Philosophy: Is Aquinas Overrated?

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cpayne

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I almost froze up as I forced myself to type the title of this thread. However, the topic came up on another thread and necessitated a new one.

I’ll start off: Should old Aquinas be forgot? No, of course not. He is:
(1) the pre-eminent Catholic philosopher.
Broadening the scope a bit:
(2) the pre-eminent Christian philosopher.
And:
(3) one of the top five philosophers, religious or not.
And the Summa Theologica, although perhaps not his best work, is the best general introduction to his thought.

CHARGE!
 
cpayne said:
I almost froze up as I forced myself to type the title of this thread. However, the topic came up on another thread and necessitated a new one.

I’ll start off: Should old Aquinas be forgot? No, of course not. He is:
(1) the pre-eminent Catholic philosopher.
Broadening the scope a bit:
(2) the pre-eminent Christian philosopher.
And:
(3) one of the top five philosophers, religious or not.
And the Summa Theologica, although perhaps not his best work, is the best general introduction to his thought.

CHARGE!
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cpayne,

This may be a digression (in post 2!), but if the ST isn’t his best work, which work would no nominate. The Summa Contra Gentiles? One of the Disputed Questions?

Edwin
 
Contarini said:
cpayne,

This may be a digression (in post 2!), but if the ST isn’t his best work, which work would no nominate. The Summa Contra Gentiles? One of the Disputed Questions?

Edwin
Click to expand...
Don’t get me wrong; I think the ST is wonderful. However, a lot of it is a systematic ordering and repetition of things he already had written. For his best work (IMHO), I would nominate Summa Contra Gentiles, as you mentioned, and De Veritate.
 
I don’t understand the question.

Is Aquinas in such error that he needs to be forgotten?
 
cpayne said:
I almost froze up as I forced myself to type the title of this thread. However, the topic came up on another thread and necessitated a new one.

I’ll start off: Should old Aquinas be forgot? No, of course not. He is:
(1) the pre-eminent Catholic philosopher.
Broadening the scope a bit:
(2) the pre-eminent Christian philosopher.
And:
(3) one of the top five philosophers, religious or not.
And the Summa Theologica, although perhaps not his best work, is the best general introduction to his thought.

CHARGE!
Click to expand...
Hmmm… I think I’d have to hear some cogent arguments *against *this position to really respond. On my own, I can’t really think of any reason a serious student of theology would consider him “overated.”
 
cpayne said:
Don’t get me wrong; I think the ST is wonderful. However, a lot of it is a systematic ordering and repetition of things he already had written. For his best work (IMHO), I would nominate Summa Contra Gentiles, as you mentioned, and De Veritate.
Click to expand...
Makes sense to me!

Edwin
 
Fidelis said:
Hmmm… I think I’d have to hear some cogent arguments *against *this position to really respond. On my own, I can’t really think of any reason a serious student of theology would consider him “overated.”
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He’s not overrated. That based on his influence on theology/philosophy.

But perhaps the OP could reframe the question to get a good discussion going. :cool:
 
Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!

The way many Catholics carry on you would think that every other philosopher in the history of humanity was a slack-jawed mouth-breather.

Is he good? Of course. No question, he’s brilliant.
Should one pack up the store and quit looking for alternative points of view? No! No one philosopher is so great, so comprehensive, so watertight that one should stop investigating what others have to say.

There is the whole, “Jesus is our saviour and Aquinas is our philosopher” mind set that I don’t think does anyone any good. Especially because I am quite sure that there are fewer people who have read Summa Theologica than there are people who are convinced it’s a watertight argument proving everything that they believe in.

Thanks for posting this thread. It was nice to get that off my chest.
 
Ani_Ibi said:
He’s not overrated. That based on his influence on theology/philosophy.

But perhaps the OP could reframe the question to get a good discussion going. :cool:
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Good idea.

In another thread, the question simply was asked by a poster, “Am I the only Catholic who thinks Aquinas was overrated?” Some other posters mentioned they would like to discuss this on a separate thread. This is that thread.🙂

So let me narrow my point to allow a better entry into what I think the other poster had in mind. Aquinas is often mentioned as something like “the Christian Aristotle”–in a way that implies he was primarily unoriginal, but good at adapting Aristotle to Christianity. The other common attitude is, “Well, yeah, he’s quite a theologian, but you can’t really call him a philosopher. Even his philosophical arguments are founded on faith.”

I disagree with both these views. The latter first: Yes, he was a wonderful theologian and his thought is clearly based on his Christianity. But his arguments are first and foremost logical in nature, and can be addressed purely logically.

Second, I think Aquinas goes way past Aristotle, not only in adapting Aristotle to Christianity, but also in extrapolating beyond Aristotle, analyzing the implications of Aristotle’s thought, and correcting Aristotle where necessary.

The best presentation of all this in one place is the Summa Theologica. Further, I actually use the ST as a devotional sometimes–it is so wonderfully calming, since Aquinas’s personality comes across so well in it: serene, free of heat and anger, completely confident in the power of truth to overcome error.

So now: Hey, you other posters over there! Come hither!

Also, Ani Ibi–you are sort of the Philosophy Questionmeister–feel free to rephrase in any way you think would be more helpful. (I mean this sincerely–feel free.)
 
Everstruggling said:
Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!

The way many Catholics carry on you would think that every other philosopher in the history of humanity was a slack-jawed mouth-breather.

Thanks for posting this thread. It was nice to get that off my chest.
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First of all, you’re welcome.

Second, not only are other philosophers slack-jawed mouth-breathers, but they are often actively hostile to Truth, Good, and Beauty. This therefore makes them Bottom-dwelling, Gill-breathing, Cheese-lipped Warthogs from Hell, in addition.

Bring on the competition. Heidegger, Sartre, Russell? Aquinas could deal with 'em without interrupting his Dictation of the Truth by Which We Should Live.

IMHO, of course.
😃
 
I usually frame my own philosophical enquiries beginning and ending with Aquinas, but I definitely try to fill the space in between with other philosophy.

Plus, I personally find that other philosophers bore me: Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, etc. I feel it’s a waste of time and energy really. What can they possibly say that would benefit me? Rarely, anything.

I think in 25-50 more years, Pope Benedict XVI’s writings will be treasured as invaluable philosophy, but probably not up the standard Aquinas always will.

The question is, though, would we value Aquinas so much if the ST had not been used at Trent?
 
Epistemes said:
The question is, though, would we value Aquinas so much if the ST had not been used at Trent?
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And should it have been? In other words: Should Aquinas be considered THE “official” Catholic philosopher?
 
Plus, I personally find that other philosophers bore me: Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, etc. I feel it’s a waste of time and energy really. What can they possibly say that would benefit me? Rarely, anything.
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The problem with that thinking is that if Aquinas had used it, we wouldn’t know his name today.
 
cpayne said:
Yes, but life is short and Kant, Hegel, Heidegger are so lo-ooo-ooo-ooong.
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We don’t have a smiley for the hands on the hips, the one eyebrow raised, and the foot tapping but this one’s close enough:

:ehh:
 
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