Abstract

St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1224-1274), Catholic theologican and philosopher, has long been regarded as the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians. Amongst the vast ouput of his work, estimated at around 8 million words, can be found his commentaries on Aristotelian treatises. The strength in Aquinas's commentaries lies in his systematic examination of the basic principles whilst bringing the theories into line with Christian and contemporary scientific thought. Aquinas draws upon Aristotle's writings to form his own conclusions of philosophical and religious thinking. An example of this can be found in his commentary of Metaphysics, in which he analyzes the metaphysical problems and also provides a statement of his own metaphysics, providing new theories not found in Aristotle. Aquinas's commentaries have maintained the importance of Aristotle's thinking in Western philosophy.