1. Introduction to course

Readings:

• Adriano Oliva, OP: Philosophy in the Teaching of Theology of Thomas Aquinas; in: The Thomist, 76, 3 (July 2012), pp. 397-430.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas, in: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/
• Hasse, D.: Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West; in:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/

2. Aquinas and Albert’s De Homine

Recent investigations have suggested that the epistemological views of Aquinas in his early Commentary on the Sentences are strongly influenced by Albert in his De homine written around 1245. Albert’s epistemology in the De homine on the other hand is derived from the study of Avicenna and Averroes, in particular from Averroes’s doctrine on human intellectual understanding.

Readings:

• Taylor, R.C.: Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, Book 2, distinction 17, question 2, article 1: “Whether there is one soul or intellect for all human beings”; in: Philosophical Psychology in Arabic Thought and the Latin Aristotelianism of the 13th Century, Luis X. López-Farjeat and Jörg Tellkamp, eds. (Paris: Vrin 2013), pp. 280-296.

3. Aquinas on the human soul: Aquinas, Aristotle, and Averroes

Aquinas had formed his understanding of Aristotle’s account of the soul and the intellect through his study of the Arabic tradition. How much is here “read” into Aristotle and how adequate is Aquinas understanding of this tradition?

Readings:

• Rowan, J. P.: Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, III, lectiones 7-10 =  commentary on Aristotle, De anima 3.4-3.5. in: Thomas Aquinas. A Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, P. Pasnau, tr. (New Haven: Yale U Press, 1999),  pp. 342-371.

4. Aquinas on philosophy and religion

For Aquinas there are two sources of knowledge for human beings, natural human powers (sensation, intellection) and God. The latter way provides knowledge either through revelation or through causality by which God shares knowledge directly with human beings. For Aquinas in consequence not all reality is knowable by humans through perception and exprience. But, Aquinas uses demonstration/reasoning in refutation of “incorrect” theological docrines, such as on the nature of the human soul. What is “this kind of reasoning”? What is its relation to philosophy? 

Readings:

• Summa contra gentiles, Book 1, ch. 1-8; (b) Summa theologiae, prima pars, Q. 1; English translation available
• Niederbacher, B. S. J.: The Relation of Reason to Faith; in:  B. Davies & E. Stump, eds.: Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 337-347.
• Stump, E.: Resurrection and the Separated Soul; in: B. Davies & E. Stump, eds.: Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 458-466.

5. Aquinas on proofs of God

The famous “Five Ways” by Thomas Aquinas are expressed in the “Summa theologian”. Aquinas relied here on the thought of Avicenna and Averroes for the formation of his arguments.

Readings:

• Summa theologiae, prima pars,
• Wippel, J. F.: Being; in: B. Davies & E. Stump, eds.: Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 77-84.
• Pawl, T.: The Five Ways; in: B. Davies & E. Stump, eds.: Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 115-134.

Suggested readings:

• Oppy, G.: Arguments for the Existence of God; in:  J. Marenbon, ed., Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 687-704.

Final exam