Dissertations / Theses: 'Thomas of Aquinas'

1

Clauson, David William. "The theodicy of Thomas Aquinas." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1989. http://www.tren.com.

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2

Sakowski, Derek J. "Aquinas, Owens, and individuation." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 1999. http://www.tren.com.

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3

McCabe, Joseph F. "Prudence in St. Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6866.

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In the present thesis, we attempt to explicate St. Thomas's understanding of prudence an all-important virtue. In the introduction, we demonstrate how prudence is an exigency of man's rational nature, showing that without it man is incapable of acting according to reason and attaining his end. Within our analysis, we identify the major influences on St. Thomas's conception of prudence, in descending order of importance, as: Aristotle, St. Albert the Great, Philip the Chancellor, and William of Auxerre and provide a commentary on the specific contribution of each of these authors. In the second section, we attempt to summarize the contemporary context of the debate on prudence. We look briefly at the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Josef Pieper, and Gilbert Meilaender. As well, we point out that with the recent publication of Daniel Nelson's book, The Priority of Prudence, new life has been injected into the present debate on St. Thomas's understanding of the relation between prudence and the natural law. In the third and final section, we outline in detail St. Thomas's actual conception of the nature and exercise of the virtue of prudence. In this regard, we show that St. Thomas considers prudence a good operative habit of the practical intellect. We remark how St. Thomas views the three principal acts of prudence as: deliberation, practical judgment, and command, with this last being the proper act of the virtue. Finally, in our concluding paragraphs, we return to the issues raised by the Nelson book mentioned above and propose our thesis in this regard. This is, simply, that although Nelson is perhaps wrong to portray the 'natural law tradition' surrounding Aquinas as so rigidly deductivist, he is right to emphasize that St. Thomas's ethical theory is fundamentally virtue and prudence-based and not natural law-based. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Shimek, John Paul. "Thomas Aquinas on just war." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2006. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p029-0661.

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5

Hooten, James R. "St. Thomas Aquinas and virtue epistemology." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2006. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p050-0136.

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6

Westberg, Daniel. "Right practical reason : Aristotle, action, and prudence in Aquinas /." Oxford [u.a.] : Clarendon Press, 2002. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0606/93044415-d.html.

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7

Keating, Mary Dolora. "Human acts according to St. Thomas Aquinas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004.

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8

Schwartz, Daniel. "Thomas Aquinas on friendship, concord and justice." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.396130.

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9

Jenkins, John Ignatius. "Knowledge, faith and philosophy in Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.385468.

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10

Gardner, Elinor. "Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Death Penalty." Thesis, Boston College, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/712.

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Thesis advisor: Arthur Madigan
Catholic moral philosophers and theologians for centuries used Thomas Aquinas's defense of the death penalty as a point of reference in defending the state's right to execute. Recent Church documents such as Evangelium Vitae, however, seem to take a different approach to the question than Aquinas did. In secular contemporary treatments of the death penalty, Aquinas's account is often caricatured or simply overlooked. One of the reasons for this is the lack of a thorough treatment of the death penalty in the thought of Aquinas. This dissertation seeks to address that deficiency. I present Aquinas's account of capital punishment as an example of determining civil punishments through the exercise of practical reason. Aquinas's thought sanctions neither an absolute acceptance nor an absolute rejection of the death penalty; for him, this is not a question that admits of absolutes. Like other punishments, the death penalty is a determination made by human reason. Its justification depends on specific historical and cultural circumstances and on the needs of the political community, as well as on the severity of the offense. Killing a guilty person is not intrinsically evil, in Aquinas's view, but it is nonetheless a last resort, when nothing else can be done for the good of the community. It may be that recent Church documents have avoided making use of the Thomistic teaching on the death penalty, even where this could have made their reasoning clearer, for fear that such arguments would be misunderstood, or in order to make a clearer case for forgoing the penalty. If this dissertation contributes to our understanding of what Thomas actually says about CP, it will be helpful in reconciling the thought of John Paul II with the tradition of Catholic thought on capital punishment, as well as in offering a reasonable way for thinking about punishments in general
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Philosophy

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11

Keating, Mary Dolora. "Human acts according to St. Thomas Aquinas." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2003. http://www.tren.com.

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12

Masek, Mary Katerina. "Natural law and synderesis according to Thomas Aquinas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

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Rosheger, John P. "Transcending the chasm Aquinas, God, and analogy /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.

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Jonasson, Robert Frederick. "The political uses of subsidiarity, from Thomas Aquinas to Thomas Courchene." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ58174.pdf.

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Viego, Carlos M. "Magnanimity a virtue in Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2005. http://www.tren.com.

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Martin, Thomas Joseph. "Thomas Aquinas on God's knowledge of non-existing possibles." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

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17

Erb, Heather McAdam. "Natural priority in the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0007/NQ41147.pdf.

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Westberg, Daniel. "The importance of prudence according to Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.304943.

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Austin, Nicholas Owen. "Thomas Aquinas on the Four Causes of Temperance." Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3742.

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Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan
This dissertation aims to give a theoretical account of the cardinal virtue of temperance that portrays it as an attractive (albeit demanding) virtue, and provides the justification and method for applying it to multiple spheres of life today. To this end, it offers a critical interpretation and retrieval of Saint Thomas Aquinas' account of the four causes of temperantia in the Summa Theologiae. I claim that, for Thomas, the four causes of a moral virtue are its mode (formal cause), matter and subject (material cause), proper end (final cause) and agent (efficient cause). Less technically, they can be expressed in terms of five guiding questions to be used in understanding any given virtue: What is the practical wisdom actualized by that virtue? What is the sphere of life with which the virtue is concerned? What aspect of the human heart and mind does the virtue modify? What is the virtue for? What causes the virtue to exist and increase? To answer to these five questions is to give an account of a moral virtue. This dissertation develops and applies this causal method for analyzing a moral virtue, both as a means of interpreting Thomas' account of temperance, and as a tool for constructing a theory of temperance for today. Temperance, I claim, can be defined as the modulation of attraction for the sake of right relationship. It is developed through both discipline and grace. Temperance does not repress desire, but forms and channels its positively, placing it at the service of right relationship to oneself, others, the earth and God. It does limit and restrain desire, but always for the sake of deeper and more meaningful goods. Temperance therefore modulates harmoniously between the restraint and the redirection of desire, the fast and the feast. Temperance is often misunderstood as proposing a purely negative ideal of repression and constraint. The dissertation claims that, on the contrary, temperance is a positive and attractive virtue, and one that is urgently needed in consumer society
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Theology

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Trapp, Michael Vann. "Thomas Aquinas on the Nature of Singular Thought." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/52901.

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In his account of the intellectual cognition of singulars, Aquinas claims that the intellect cognizes singulars by way of mental images. Some recent commentators have claimed that Aquinas' appeal to mental images is inadequate to account for the intellectual cognition of singulars because mental images considered in terms of their qualitative character alone have content that is general and are, therefore, insufficient to determine reference to a singular. That is, if Aquinas takes mental images to refer to singulars because those singulars perfectly resemble the mental images, then his account is deficient. In my paper, I argue that the critical interpretation above is predicated on a misunderstanding of Aquinas regarding the intentionality of images. I investigate Aquinas' account of the intentionality of images in order to show that Aquinas understands the reference of mental images to be determined not by their qualitative character alone but also by the causal relation that obtains between the cognizer and a singular.
Master of Arts

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Ryan, Robert J. "Thomas Aquinas on man's natural desire for God." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2008. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p029-0729.

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Smith, Cheryl A. "A tertium quid the interactive dualism of Thomas Aquinas /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2000. http://www.tren.com.

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Bredemeyer, Ryan M. "Divine causation and human freedom according to Thomas Aquinas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2003. http://www.tren.com.

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Ledinich, Steven. "A study of substantial change in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas." Phd thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2018. https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/download/fb79bb39304de454e8c50c42f95dccb5638cb0799e2c600ac221445aa62f284c/1286906/LEDINICH_2018_A_study_of_substantial_change.pdf.

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This dissertation examines substantial change as explained by St Thomas Aquinas in a number of his works. It provides a systematic exposition, explanation and defence of his account of substantial change, arguing that it is not only satisfactory but also in accord with a sound philosophy of nature as well as being metaphysically consistent. The central aim of the dissertation is to explain how substantial changes are said to occur, that is, to explain the process of substantial change. This process involves a transition from potency to act, which constitutes the essence of change. The explanation of the process of substantial change is said to be a hylomorphic explanation, in that it involves the postulation of two per se principles of nature, namely prime matter as the potential principle and substantial form as the actuating principle, and one per accidens principle, namely privation. This dissertation deals with its topic in five chapters. The first chapter deals with some considerations preliminary to the investigation of substantial change. It considers what is meant by substance, the argument that there are many different substances, and the evidence of substantial change. There is then examined three possible explanations of substantial change, namely annihilation/creation, transubstantiation and a substratum theory. St Thomas’s explanation is identified as a substratum theory, and more particularly as a hylomorphic version of a substratum theory. According to this substratum theory, substantial change involves one substantial form replacing another in the underlying substratum of prime matter. The central aim of the dissertation is to explain how the prime matter undergoes the transition from potentially possessing a substantial form to actually possessing it. The second chapter examines the three principles of change, namely matter, form and privation, beginning with accidental change and then arguing by way of analogy to substantial change. At the end of the chapter, five difficulties or objections are raised, which are then answered in subsequent chapters. The fifth difficulty is in fact the principal problem addressed in the dissertation, namely how to explain the origin of the new substantial form in the prime matter. The third and fourth chapters examine the process of substantial change and in particular respond to the principal problem of the dissertation. Three possible explanations for the origin of substantial forms are examined, namely that the form was actual but latent in the prime matter, that it was created by an external agent or that it was educed from the potency of prime matter. St Thomas argues for the third explanation of eduction, from the Latin ex ducere, meaning ‘to bring out of.’ The fourth chapter examines in detail the process of eduction by which a new substantial form is produced. In particular the role of dispositions in prime matter is examined. Prime matter is said to be indirectly disposed by means of changes in the accidents inhering directly in the composite supposit, i.e., the individual substance. The fifth and final chapter considers the objections raised at the end of chapter two in light of some modern authors and replies are given to these objections. It is concluded that St Thomas’s account is sufficiently robust to provide a philosophical explanation of substantial change based upon metaphysical principles.

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Farmer, Linda L. "Matter and the human body according to Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq26115.pdf.

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Pilsner, Joseph. "The specification of human actions in St. Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310103.

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FERNANDEZ, MARTIN UGARTECHE. "THE METAPHOR IN SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS AND PAUL RICOEUR." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2008. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=12438@1.

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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
O estudo visa mostrar a natureza da metáfora, e em particular seu valor especulativo e fundamento ontológico (ou ontologia implícita) para Santo Tomás de Aquino e Paul Ricoeur, realizando uma comparação entre as duas concepções. Em um primeiro momento, é apresentada a concepção tomista da metáfora, através do recurso a quatro intérpretes do Aquinate (Penido, McInerny, Cruz e Duffy). Em um segundo momento é apresentada a concepção de Paul Ricoeur, especialmente em A metáfora viva. Na parte final do trabalho, são comparadas a incorporação da imagem no discurso especulativo (valor especulativo da metáfora) e a relação metáfora-ontologia (fundamento ontológico da metáfora) nos dois autores.
The study aims at showing the nature of metaphor, particularly its speculative value and its ontological foundation (or implicit ontology), for Saint Thomas Aquinas and Paul Ricoeur, making a comparison between both conceptions. In a first moment, Aquinas` conception of metaphor is presented, recurring to four interpreters (Penido, McInerny, Cruz and Duffy). In a second moment, Ricoeur`s conception of metaphor is displayed, especially as presented in The living metaphor. In the final part of the work, the incorporation of image in speculative discourse (speculative value of metaphor) and the relation metaphor-ontology (ontological foundation of metaphor) in both authors are compared.

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Toft, Elizabeth Beshear. "Christ's Role in Sanctification According to St. Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, Boston College, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3731.

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Thesis advisor: Frederick G. Lawrence
This study investigates Aquinas' understanding of Christ's role in sanctification. In discussing the soteriological effect of Christ's passion, Aquinas makes a distinction between the manner in which the soteriological effect is brought about (modo efficiendi), the effect in itself, and the way the effect is obtained. The dissertation explores Aquinas' understanding of the third element - the securing of the effect of Christ's passion - and the relation of this third element to the first two. Sanctifying grace is given as a result of Christ's saving acts, is infused by an act of the Holy Spirit, and conforms its recipients to the Holy Spirit. But Christ's role in sanctification does not cease once the Holy Spirit is given. In Aquinas' judgment, Christ continues to be present in the giving of the gift, a giving that is also consequent upon a being conformed to Christ. The dissertation builds toward an examination of how Aquinas understands this being conformed to Christ, especially in light of Aquinas' conception of faith as a knowledge of God, of Christ as the source and object of faith's knowledge, and of charity's relation to this knowledge, all of which are analyzed against Aquinas' strict adherence to the principle that humans cannot know God in his essence so long as they remain in time
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Theology

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Twetten, Walter S. "The doctrine of divine simplicity in Thomas Aquinas and a contemporary defense." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1987. http://www.tren.com.

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Boland, Vivian. "Ideas in God according to Saint Thomas Aquinas : sources and synthesis /." Leiden ; New York ; Köln : E. J. Brill, 1996. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb36693757q.

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Colón-Emeric, Edgardo Antonio. "Perfection in dialogue an ecumenical encounter between Wesley and Aquinas /." PDF version available through ProQuest, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.drew.edu/pqdweb?index=7&did=1579957341&SrchMode=1&sid=6&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1249055932&clientId=10355.

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Kizewski, Justin J. "The principle "unreceived act is unlimited" in the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

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Goodwin, Colin Robert, and res cand@acu edu au. "Praesentia Substantialis: an examination of the Thomistic metaphysics of the Eucharistic presence." Australian Catholic University. School of Philosophy, 2006. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp138.17052007.

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1. Aim of the Thesis. This thesis is concerned to investigate the schemata of metaphysical concepts, and the lines of philosophical argument, used by Thomas Aquinas in reaching conclusions about the nature of the change through which Christ becomes present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and about the nature of this continuing presence. Although the object to which the thesis relates is provided by doctrinal and theological affirmations, the perspective within which the investigation takes place is that of the reflective rationality distinctive of philosophy. Put differently, the aim of the thesis is to examine the speculative rational work undertaken by Thomas Aquinas in the course of his discussion of issues relating to the change of bread and of wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist - a discussion that Thomas introduces by first arguing to traditional Catholic belief about the outcome of this change. The examination engages with the reasonable explanatory power of the conceptual resources and the philosophical arguments drawn upon by the Angelic Doctor in his systematic study of the Eucharistic change, and of the implications of this change relative to the continuing presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 2. Scope of the Thesis. The parameters of the thesis are set by St Thomas’s discussions of Eucharistic change and presence that take place in part three, questions 75-77, of his Summa Theologiae, book four, chapters 60-68, of his Summa contra Gentiles, and book four, distinctions 10-11, of his Scriptum super Libris Sententiarum Petri Lombardi. Within these parameters are to be included contributions to the issues discussed by St Thomas made by Thomas de Vio Cajetan, Domingo Banez, and Silvester of Ferrara (Ferrariensis), major commentators on the work of Thomas. Extensive presentation, and scrutiny, of opposing arguments from Duns Scotus are also included. Following an introductory chapter concerned to situate, summarise, and indicate its principal assumptions, the thesis explores what is, for St Thomas, a major objection to affirming the substantially real presence of Christ in the Eucharist: such an affirmation is said to imply the ontological impossibility that Christ’s bodily reality is simultaneously present in more than one place. The response to this objection involves an analysis of the distinction between the primary and the secondary formal effects of dimensive quantity, and the use of this distinction to argue at some length that one and the same material thing may be simultaneously present in more than one place if the secondary formal effects of dimensive quantity that would spatially situate this thing in relation to its immediate surroundings are suspended. The thesis then considers three issues dealing with what becomes of the substance of the bread and of the wine at the Eucharistic consecration. In the first of these, Thomas rejects the claim that the substance of the bread and of the wine remains in existence on the altar, affirming that the bread and wine are changed at the level of substance into the body and blood of Christ. This position requires, and receives, sustained treatment of philosophical questions concerning ‘substance’, and change affecting the whole substance of a thing (within a hylomorphic understanding of material realities). Related problems of individuation, causal agency, and the logic of language that both signifies, and brings about, change, are considered. The second issue investigates the claim that the substance of the bread and of the wine is not changed after all into the body and blood of Christ but is either annihilated or changed into matter-in-an-earlier-state. This claim is rejected by St Thomas on philosophical grounds, and this section of the thesis engages critically with Cajetan on several points connected with Thomas’s arguments The third issue concerns, and affirms, the capacity of bread and wine to be changed substantially into the body and blood of Christ, at which point the thesis widens out to contrast a hylomorphic with a hylomeric account of matter, and to consider at some length Duns Scotus’s metaphysics of the Eucharist which oppose those of St Thomas. Chapter six of the thesis explores in some detail the responses of Cajetan and Ferrariensis to the challenges issued by Scotus, and the concluding chapter (chapter seven) provides an analysis of Thomistic ideas regarding three modes of the emergence of being: creation, natural change, transubstantiation. 3. Conclusions. The title asserts that the thesis is “an examination of the Thomistic metaphysics of the Eucharistic presence”. This examination endorses the following conclusions: 3.1 The schemata of metaphysical concepts employed by St Thomas (e.g. the concepts of substance, accident, esse, primary matter, substantial form, creation, natural change, obediential potentiality, primary/secondary formal effects of dimensive quantity), and his lines of philosophical argument, provide a clearly valid response to “the exigencies of the inquiring mind at work” in relation to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In other words, their reasonable explanatory power is evidently to be affirmed. 3.2 Pari passu the thesis indicates something of what could be called ‘the mystery of matter’ – the inexhaustible depths and potentialities of matter that the inquiring mind confronts when exploring matter in the distinctive situation that is matter’s special dependence on the First Cause in the Eucharistic change (transubstantiation). 3.3 The thesis is an instance of philosophical work undertaken in the first decade of the 21st century, and within the socio-cultural context of this time. This socio-cultural ‘situatedness’, although vastly different from the socio-cultural ‘situatedness’ of Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Cajetan, Ferrariensis, and Banez, has created no culturally relative barrier - no ‘incommensurability’ - such as to prevent an understanding of the conceptual/argumentative activity in which these thinkers engaged some centuries ago. Human beings always and everwhere ‘fit into’ the same Universe through their abiding and ineluctably shared openness to being and its first principles.

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Cavallin, Samuel. "Thomas Aquinas’ Universality Argument for the Immateriality of the Intellect : a reconstruction by Gyula Klima." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-176275.

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The paper investigates Gyula Klima’s reconstruction of Aquinas argument for the immateriality of the intellect by the concept of human thought and its success to avoid the Content Fallacy. This fallacy, which is coined by Robert Pasnau, describes an illicit inference from a description of the nature of a thought, to what a thought represents, its content. The focus will be on a debate between Klima and Pasnau in Proceedings of the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, but also on Adam Wood’s critique of Klima. The paper concludes that if Klima is interpreted correctly, the argument is valid and Klima’s reconstruction of Aquinas argument does not fall victim to the Content Fallacy.

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Vanden, Bout Melissa Rovig. "Thomas Aquinas and the Generation of the Embryo: Being Human before the Rational Soul." Thesis, Boston College, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104090.

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Thesis advisor: Peter Kreeft
Thomas Aquinas is generally viewed as the chief proponent of the theory of delayed animation, the view that the human embryo does not at first have the rational soul proper to human beings. Thomas follows Aristotle's embryology, in which an embryo is animated by a succession of souls. The first is a nutritive soul, having the powers of growth, nutrition, and generation. The second is a sensitive soul, having the additional powers of locomotion and sensing. The third and final soul is the human, or rational soul, which virtually includes the nutritive and sensitive souls. Because Thomas holds that there is only one substantial form of a composite, none of these forms overlap to provide continuity. It is therefore exceedingly difficult to speak of the embryo as one enduring subject through the succession of souls. Moreover, because of the way that the nutritive soul is associated with plants, and the sensitive soul is associated with animals, interpreters generally hold that for Thomas the embryo is first a plant, then an animal, and with the advent of the rational soul, finally a human being. Those who write about the ontological status of the embryo assume that delayed animation necessarily entails delayed hominization, that is, that the embryo only becomes human at a later stage of its development, when it receives the rational soul. Those who hold a delayed animation view of the embryo often invoke Thomas' schedule of successive souls in the embryo as a model for viewing it as not yet human in early stages of development, linking hominization to the ability to perform intellectual operations. That Thomas specifies that a body must be sufficiently organized before the advent of the rational soul seems to them to solidify their view of the embryo as not sufficiently organized to be truly human. Additionally, even outside of an explicitly Thomist framework, Thomist metaphysical principles are often invoked in arguments that center on twinning and totipotency of blastomeres in the early embryo, and whether that early embryo is one individual if it is potentially many. Those who hold immediate animation views (i.e., the embryo receives the rational soul at once, with no mediate states) often adopt the strategy of importing modern data on the internal organization and self-directed development of the embryo, and argue that if only Thomas had known that the zygote was not unformed and undifferentiated, that it has within itself all it needs to become a mature adult human, he would have held that the embryo is immediately suited to receive the rational soul, and thus is human from conception. In this way they attempt to employ a change in scientific data to negate the need for a succession of forms in the embryo. The author identifies the being of the human embryo as a prior metaphysical problem within Thomas' work, and advances a different interpretation of his views: that the embryo, even before the advent of the rational soul, is human. To establish this claim, she traces the problems which emerge in the current debate about when the embryo becomes human, and argues that contrary to expectation, it is not necessary to equate immediate rational animation with immediate hominization, demonstrating that all other approaches yield results entirely untenable for Thomas. A survey of texts reveals that Thomas did in fact view the embryo as human before the rational soul, though he does not methodically work out the implications of that view in a number of areas. Moreover, a distinction based on a passage in Aristotle's Generation of Animals with regard to an additional meaning of generation may resolve the ambivalence in Thomas' account of the embryo as passive under the formative power of the father's semen. Finally, a third meaning of generation is offered to show that Thomas recognized and wished to resolve the difficulty of explaining the continuity and identify of the embryo in the succession of souls. What results is an immediate hominization view of the embryo that, because it accommodates Thomas' succession of souls and does not depend upon importing modern biological data on the embryo, is consistent with Thomas' account, and is thoroughly cognizant of the way Thomas viewed human nature and the final end of human being
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Philosophy

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Piknjac, Darko. "Metaphysical groundwork of the Five ways of St. Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0005/NQ41273.pdf.

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37

Kerr, G. "The metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas and Neo-Thomistic realism." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.546368.

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Silva, Ignacio A. "Divine action in nature : Thomas Aquinas and the contemporary debate." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.522799.

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Kieu, Tu Van. "The conformity of Christ's two wills according to Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, Boston College, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108464.

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Romero, Carrasquillo Francisco José. "The finality of religion in Aquinas' theory of human acts." [Milwaukee, Wis.] : e-Publications@Marquette, 2009. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/21.

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Ekman, Mary Julian. "Transcendental good and moral evil in the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2008. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p029-0735.

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Prima, Frank Joseph. "The human soul as form and Hoc aliquid according to St. Thomas Aquinas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

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Lai, Poon Y. "[A comparative study of Mo-Tze's universal love and Thomas Aquinas' charity]." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1994. http://www.tren.com.

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Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 1995.
Chinese text and title page, with English summary and bibliography of English references. Author's name taken from microfiche header; English title from English summary. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-95).

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Jansen, Raymond. "Aquinas on the cogitative power and the generation of the sense appetite." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2005. http://www.tren.com.

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Farmer, Linda. "'Esse' and human individuation in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/7849.

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Haghighatkar, Azarmidokht. "The concept of essence in two early writings of Thomas Aquinas." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0002/MQ45053.pdf.

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Davison, Andrew Paul. "The conceptualisation of finitude in Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607873.

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Iribarren, Isabel. "The Trinitarian controversy between Durandus of St Pourcain and the Dominican Order in the early fourteenth century : the limits of theological dissent." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365635.

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McPike, David Roderick. "Thomas Aquinas on the Separability of Accidents and Dietrich of Freiberg’s Critique." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32867.

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The opening chapter briefly introduces the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist and the history of its appropriation into the systematic rational discourse of philosophy, as culminating in Thomas Aquinas’ account of transubstantiation with its metaphysical elaboration of the separability of accidents from their subject (a substance), so as to exist (supernaturally) without a subject. Chapter Two expounds St. Thomas’ account of the separability of accidents from their subject. It shows that Thomas presents a consistent rational articulation of his position throughout his works on the subject. Chapter Three expounds Dietrich of Freiberg’s rejection of Thomas’ view, examining in detail his treatise De accidentibus, which is expressly dedicated to demonstrating the utter impossibility of separate accidents. Especially in light of Kurt Flasch’s influential analysis of this work, which praises Dietrich for his superior level of ‘methodological consciousness,’ this chapter aims to be painstaking in its exposition and to comprehensively present Dietrich’s own views just as we find them, before taking up the task of critically assessing Dietrich’s position. Chapter Four critically analyses the competing doctrinal positions expounded in the preceding two chapters. It analyses the various elements of Dietrich’s case against Thomas and attempts to pinpoint wherein Thomas and Dietrich agree and wherein they part ways. It argues that Thomas’ arguments have a strength and consistency which Dietrich’s arguments clearly lack. Chapter Five applies the argumentative findings from Chapter Four to an assessment of the analyses found in recent philosophical literature of the dispute between Thomas and Dietrich. My analysis indicates that there are some serious and persistent deficiencies in these analyses – first, those treating Thomas’ position, and consequently those treating Dietrich’s – and offers some diagnosis of the root causes of these deficiencies. I conclude with remarks addressed to general doubts about the status of the question of the separability of accidents as an actual ‘philosophical’ question. Résumé: Le chapitre initial décrit brièvement la doctrine catholique de l’Eucharistie et l’histoire de l’appropriation de cette doctrine dans un cadre de discours systématiquement rationnel (c’est-à-dire, philosophique), terminant avec la doctrine de la transsubstantiation et l’élaboration métaphysique, tel que rendu par Thomas d’Aquin, de la séparabilité des accidents de leur sujet (une substance), c’est-à-dire, de la possibilité (surnaturelle) de l’existence des accidents sans aucun sujet. Le deuxième chapitre élabore l’explication de Thomas d’Aquin de la séparabilité des accidents de leur sujet. Est montré qu’au long de sa carrière Thomas n’a jamais basculé dans son articulation rationnelle de sa position. Au troisième chapitre est examiné le refus de la doctrine thomiste par Dietrich de Freiberg, surtout dans son traité De accidentibus, lequel se donne expressément à la démonstration de l’impossibilité absolue d’un accident séparé. En vue de l’analyse influent de Kurt Flasch, selon lequel Dietrich représente admirablement une ‘conscience de la méthode,’ ce chapitre vise à exposer soigneusement le progrès de l’argumentation du traité, tout juste comme le présente Dietrich, avant d’avancer à un analyse critique de sa position. Dans le quatrième chapitre sont soumises à l’analyse les positions rivales, celle de Thomas et celle de Dietrich. Les éléments du critique qu’apporte Dietrich contre Thomas sont examinés et l’analyse différencie les points d’accord et de désaccord entre les deux penseurs. Est démontré que l’argumentation de Thomas a une force et une consistance bien supérieure à celui de Dietrich. Dans le cinquième chapitre, sont appliquées les conclusions du quatrième chapitre à l’analyse de la littérature récente traitante de la dispute entre Thomas et Dietrich. Est montré que cette littérature comporte de graves méconnaissances de la position de Thomas, et aussi, en conséquence, de la critique de celle-ci apporté par Dietrich, et j’essaie d’élucider ce que sont les racines des inconséquences remarquées dans la littérature. Je termine en offrant quelques remarques qui s’addressent à certaines doutes générales concernant le vrai statut ‘philosophique’ de la question de la séparabilité des accidents.

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Wood, Andrew Francis. "Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Ratzinger's theology of divine revelation: a comparative study." Thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2018. https://doi.org/10.26199/5cb7af3a4828a.

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This dissertation is a comparative study of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and Joseph Ratzinger’s (b.1927) theology of the way God reveals, or divine Revelation. The Dissertation’s Question and Outline Early in his theological formation Ratzinger was disenchanted by the Neo-Scholastic presentation he received of Thomas’s theology from his seminary professors in Freising. Upon discovering philosophical Personalism, he subsequently acquired an Augustinian, Bonaventurian, and even neo-Platonic tendency. Despite this, he claims never to have rejected Aquinas or his doctrine. With his early work in Fundamental Theology, laying important foundations for his theological career, and the contentions over interpreting Aquinas between the twentieth-century’s Ressourcement and Neo-Thomistic theologians, along with Ratzinger’s influence on Dei verbum’s composition, an opening arises for a comparative study of his Revelation theology with Aquinas’s. Thus the dissertation seeks to answer whether or not Ratzinger’s Revelation theology is congruent with Aquinas’s, and if so, does it advance from Aquinas’s principles (although definitely unintendedly). The study therefore presents and compares their understand of: (1) Revelation’s essential purpose; (2) its essential act; and (3) how it is received. Presenting the evidence substantiating these claims, the dissertation takes a threefold approach. It outlines important background details, and identifies its key question, its methodological approach and sets its objectives (Section 1.). It presents the evidence of Aquinas and Ratzinger’s positions (Sections 2. to 4.), and finally compares them (Section 5.). The Dissertation’s Contention and Summary of its Argument This dissertation contends that the foundation of their differences lies in Aquinas’s Aristotelian intellectualism as a university professor, and Ratzinger’s philosophical Personalism, which he employed for pastoral reasons. Regarding Revelation’s purpose, Aquinas understands it as ultimately given for our salvation (i.e., the attainment of the beatific vision); while Ratzinger understands it as bringing about the loving dialogical communion between persons, climaxing in Christ himself. From his intellectualism, Aquinas understands the essential revelatory act as consisting in the divine illumination of the Prophet’s judgment (and Christ’s beatific vision) within an Aristotelian lineal history; whereas Ratzinger understands it as consisting in a Christological dialogue, unfolding in a circular or spiral Christocentric history. Regarding their understanding of Revelation’s reception, Aquinas posits that it essentially consists in the intellectual acceptance of the revealed sacra doctrina through divine faith; whereas Ratzinger posits that it consists in a personal encounter and one’s entrance into what he terms, the ‘Christ-Event,’ by entering the life, worship and faith of the Church (and especially through her liturgy). The dissertation contends that Ratzinger’s Revelation theology is congruent with Aquinas’s principles, since they fundamentally agree that the revelatory act is a divine ‘speech-act.’ (Although Thomas does not employ this exact term I believe it can be argued that it adequately describes his understanding). It also contends that Ratzinger advances Aquinas’s understanding by positing that Revelation is not just a ‘speech-act’ stuck in the past but has a perennial connotation as it is an ongoing dialogical ‘speech-act’ unfolding throughout history. Ratzinger does this by essentially incorporating history into his theology, as derived from his study of Bonaventure. Ratzinger also advances beyond Thomas’s understanding by affirming that for Revelation to be had it must be received, and that the proper receiving subject is not the individual believer but the believing community of the whole Church (this is ‘Revelation’s proper dialogue partner’). Here they differ in their respective understanding of the Church’s role. Whereas Ratzinger incorporates the Church into Revelation’s essential act, Aquinas understands it more as a guarantor of Revelation’s message. Regarding Revelation’s reception through faith, Aquinas understands it as an intellectual assent to the realities revealed; whereas Ratzinger understands it as consisting in a personal encounter whereby the believer enters into the divine dialogue of love by entering the Church’s life, teaching, worship, and especially her faith, as manifest in and through her liturgy. The Contribution made by this Comparative Study Undertaking this study, I offer a contribution to the ‘reconciliatory dialogue’ currently occurring between ‘intellectual descendants’ of the twentieth-century’s Catholic Ressourcement Movement and Neo-Scholastic Thomism. I contribute to our understanding of Aquinas’s positions concerning the way God reveals, and further our understanding of Revelation theology. The dissertation is not a historical study of Ratzinger and Aquinas, but a constructive study in systematic theology.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Thomas of Aquinas'

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