St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant were born nearly half a millennium apart and, on the surface, both their styles of argumentation and their general approaches to philosophy appear equally distanced from each other; however, both wished to solidify the fundamental knowledge of God. The author points out that Kant's metaphysics was a legitimate attempt at developing a kind of ultimate science that would guarantee the truth of knowledge. The paper relates that, similarly, Aquinas attempted to assert that some of mankind's most centrally held beliefs can be justified through the application of rational thought; specifically, he attempted to generate a comprehensive argument both in favor of the existence of God, which backs the most central doctrines of the Church.

From the Paper:

"Thomas Aquinas was even more ensconced in the traditional Catholic hierarchy and interpretations of existence than Immanuel Kant. Aquinas' central focus was upon the questions pertaining to the relationship between God and man, and God and the natural world. Primarily he wanted to investigate what aspects of the world betray the existence of God, and consequently, why His existence is questioned so readily. Eventually, his writings would become the accepted textbooks of theology for the Church, and accordingly, would forever possess a certain stigma for either those who were non-Christians or non-Catholics particularly after the protestant reformation. Undeniably, though, Aquinas' methods were decidedly rational. That is, he endeavored to arrive at abstract claims as to the nature of God and the world by observing physical anomalies. This contrasted him strongly with most philosophers from his age, by virtue of the fact that he believed true faith required analytical investigation; but, it made him similar to Kant, who believed that faith in God and the righteousness of our actions require critical analysis."

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