MoL-2014-01: Dimarogkona, Maria (2014) The Problem of Existence in Western Philosophy: Aristotle - Thomas Aquinas. [Report]
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Abstract
This thesis consists in the presentation of Thomas Aquinas' ontology
in relation to Aristotle's account of the nature of being. In the
first chapter an account of Presocratic thought is presented,
beginning from Thales and ending with Parmenides, who is often
characterized as the founder of metaphysics or ontology. The second
chapter consists in a brief presentation of Aristotle's account of the
nature of being. Finally Aquinas' ontology is presented in the third
chapter, which closes with a brief discussion of the connection
between his approach and modern philosophy.
Thomas Aquinas was an immensely influential philosopher and theologian
in the tradition of scholasticism. In De Ente et Essentia, which is
thought to be his most personal work, Aquinas gives his own answer to
one of the most fundamental problems of Western philosophy, which was
formulated by Aristotle as the question "What is being? ". As we will
see, Thomas' answer leads to a reformulation of the problem of being
which becomes the problem of existence (or the question "what is
existence?").
Étienne Gilson1, in his work L'être et l'essence, presents the
solutions offered to this problem by Aquinas' predecessors, as well as
those who succeeded him, and concludes that only Thomas managed to
face the paradoxes born from it, and succeeded in building a coherent
system. In other words, Gilson claims that Thomas' solution is the
most complete. The examination of this claim is a very difficult
endeavor, as it requires the critical examination of the answers of
all great Western thinkers to the question of being, or existence,
since the beginning of philosophy. The much more feasible objective of
this thesis is to offer a better understanding of Thomas' answer, by
examining it in relation to the Aristotelean one, on which it is
heavily based.
| Item Type: | Report |
|---|---|
| Report Nr: | MoL-2014-01 |
| Series Name: | Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2016 14:38 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Oct 2016 14:38 |
| URI: | https://eprints.illc.uva.nl/id/eprint/919 |
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