of Theology. This book, which marks the Thomas Doctrine, is divided into three parts, including 38 papers, 63 1 question, 3,000 entries and 10000 different opinions. This is an encyclopedia of medieval scholasticism. In addition, Thomas's works also include notes on four proverbs of Lumbard's Being and Essence, The Complete Works of Anti-heresy, and notes on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Thomas's epistemological thought basically inherited Aristotle's point of view, but showed obvious anti-Plato tendency. Starting from the distinction between knowledge and belief, he discussed the position of human cognitive ability within the theological scope, analyzed the relationship between sensibility and rationality, and put forward his own view of truth.
According to Thomas, the object of cognition corresponds to the ability of cognition. On this basis, Thomas divides cognitive ability into three types: the first cognitive ability is feeling, which is an activity of material body. The object of every sensory ability is a form existing in tangible matter, which is the origin of individualization, so the knowledge acquired by this sensory cognitive ability can only be individual knowledge. The second cognitive ability is angel's rationality, which is neither the activity of material organisms nor related to tangible matter. The object of this cognitive ability is a form that exists out of matter. Although angel's reason also knows material things, it only starts from the standpoint of non-material things (either from itself or from God). The third cognitive ability is the rationality of people in the middle position. It is not an activity of the body, but an ability of the soul. This cognitive ability is to understand material things by abstracting various images, so as to gain some understanding of intangible things through this understanding of material things. Among these three cognitive abilities, the cognitive abilities belonging to human beings are feeling and human reason.
Regarding the relationship between sensibility and rationality, Thomas combined with the development process of cognition to investigate and pointed out: First, knowledge comes from feeling. Feeling contacts with foreign objects through the senses, and the subject accepts the object, resulting in an approximate "feeling impression". This impression is conveyed to the inner senses through feelings, and it is analyzed, sorted and integrated into an "image" to gain an understanding of specific and individual things. Second, people's understanding can not only stay in individual understanding, but also in perceptual understanding, so as to understand its form from individual matter. Thirdly, human rationality can be divided into "active rationality" and "passive rationality". Active rationality is the dynamic activity of the soul. The perceptual individual and special components are removed from the "image" by abstract methods, and the universality and inevitability of essence are taken out to obtain the cognitive form of rational knowledge, that is, "cognitive impression". "We use what we call a higher initiative of positive rationality and adopt abstract methods to turn the illusion accepted from various senses into an understandable reality". This "understanding impression" reaches "passive rationality" and becomes "rational impression". Passive reason to understand it, accept it, and then from passive to active, resulting in "representation." This "representation" is actually a concept. Fourth, therefore, as far as the relationship between sensibility and rationality is concerned, "rational cognition is caused by sensation, but illusion itself cannot change possible rationality, and it must rely on positive rationality to be understood in reality." Therefore, perceptual knowledge can never be said to be the whole reason or the whole reason of rational knowledge, but can only be regarded as a certain reason. "
Regarding the understanding of truth, Thomas pointed out that truth only exists in reason, and the truth in reason lies in the consistency between reason and known things. But there are two ways to change this agreement: first, things have not changed, but people's views on this matter have changed; Second, things have changed, but people's views on it remain the same. In Thomas's view, these two changes are from truth to error. Therefore, in addition to the truth in human reason, there is also the truth in God's reason. "The truth in God's truth is immutable", which is the truth of all material things and cannot be changed at all. Regarding the relationship between philosophy and theology, Thomas' teacher Albert the Great thinks that philosophical problems can only be dealt with in a philosophical way, while theological problems, such as the Trinity, the incarnation of the Tao, the resurrection of creation and so on. , cannot be understood by natural reason, so they can only be dealt with in a theological way. Based on this thought, Thomas further explored the relationship between philosophy and theology, and then came to the conclusion that "theology is higher than philosophy, and philosophy is the slave of theology".
First of all, Thomas inherited the thought of his teacher Albert, and specifically demonstrated that "besides philosophical truth, theological truth is also needed". In view of the view that "some people object to the need for other theories besides philosophy", Thomas believes that in addition to philosophical theories, in order to save mankind, there must be a kind of knowledge inspired by God. This is because: first, everyone should convert to God, a purpose that reason cannot understand. Therefore, in order to save mankind, we must know some truths revealed by God beyond reason. Second, even if people discuss God's truth with reason, they must be guided by God's revelation. Because "whoever uses reason to discuss the truth obtained by God can only be obtained by a few people, and it takes a lot of time and inevitably brings many mistakes. However, this understanding of truth is related to the salvation of all mankind from God, so in order to make the salvation of mankind more appropriate and accurate, it must be guided by the truth revealed by God. "
Secondly, from the classification of speculative science, Thomas pointed out that theology is the "first philosophy". Thomas said: "The object of speculative science is the abstraction of matter and motion, or the understanding of them. Therefore, speculative science is divided into different disciplines according to the degree of being far away from matter and movement. " Specifically, it is physics, mathematics and theology. Among them, physics, also known as natural science, takes the object of "depending on matter in existence and concept" as the research object, while mathematics takes the object of "depending on matter in existence and not depending on matter in concept" (such as lines and numbers) as the research object. The main object of theological research is God. God does not depend on material existence, on the contrary, it can exist without material existence. Studying God's theology is the "first philosophy", from which other sciences get their own principles and follow them.
Finally, Thomas further demonstrated the conclusion that "theology is higher than philosophy, and philosophy is the slave of theology". Thomas pointed out that theology is divided into speculative theology and practical theology, so "theology is higher than philosophy" means that theology surpasses other sciences (including philosophy) in both speculative and practical aspects. As far as speculation is concerned, theology surpasses other speculative sciences because of its high certainty. Theological certainty comes from the light of God, and other scientific certainty comes from the light of man's rational nature, which makes mistakes. Second, because the subject matter of theology is more lofty, "Theology mainly explores the beautiful and supreme things beyond human reason, while other sciences only pay attention to what human reason can grasp." As far as practice is concerned, theology is superior to other sciences because the purpose of theology lies in eternal happiness, which is the ultimate goal of all practical sciences.
Since theology is superior to philosophy, it is possible for theology to play its role by virtue of philosophy, but it is not necessary to use philosophy, but to make its meaning more clear. "Because the principles of theology do not come from other sciences, but directly from the revelation of God. Therefore, it does not rely on other sciences as its superior officers, but uses them as its subordinates and slaves: just as the main sciences use subsidiary sciences and the political sciences use military sciences. " Philosophy and other sciences are vassals of theology.
It is worth noting that Thomas's explanation of the relationship between philosophy and theology contains two important ideological premises. First, "we can get different knowledge by understanding things from different aspects." Therefore, we should not prohibit the use of God-inspired knowledge to discuss the theory that philosophers understand with reason. Second, "things other than human reason can't be obtained by reason, but if there is God's revelation, they can be obtained by faith". Obviously, this thought originated from Albert the Great, which marked the distinction between knowledge and belief. On the relationship between * * * and different stages, Thomas followed the ideological line of ibn sina and his teacher Albert the Great, and pointed out that "* * * is transcendental rather than transcendental", and combined with his own epistemological thought, he made a concrete investigation on this conclusion from the perspective of understanding and the development process of things.
First of all, Thomas pointed out that, on the one hand, because rational knowledge comes from perceptual knowledge at a certain stage, perceptual knowledge with different phases (single and individual things) precedes rational knowledge with * * * phases (common things), so * * * comes last; On the other hand, human cognition (including sensibility and rationality) is a development process from potential to reality, from "species" to "genus difference". For example, as far as rationality is concerned, we first confirm whether an object is an "animal" and then confirm whether it is a human or a lion. Therefore, our rational understanding of animals always precedes our understanding of people. Similarly, before we judge the less common things, we judge the more common things with our sensibility. For example, we always see a person first, and then we can see Socrates or Plato. "Therefore, we come to the conclusion that as far as we are concerned, individual knowledge precedes universal knowledge, just as perceptual knowledge precedes rational knowledge. But whether it is perceptual or rational, the understanding of more common things precedes the understanding of less common things. " In other words, from the perspective of understanding history, * * * is backward; As far as a specific cognitive process is concerned, * * * takes precedence.
Secondly, Thomas pointed out that "the essence of the * * * stage can be regarded as being together with the concept of universality". At this time, on the one hand, because the concept of universality comes from rational abstraction, such a * * * stage is obtained after our existing knowledge, so the * * * stage is behind; On the other hand, the * * * phase is a potential thing, and the special phase only exists because of the potential * * * phase, so the * * * phase takes precedence.
Finally, Thomas also pointed out that "* * stage can also be seen from the nature itself (such as animal nature or human nature) that it exists in individuals". At this time, if we look at the order and time of occurrence, the more common things take precedence in the natural order, such as animals coming into being before people. On the contrary, if we look at the perfect order or natural intention, less common things naturally take precedence over common things, such as people being ahead of animals. In short, in terms of the actual development process, * * * comes first; For the purpose, * * * is behind.
It is obviously much better for Thomas to study the * * * phase with his own epistemological thought than the early scholasticism, which is of great significance in the history of philosophy. However, Thomas's realism is called "moderate realism" in the history of philosophy because he insists that ideas are the essence of things and ideas determine the existence of concrete things. The existence of God is the focus of scholasticism and the cornerstone of Thomas' theological philosophy system. Regarding the existence of God, Thomas pointed out that the existence and essence of God are absolutely the same, and the essence of God already contains existence, so the existence of God itself does not need to be proved. On the other hand, Thomas admitted that the existence of God is not a direct and self-evident truth for human reason, so it needs to be proved. With regard to the method of proof, Thomas does not agree with Anselmus's ontological proof of God's existence from a pure concept, but advocates that the existence of God can be proved by familiar results, that is, by the method of proof the day after tomorrow. Based on this, Thomas put forward five proofs about the existence of God in the Encyclopedia of Theology: "Prove from the movement or change of things": In the world, some things are moving, which is clear and true in our sense. Every movement of things is always driven by other things, so any movement is caused by another movement before it, so some people infer that "it is inevitable that the first promoter who is not driven by other things will be caught up." The first promoter is God. "Discussing the existence of God from the essence of dynamic cause": In the phenomenal world, we find that dynamic cause is orderly. Here, we will never find the driving force itself. Dynamic factors cannot be traced back to infinity, because all dynamic factors follow a certain order. The first dynamic reason is the intermediate dynamic reason; The middle dynamic reason, whether plural or singular, is always the last reason. If you eliminate the cause, you will also eliminate the result. Therefore, among the dynamic reasons, if there is no first dynamic reason (if the dynamic reason is traced back indefinitely, it will become such a situation), then there is no intermediate reason and no final result. Therefore, there must be an initial motive, and this initial motive is God. "Prove the existence of God from the possibility and inevitability": The existence and non-existence of everything in the world is both possibility and inevitability. And everything obtains its existence and inevitability from other things. According to this inference, "we have to admit that there is such a thing: it has its own inevitability, rather than relying on other things to obtain inevitability." Not only that, it also makes other things inevitable. " This thing is God. "Prove the existence of God from the degree of authenticity found in things": Everything in the world is good, true and noble to varying degrees, and its standard lies in the degree of closeness to the best, truest and noblest things. "Therefore, there must be something in the world that exists as everything in the world and has good and other perfect reasons. We call this reason God ". "Prove the existence of God from the order (or purpose) of the world": Everything in the world (including creatures) is active for a purpose, and its activities always follow the same way in order to get the best result. Obviously, their pursuit of goals is not accidental, but planned. If they are not under the command of a knowledgeable and intelligent person, then they cannot move to their destination. "So, there must be a wisdom, and all natural things depend on it to point to their purpose. This kind of existence, we call it God ". Thomas's five proofs of God's existence are different from Anselmus's ontological proof of God's existence form, because they quote and transform Aristotle's theories of movement and change, causality, potential and reality, and natural purpose. But in essence, it still follows the unique ideological line of medieval realism-God is the most beautiful, true and noble thing, so God exists.
Thomas, as a master of scholasticism, on the one hand knows that the existence of God is the center and cornerstone of the whole scholasticism theory, on the other hand, he also knows that there is an unavoidable problem in the proof of God's existence, that is, "the Christian God cannot be verified, and the basis of God's existence lies in the imagination or thinking of believers, and there is no objective reality".
For this problem, Thomas started with the distinction between knowledge and belief. On the one hand, he believes that the existence and trinity of God are beyond the understanding of human natural rational ability, and can only be the truth of faith. On the other hand, he believes that the existence of God is not directly self-evident for human reason, so it needs to be proved. However, "man's natural reason can only know God through creation. Knowing God from the creation is from the result to the cause. Therefore, the god that man's natural reason can know is only the characteristic that it must be the root of all things in the world. In the face of God's theory, it is only based on this. " In this way, Thomas not only proved the existence of God by using man's natural rational ability, but also avoided people's superficial criticism of all kinds of proofs. Because in Thomas' view, what man's natural rational ability proves is only the unity of God (meaning that God must be the root of all things in the world), not the trinity, which belongs only to the field of belief.
In this way, since man's natural rational ability can't fully prove the existence of God, then the existence of God can only be guaranteed by the truth of faith. "Faith is the determination of the invisible". Therefore, Thomas tried to prove the existence of God, but this argument not only failed in itself, but also weakened its theological status. Thomas's political thought is theocracy, and its core is that God is above everything else and everything serves God. He advocated that politics belongs to religion, secular belongs to the church, and the emperor is ordered by the Pope. Its essence is to safeguard the interests of feudal religious theology and the church.
First of all, Thomas agrees with Aristotle's view that man is an animal in society, pointing out that man is born to want political life. Man is not a single individual, he only relies on his own reason to achieve his goal. He was born as a social or political existence, living in society with his partners. The most obvious sign of human sociality is that only people express their thoughts through language intermediary, while other animals can only express their feelings with ordinary voices.
Secondly, Thomas pointed out that since society is natural for people, so is a country that maintains social order. Society and country have sacred justice and authority. The state is neither the product of original sin nor the result of individualism. It was established for the public interest. He admitted that monarchy, aristocracy and democracy are all good forms, but the best regime in human society is one controlled by one person, that is, monarchy.
Finally, Thomas pointed out that the purpose of the church is to pursue supernatural goodness, that is, to know God. The supernatural good is higher than the public good pursued by the state, so the church is higher than the state. In the final analysis, the country should obey the orders of the church, and the king is a servant of God.