PHL 3305 Lecture 4
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Next Time
2019-09-09
Be prepared to identify theses of 3 assigned Chesterton Essays
St. Thomas Aquinas on Nicomachean Ethics
- Wisdom is the ability to order
- compare with knowledge, which could be about anything
- wisdom brings knowledge into a whole
"Barbara" syllogism
(A) All B is A <-- major premise
(A) All C is B <-- minor premise
----------
(A) All C is A <-- conclusion: minor subject, major predicate
In opening paragraph:
All (reason) is (able to recognize order) All (wisdom) is (most powerful perfection of reason) -------------------------------------- All (who are wise) are (able to recognize order)
- Sensation forms the basis for reason
- intellect/reason goes beyond sensation by recognizing order among what is sensed
- Two types of order
- parts to a whole
- parts toward a purpose/end (superior to the previous type of order)
- e.g. the order of cells to the body to bring about a human person?
"Logic begins with an order that we perceive and receive, not what we impose on it" Dr. Lehman
- Four types of reason
- reason that only considers natural realities
- reason that brings about order within our mind (like logic)
- reason that brings order to one's actions (like moral questions or politics
- reason that brings about external realities
Faith and Reason
Faith and reason are a pair of wings, as it were, by which man's spirit is borne toward the contemplation of truth.Faith and Reason. Pope St. John Paul II
Two consequences to pursuit of narrower and narrower knowledge
- we learn more about field
- we lose sight of how knowledge relates to other disciplines
This puts faith and reason seemingly at odds with each other
- Hence split between arts and science
Expanding one's knowledge is part of human nature:
- we have an insatiable desire for knowledge
Philosophy was born and developend when man began to question himself concerning the causes and ends of reality.Faith and Reason. 3