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Thomas Aquinas

Medieval Scholastic

Thomas Aquinas

1225–1274 · Roccasecca and Paris · European

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An Italian Dominican friar who joined Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian theology, holding that faith and reason cannot truly conflict.

Key work: Summa Theologiae

“Reason is to man what God is to the world.”

On Kingship, book 1, chapter 12 [13], trans. Gerald B. Phelan, rev. I. Th. Eschmann (1949)

Key ideas, in brief (in our words)

  • Faith and reason are not enemies.

  • Natural law is reason reading the shape of the world.

  • The mind is how a person shares in order.

Read more: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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