Running head: PHILOSOPHY 101
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Aquinas and synthesis
Peter Piker
University Of Washington
PHILOSOPHY 101
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Aquinas and synthesis
Aristotelian philosophy and Christianity are often referred to as "synthesized," as though
Aquinas took the pieces of both that he desired and blended them together to get a smooth
concoction. In reality, for Aquinas—as well as for the vast majority of Christians—the doctrines
of the Church must be embraced in their whole, without exception or concession. In this regard,
Aquinas was unique in that he believed that, when correctly understood, Aristotle did not
contradict Christian doctrine. He was not alone in this belief. If the cosmos has always been, the
issue of whether it has always existed is the exception that proves the rule. In this specific
instance, Aristotle, according to Aquinas, was incorrect, but he was not incorrect in principle or
in his reasoning as a whole. According to ancient thinkers, the cosmos may have existed for an
indefinite period of time. That Aristotle was unaware of this since he did not have access to
Christian revelation, was simply a result of his ignorance of the matter.As a result, Aquinas
believes that there are a number of other doctrines central to Christianity that the ancient
philosophers were either unaware of or could not have known about—such as the belief that God
is a Trinity composed of three persons, and that one of those persons, the Son, became a human.
However, in Aquinas' perspective, whenever people reason rightly, they are unable to arrive at
any result that is incompatible with Christian truth. This is due to the fact that both human reason
and Christian doctrine derive from the same source—God—and as a result, they can never be in
conflict with one another.As a professor in convents and universities throughout France and Italy,
Aquinas' belief that human reason could never be in conflict with Christian doctrine frequently
brought him into conflict with some of his academic contemporaries, particularly those who
specialized in the sciences, which at the time were derived from the work of Aristotle, and
ultimately led to his death. Aquinas criticized his fellow academics of adopting some beliefs on
PHILOSOPHY 101
faith—for example, the belief that we all have an eternal soul—while simultaneously asserting
that these positions might be demonstrated to be incorrect based on logic and reason.
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