Abstract

In this paper, I examine several criticisms that can be raised against Aquinas’s Fourth Way. Each criticism draws a line of reasoning from a historical source to a contemporary analogue. The aim is to trace these objections from Aquinas’s own philosophical perspective to a contemporary standpoint: showing how arguments and positions today bear on his 13th C. argument and vice versa. Section One begins by reconstructing the argument itself. Then I address a series of objections questioning some fundamental element of Aquinas’ argument. Within each question/objection pair, we find a criticism aimed at a crucial aspect of the argument; thus giving us various possible ways to undermine it. The philosophical questions crucial to his argument make up Section Two and theological issues involved are the focus of Section Three. Aquinas’s argument goes through only if he can successfully address these series of objections and I argue that, ultimately, there are some questions he cannot adequately answer. Thus, the critique of the Fourth Way ends with a mixed bag of objections: some of the inadequate but some are successful in the long haul.