The Philosophy Book

90

T

he opinions of people today

are still divided into those

that hold that the universe

had a beginning, and those that

hold that it has always existed.

Today we tend to look to physics

and astronomy for an answer, but

in the past this was a question for

philosophers and theologians. The

answer given by the Catholic priest

and philosopher Thomas Aquinas,

the most famous of all medieval

Christian philosophers, is especially

interesting. It is still a plausible

way of thinking about the problem,

and it also tells us a great deal about

how Aquinas combined his faith

with his philosophical reasoning,

despite their apparent contradictions.

Aristotle’s influence

The central figure in Aquinas’s

thinking is Aristotle, the ancient

Greek philosopher whose work was

intensively studied by medieval

thinkers. Aristotle was certain that

the universe has always existed,

and that it has always been home

to different things, from inanimate

objects like rocks, to living species,

such as humans, dogs, and horses.

He argued that the universe is

changing and moving, and this

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was born in

1225 at Roccasecca in Italy. He

studied at the University of

Naples and then joined the

Dominican order (a new, highly

intellectual order of friars) against

the wishes of his family. As a

novitiate he studied in Paris and

then in Cologne under the German

Aristotelian theologian, Albert

the Great. Returning to Paris, he

became Master (professor) of

theology, before leaving to travel

around Italy teaching for 10 years.

Unusually, Aquinas was then

offered a second period of tenure

as Master at Paris. In 1273 he

experienced something that

has been considered both some

sort of vision and a possible

stroke; after it, he said that all

he had done was “mere straw”,

and he never wrote again. He

died at the age of 49, and was

recognized as a saint by the

Catholic Church in 1323.

Key works

1256–59 Disputed Questions on

Truth

c.1265–74 Summa Theologica

1271 On the Eternity of the

Universe

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Metaphysics

APPROACH

Christian Aristotelian

BEFORE

c.340 BCE Aristotle says that

the universe is eternal.

c.540 CE John Philoponus

argues that the universe must

have a beginning.

1250s–60s French theologians

adopt Philoponus’s argument.

AFTER

1290s French philosopher

Henry of Ghent criticizes

Aquinas, saying the universe

cannot have always existed.

1781 Immanuel Kant claims

he can show that the universe

has always existed, and that

it has not always existed.

1931 Belgian priest and

scientist Georges Lemaître

proposes the “Big Bang” theory

of the origins of the universe.

THOMAS AQUINAS

can only be caused by change and

motion. So there could never have

been a first change or motion: the

universe must have been moving

and changing for ever.

The great Arabic philosophers,

Avicenna and Averroes, were

willing to accept Aristotle’s view,

even though it put them at odds

with Islamic orthodoxy. Medieval

Jewish and Christian thinkers,

however, struggled to do so. They

held that, according to the Bible,

the universe has a beginning, so

Aristotle must be wrong: the

universe has not always existed.

But was this view something that

had to be accepted on faith, or

could it be refuted by reasoning?

John Philoponus, a Greek

Christian writer of the 6th century,

believed that he had found an

argument to show that Aristotle

must be wrong, and that the

universe had not always existed.

His reasoning was copied and

developed by a number of thinkers

in the 13th century, who needed to

find a flaw in Aristotle’s reasoning

in order to protect the teachings of

the Church. Their line of argument

was especially clever, because it

took Aristotle’s own ideas about