What Is Aquinas Argument About That Principle
Thomas Aquinas
Summa Contra Gentiles Book One: God
Chapter 50: That God has a Proper Knowledge of All Things
I. Invoking the principle that an effect is known when its cause is known, Aquinas argues recursively that God has a proper and complete knowledge of everything there is. A. What was Aquinas’ argument about that principle?
1. Argument: “There is consequently nothing in any thing that is not caused by God, mediately or immediately. Whatever is in each and every thing can be known if we know God and all the causes that are between God and things.” (SCG 1.50.2)
2. Answer: God is the first cause of everything. The cause Aquinas has in mind is not about chronological set of events, but rather simultaneously existing dependency relationships. …show more content…
Answer: All things have causes. Intermediate causes are the causes between the first cause until its final effect; they are the intervening causes among the first cause and the final cause.
II. God knows the nature of a being in their essential accidents
A. Does God know things as they are distinct from one another?
1. Argument: “The eesential accidents of being are one and many… If, then, by knowing Hid essence, God knows the nature of being in a universal way, it follows that He knows multitude.” (SCG 1.50.6)
2. Answer: Beings in their nature have essential accidents and it varies from one to another. As God is an all-knowing God, he knows multitude, because it cannot be known without distinction. So God knows things as they are distinct from one another.
III. God will be the dullest of all knowers
A. Why would God be the dullest of all knowers if he would fail to know things in their distinction?
1. Argument: “If, then, God does not know things in their distinction, it follows that He is the most foolish being of all…” (SCG 1.50.10)
2. Answer: Human beings and non-human beings know the diverse things from one another. If this God does not know all the distinctions of all beings (creatures), then he is not God, because a God who is the Supreme Being, is
Summa Contra Gentiles Book One: God
Chapter 50: That God has a Proper Knowledge of All Things
I. Invoking the principle that an effect is known when its cause is known, Aquinas argues recursively that God has a proper and complete knowledge of everything there is. A. What was Aquinas’ argument about that principle?
1. Argument: “There is consequently nothing in any thing that is not caused by God, mediately or immediately. Whatever is in each and every thing can be known if we know God and all the causes that are between God and things.” (SCG 1.50.2)
2. Answer: God is the first cause of everything. The cause Aquinas has in mind is not about chronological set of events, but rather simultaneously existing dependency relationships. …show more content…
Answer: All things have causes. Intermediate causes are the causes between the first cause until its final effect; they are the intervening causes among the first cause and the final cause.
II. God knows the nature of a being in their essential accidents
A. Does God know things as they are distinct from one another?
1. Argument: “The eesential accidents of being are one and many… If, then, by knowing Hid essence, God knows the nature of being in a universal way, it follows that He knows multitude.” (SCG 1.50.6)
2. Answer: Beings in their nature have essential accidents and it varies from one to another. As God is an all-knowing God, he knows multitude, because it cannot be known without distinction. So God knows things as they are distinct from one another.
III. God will be the dullest of all knowers
A. Why would God be the dullest of all knowers if he would fail to know things in their distinction?
1. Argument: “If, then, God does not know things in their distinction, it follows that He is the most foolish being of all…” (SCG 1.50.10)
2. Answer: Human beings and non-human beings know the diverse things from one another. If this God does not know all the distinctions of all beings (creatures), then he is not God, because a God who is the Supreme Being, is