Timeline for Why must the first mover be unmovable?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
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| Jan 22, 2019 at 5:25 | comment | added | rs.29 | @virmaior I use "free thinking" colloquially, to show that thinking did have repercussions in those times. Second condemnation (1277) could not affect Aquinas directly, because he already died, but did show that philosophy was dangerous work in Aquinas's age . Although Tempier did have a certain point: proving God's existence using Aristotle is a fool's game. | |
| Jan 22, 2019 at 5:14 | comment | added | virmaior | "free thinking" is more of a term for the radical enlightenment, then the late medieval period. And the condemnations were in Paris... Many were after Aquinas' death and a few implicated things he had said ... | |
| Jan 22, 2019 at 5:10 | comment | added | rs.29 | @virmaior You misunderstood me - Aquinas certainly believed in God's existence, but if he didn't there is little chance we would know about him. Instead, he would be banned, perhaps executed, and his works would not survive to his day. As for condemnations you mention, they were local and didn't influence Paris (as Aquinas did know his works, and respected him) but it shows that free thinking was a luxury in those times. | |
| Jan 22, 2019 at 4:52 | comment | added | virmaior | I don't think it's accurate to suggest that fear for his life motivated Aquinas to write the things he did. It seems like a bad type of causal reasoning. / Regarding your take on them receiving Aristotle, it's contradicted by the situation in Paris; the reception of Aristotle whose works were mostly recovered after 1000 CE in the West does not mirror the reception of Plato (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condemnations_of_1210%E2%80%931277) | |
| Jan 22, 2019 at 4:34 | comment | added | rs.29 | @virmaior Aquinas was not Orthodox, he was Roman Catholic :) But in his age and time, of course he was committed to orthodoxy. Saying that God does not exists would cost him not only his title and job, but maybe even his life. You must remember that he simply set out to prove logically things that were indisputable in his time . If he came to different conclusion then expected it would be just a grounds for his punishment, it would not change mainstream beliefs. | |
| Jan 22, 2019 at 4:28 | comment | added | rs.29 | @virmaior Western universities had very little texts from ancient Greek philosophers, mostly Latin translations. . Therefore Aquinas relied on what he had, and didn't have much choice : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Classics | |
| Jan 21, 2019 at 14:56 | comment | added | virmaior |
You must remember that Aquinas was first and foremost a priest. Therefore, he could not just suddenly "discover" that idea of God (especially Christian idea of God) is contradictory to logic. This is an interesting claim, but it needs a bit of revision. If you added "committed to orthodoxy" after "priest" then it would make sense. There have been plenty of priests who weren't really committed to this sort of thing, so it doesn't automatically follow (even then) that a priest had to believe things that guaranteed orthodox conclusions.
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| Jan 21, 2019 at 14:54 | comment | added | virmaior |
he really didn't have much alternative for this <-- this is an odd claim. Are you familiar with the situation at the university of paris around the time of Aquinas?
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| Jan 20, 2019 at 13:24 | comment | added | rs.29 | @Geremia Aquinas respected Aristotle as authority (he really didn't have much alternative for this), but didn't accept all of his concepts . First mover is very convenient idea for Aquinas, because this could be his God. I already explained why God must be immovable. Aquinas however didn't agree with Aristotle in regards of "unmoved mover's" inability to influence our material world. | |
| Jan 20, 2019 at 2:14 | comment | added | Geremia | Aristotle believed in an eternal universe, yet he believed there is First Mover. How does Aquinas's belief in a non-eternal universe relate to whether the First Mover must be immovable? | |
| Jan 19, 2019 at 21:51 | history | answered | rs.29 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |