Divine Providence in Aquinas’s Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics, and Its Relevance to the Question of Evolution and Creation

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (4):637-656 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper presents a philosophical argument for divine providence by Aquinas. I suggest that upon returning to Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics to prepare his commentaries on these texts, Aquinas recognized that his stock argument from natural teleology to divine providence (the fifth way and its versions) needed to be filled out. Arguments from natural teleology can prove that God’s providence extends to what happens for the most part, but they cannot show that God’s providence also includes what happens for the least part. In order to prove the latter, Aquinas claims that one must argue from a higher science, which he then does with all characteristic clarity. This paper presents this argument, discusses what this means for his previous arguments from teleology, and discusses the argument’s relevance to the contemporary discussion about creation and evolution.

Similar books and articles

Santo Tomás y el motor inmóvil.David Torrijos Castrillejo - 2011 - Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval 18:123-136.
Gersonides: Judaism within the limits of reason.Seymour Feldman - 2010 - Portland, Or.: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
Creation, Providence and Miracles.William Lane Craig - 1998 - In Brian Davies (ed.), Philosophy of Religion. Georgetown Univ Pr. pp. 136-162.
Siger of Brabant on Divine Providence and the Indeterminacy of Chance.Andrew LaZella - 2011 - International Philosophical Quarterly 51 (4):483-500.
Classics and Global Warming.J. A. Towey - 2008 - Classics Broadsheet (125).
Aristotle and Two Medieval Aristotelians on the Nature of God.R. Houser - 2011 - International Philosophical Quarterly 51 (3):355 - 375.
On Whether Aquinas’s Ipsum Esse Is “Platonism”.Stephen L. Brock - 2006 - Review of Metaphysics 60 (2):269-303.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-10-26

Downloads
583 (#27,595)

6 months
229 (#9,137)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?