The First Way Explained

[Linusthe2nd]

One final post unless someone comes on and comments. I want to emphase the importance of post 191 since it establishes the Unmoved Mover as causing motion/change in the universe by an eternal creation by origin, but not in time, of all in the universe. And I wish to emphasize once again the importance of the link to Dr. William E. Carroll’s presention here: dhspriory.org/thomas/english/QDdePotentia.htm

And I would like to quote one sentence by Thomas Aquinas from De Potentia, Question 3, Artical V, from the footnotes in Carroll’s presentation, which is just astounding.

" Thus reason proves and faith holds that all things are created by God…" of course you must keep the distinction betwee the two concepts of creation. Only creation in time out of nothing is De Fide. Creation by origin is open to reason.

Finally I would like to give a list of links to presentations by Dr. Carroll. He is a man worth following.

faraday.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/Biography.php?ID=224 ( a list of publications )

afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/william-carroll-on-creation-and-the-big-bang/ ( a one hour video on the subject I have been talking about )

upload.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1213043?format=mov&quality=medium ( similar video delivered at Oxford )

catholiceducation.org/articles/sc0035.html ( an important paper on Creation, Evolution, and Thomas Aquinas )

biologos.org/blog/creation-cosmology-and-the-insights-of-thomas-aquinas ( a short but important paper )

lyceumphilosophy.com/Lyceum-1-1.pdf ( an important paper )

prospectmagazine.co.uk/philosophy/aquinas-and-the-big-bang-william-carroll-faraday-institute ( an important article, 2012 on Aquinas and the Big Bang , you have to sign on or subcribe)

theology.ox.ac.uk/people/staff-list/dr-william-carroll.html ( his web sit in case anyone would like to study under him )

Linus2nd

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Addendum: Here is an excellent analysis of Thomas’ First Way by the brilliant Philosopher of Nature, Fr. William A. Wallace which he gives in an online course:
home.comcast.net/~icuweb/c02006.htm#2

All of Lecutre 6 should be studied carefully.:

6th Lecture: Nature’s First Unmoved Mover

1. Aquinas’s Prima Via
2. The Motor Causality Principle
3. Validity in the Present Day
4. Three Instances of Local Motion
5. Efficient and Material Causality
6. Aquinas’s Own Objection
7. Nature’s First Unmoved Mover

In chapter 3 he gives explains how the argument has not been invalidated by either Newton’s Laws nor by the later developments of modern science, much as I have explained above. There is always an external agent which imparts an impetus which alters the nature of the moved mover so that it moves until stopped.

In chapter 4 he gives three examples.

In chapter 7 he concludes:

Therefore, the first cause is not a body, and does not have parts on which it depends for its being and acting. It is not composed of matter and form, nor of potency and act. It is not capable of being moved or having motion, either by itself or by something else, but it is the unmoved mover of other things. Because it is unmoved, it is not a temporal being but eternal. Because it is unmoved and incorporeal, it does not cause motion mechanically, as one body moves another from without, but rather as mind or intelligence moves a body with a higher order of action.

Linus2nd

 

[Richca]

Below are a couple of videos which I thought explained the First Way well and fairly. They aren’t too long, so watch them and comment.

Linus2nd

Linus2nd,
This has been a great and informative thread. Of course, I do have some questions on what exactly Aristotle or St. Thomas meant concerning some things and I’d like to post these questions sometime in the near future and get some feedback.

God bless, Richca

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Linus2nd,
This has been a great and informative thread. Of course, I do have some questions on what exactly Aristotle or St. Thomas meant concerning some things and I’d like to post these questions sometime in the near future and get some feedback.

God bless, Richca

Glad to see you back and to see this thread resurrected. Yes, there is a lot here. I hope all the links are still active. You will have to over look my occasional steamy responses. Sometimes my patience was tried to the limit .

Pax
Linus2nd

 

[Blue_Horizon]

There is a lot here and from time to time I will post something else. But the essential argument has been presented and I think proven. That is , we can prove the existence of a God, that can be identified as the God of Christianity, even by limiting The First Way to strictly local motion.

Linus2nd

Oops, wrong thread!

Not by a long shot sorry Linus…there are still numerous unresolved issues here.
I, for one, simply don’t have the time to pursue them further at the moment.