An Evaluation on De Aeterniate Mundi by Thomas Aquinas

Year 2019, Volume: 2019 Issue: 39, 285 - 320, 23.12.2019

Mehmet Ata Az

https://doi.org/10.28949/bilimname.644502

Abstract

The question of the eternity of the world in Latin thought, it was discussed in the context of Plato, Aristotle and Boethius’ view and translated works of Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna, Ghazali and Averroes. In time, the issue of the eternity of the world has become an important problem, which is widely discussed and different views are defended among the Latin philosophers and theologians, especially at the University of Paris. The main issues discussed in the question of the eternity of the world are whether it is possible to rationally base the eternity or createdness of the world, whether the created world has a temporal onset, and whether the created eternal world doctrine requires a contradiction. While Bonaventure, an important representative of the Franciscans sect, one of the influential sects at the University of Paris, denied that the claim that the world was eternal due to it is incompatible with the Catholic doctrine that the world was created from nothing; Aquinas, the representative of the Dominican sect, which was influential in the university, defended the possibility of the eternal world without the temporal onset of the world based on rational justifications.
He wrote the treatise De Aeterniate Mundi, in which he dealt with the possibility of the eternity of the world, with the aim of criticizing Bonaventure and his contemporaries who refused to eternal creation from ex nihilo, and establishing arguments against their arguments. In the treatise, while Aquinas refers to Anselm, Boethius, Augustine and Aristotle in support of his views; it is noteworthy that he did not make a positive or negative reference to Muslim philosophers, such as Avicenna and Averroes, whose views were described as heretic in the condemnations published in 1270 and 1277, which deeply affected Latin thinkers and colleagues in the matter of eternity of thr world. Considering the content and arguments of the treatise in general terms, it criticized and rejected the critics without giving names by directly discussing their claims and developing opposing arguments. In establishing his own opinion, Aquinas tried to solve the problem by addressing the issues and the objections raised directly on the issue of the eternity of the world, rather than addressing every possibility of criticism.
In the treatise, Aquinas did not establish a direct argument as to why the world should be created from ex nihilo, but he positively addressed the question of whether God could create the world eternally in the context of logical possibilities and responded positively. He warned that although the world is created, its temporal onset is not a logical necessity and that the opposite claims cannot be proved with philosophical/rational justifications. In the treatise, instead of directly answering the question of whether the created world from ex nihilo has a temporal beginning, the question of whether God can create the world without temporal onset -as can be understood from the nature of the arguments and the conclusions he has made- he tried to explain logically the question of whether God can create the world without temporal begining from nothing and how should be understood religious doctrine that the world created from nothing. After evaluating the arguments for and against, he concluded that the creation of the world without its temporal onset is logical, since the creation of the world without temporal does not require a logical contradiction.
Rather than claiming that God cannot create a world without a temporal onset, Aquinas states that there is no rational evidence against this claim, and that such claim does not require metaphysical impossibility. He argued that the temporal onset of the world cannot be precisely claimed, but can be believed, since the structure of the world as a whole does not contain any evidence/explanation that it was later established in a certain period of time. With this attitude, Aquinas differs from the Bonaventure and Neo-Agustinists, who argue that the impossibility of the eternity of the world can be rationally grounded. Aquinas grounded the claim that the view that the world exists eternally cannot be rationally grounded, but that it can be believed in two differt ways. The first is that the structure of the world does not contain any evidence to support this claim; secondly, it is not known when and how and when God manifests his free will in creating the world.
As a result, Aquinas tried to justify his own view after he listed and evaluated the arguments in favor of and against the eternity of the world. In this context, he considered and evaluated three different claims of philosophers one by one, that the world became existent after ex nihilo, it is impossible for God to create the eternal created world, and all beings except God came into existence, but that man lacked realization of this. Having established that both claims were wrong and incompatible with the Catholic faith, the third claim that everything, including world, began to exist afterwards, that God might have created the world eternally, but that the individual's intellect cannot realize when and how, and argued that this could only be known by revelation because of the lack of grounding it on rational ground.

Thomas Aquinas’ın De Aeterniate Mundi (Âlemin Ezeliliğine Dair) Risalesinin Değerlendirmesi

Abstract

Âlemin ezeliliği/hâdisliği meselesi, kadim dönemlerden beri tartışıla gelen önemli felsefi/teolojik problemlerden biri olmuştur. Âlemin ezeliliği/hâdisliğine dair karşıt görüşlerinin arka planında âlemin kaynağına ilişkin zıt denebilecek felsefi ve teolojik farklı iddiaların bulunmasıdır. Âlemin bir başlangıcı olup olmadığı sorusunun yanıtının farklılaşmasının arka planında, varlığın nasıl mevcudiyet kazandığına dair felsefi, dini ve bilimsel görüşlerin farklılaşması yatmaktadır. Çalışmamızda, âlemin ezeliliği/hâdisliği meselesini, önemli orta çağ düşünürlerinden Thomas Aquinas’ın De Aeternitate Mundi (Âlemin Ezeliliğine Dair) risalesi bağlamında tespit etmek ve değerlendirmekle sınırlı olacaktır. Çalışmanın sonuna tercümesini eklediğimiz risalede Aquinas, bir teologdan ziyade bir filozof gibi âlemin ezeliliğini imkân dahilinde görmekte ve buna dair rasyonel izahlar getirmekte; ezeli yaratılmış âlem anlayışının mantıksal bir çelişki gerektirmeyeceğini savunmaktadır. Aquinas, âlemin yoktan yaratıldığının aklen izah edilebileceğini ancak âlemin zamansal bir başlangıcının olduğunun rasyonel zeminde kanıtlanamayacağını iddia ederek, bir yandan âlemin zamansal yaratılmışlığının rasyonel olarak temellendirilebileceğini savunan Bonaventure gibi dönemin teologlarından; diğer yandan da âlemin ezeli olduğunu ve bunun rasyonel şekilde izah edilebileceğini iddia eden meslektaşı Brabantlı Siger’den farklılaşmıştır.

Keywords

Aquinas, âlem, ezelilik, zamansal yaratma, ezeli yaratma

References

• Akdağ, Özcan, İbn Rüşd, İbn Meymûn ve Aquinas Bağlamında Âlemı̇n Ezelı̇lı̇ğı̇ Problemı̇, Kimlik Yay., Kayseri, 2019.Anselm, Monologion, içinde Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises of Anselm of Canterbury, trans. Jasper Hopkins and Herbert Richardson, Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press, 2000.Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, trans. by Richard J. Blackwell, Richard J. Spath, Edmund Thrlkel, Pierre H. Conway, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Book of Causes (Super Librum De Causis Expositio), trans. and annotated by Vincent A. Guagliardo, Charles R. Hess, Richard C. Taylor, The Catholic Wahington D.C.: University of America Press, 1996.Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle I-II, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1961.Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, I-II, çev. John P. Rowan, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1961.Aquinas, Thomas, Compendium of Theology, (CT), Richard J. Regan (trans.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Aquinas, Thomas, Exposition of Aristotle’s Treatise on the Heavens (In libros De caelo et mundo Aristotelis), Columbus, Ohio: College of St. Mary of the Springs, 1963-1964.Aquinas, Thomas, On the Power of God I-III, (Questiones Disputatae De Potentia Dei), English Dominican Fathers (trans.), The Newman Press, Westmister: Maryland, 1952.Aquinas, Thomas, On the Truth of the Catholic Faith: Summa Contra Gentiles, (SCG), C.I-IV, trans: Anton C. Pegis, Image Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1956.Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, (ST), C. I-V, trans: Fathers of the English Dominican Provinc, Ave Maria Press, 1998.Aristoteles, On Generation and Corruption, içinde The Basic Works of Aristotle, Richard McKeon (ed. with intro.), New York: Random House, 2001.Augustine, City of God, içinde Great Books of the Western World, Vol.18, ss. 129-620.Baldner, Steven E. and Carroll, William E. (trans.), Aquinas on Creation: Writings on the ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard, Book 2, Distinction 1, Question 1, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1st ed., 1997.Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. H. R. James, Moscow: Roman Roads Media, 2015.Brady, Ignatius, “John Pecham and Background of Aquinas’ De aeternitate mundi”, içinde Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1274-1974, Commemorative Studies, ed. Armand A. Maurer, Toronto: Pontificial Institute of Medieval Studies, 1974, II, ss. 141-54.Bukowski, P. Thomas, “J. Pecham, T. Aquinas, et al., on the Eternity of the World”, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, 46, 1979, ss. 216-21.Bukowski, Thomas P., “An Early Dating for Aquinas’ De aeternitate mundi”, Gregorianum, 51/2, 1970, s. 277-304.Dales, Richard C., Medieval Discussions of the Eternity of the World, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990.İskenderoğlu, Muammer, Fakhr Al-Dīn Al-Rāzī and Thomas Aquinas on the Question of the Eternity of the World, Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2002.Kovach, Francis J., “The Question of the Eternity of the World in St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas -A Critical Analysis”, The Southwestern Journal of Philosophy, 5/2, 1974, ss. 141-72.St. John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of The Orthodox Faith, Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, Wyatt North Publishing, 2012.Weisheipl, James A., “The Date and Context of Aquinas’ De Aeternitate mundi”, içinde Graceful Reason: Essays in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Presented to Joseph Owens, CSSR, ed. Lloyd P. Gerson, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1983, ss. 239-71.Wilks, Ian, “Aquınas On The Past Possibility Of The World's Havıng Exısted Forever”, The Review of Metaphysics, 48/2, 1994, ss.299-329.Wippel, John F., “Did Thomas Aquinas Defend the Possibility of an Eternally Created World? (The De aeternitate mundi Revisited)”, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 19/1, 1981, ss. 21-37.Wippell, J. F., “Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility of the Eternal Creation”, içinde Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas, Wahington D.C., 1984.Wippell, John F., “The Condemnation of 1270 and 1277 at Paris”, Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 7, 1977.