St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was the towering intellect of the High Middle Ages, the man who built on the philosophical system of Aristotle, on the concept of natural law, and on Christian theology to forge "Thomism," a mighty synthesis of philosophy, theology and the sciences of man. This young Italian was born an aristocrat, son of Landulph, count of Aquino at Rocco Secca in the kingdom of Naples. Thomas studied at an early age with the Benedictines, and later at the University of Naples. At the age of 15 he tried to enter the new Dominican Order, a place for Church intellectuals and scholars, but was physically prevented from doing so by his parents, who kept him confined for two years. Finally, St. Thomas escaped, joined the Dominicans, and then studied at Cologne and finally at Paris under his revered teacher, Albert the Great. Aquinas took his doctorate at the University of Paris, and taught there as well as at other university centers in Europe. Aquinas was so immensely corpulent that it was said that a large section had to be carved out of the round dinner table so that he could sit at it. Aquinas wrote numerous works, beginning with his Commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences in the 1250s, and ending with his masterful and enormously influential three-part Summa Theologica, written between 1265 and 1273. It was the Summa, more than any other work, that was to establish Thomism as the mainstream of Catholic scholastic theology in centuries to come.
My Ideal Philosopher will always be my favorite saint- Saint Thomas Aquinas. He is my ideal Philosopher because he is a great philosopher. He doesn't only speak in logical terms but he also speaks for the glory of God. In every word he says, it is always about friendship, goodness, love and God. Saint Thomas is not only a Great Philosopher, he is also known as the Greatest Theologian of all time. I also think that he is a great Philosopher because he makes his followers think critically. It is said to be that no single work of St. Thomas can be said fully to reveal his philosophy. His works may be classified according to their form and purpose.
The first principle of philosophy according to St. Thomas is the affirmation of being. From this he proceeded to a consideration of the manner in which the intellect achieves knowledge. For humans all knowledge begins by way of the senses, which are the medium through which he grasps the intelligible world, the universal. According to the position of Thomas, which is known as moderate realism, the form or the universal may be said to exist in three ways: in God, in things, and in the mind. He argues that it is by the knowledge of things that we come to know of God's existence. In the natural order what God is can be known only by analogy and negation.
Saint Thomas' conviction that the existence of God can be discovered by reason is shown by his proofs of the existence of God. His metaphysics relies on the Aristotelian concepts of potency and act, matter and form, being and essence. A thing that requires completion by another is said to be in potency to that other; the realization of potency is called actuality. The universe is conceived of as a series of things arranged in an ascending order of potency, an act at once crowned and created by God, who alone is pure act. Two other pairs of metaphysical concepts—matter and form, essence and being—are special cases of potency and act. St. Thomas's moral philosophy is derived from these distinctions as well, since the opposite of being does not exist and since the good is identical with being, evil is but the absence of good.
I believe that his greatest idea is the idea in which he says that those who have faith does not need any explanation because it is true that if you have faith, you simply believe that it is true because you feel that it is true and you believe in what you feel. If one does not have faith even if you have all the explanation in the world a person with no faith still won't believe because the essence of no faith simply means there is no right explanation and that nothing is "believable" only "unbelievable." As what Thomas Aquinas said:
“For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.”
#My Ideal Philosopher
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