scholarly journals Causal Powers as Accidents: Thomas Aquinas’s View

Dialogue ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
SIMONA VUCU
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Actual Existence

I argue that Thomas Aquinas maintains the view that (created) powers are accidental to their bearers not because powers pertain to bearers with limited essences, but because their bearers have limited actual being. Power tracks not only the essence of something but also its actual existence. Things have powers that are causally relevant when these things exist, that is, the nature of a power is determined by a thing’s essence, but the actual being of the thing of that essence accounts for the limitations of this power and for the extent to which a power can have causal effects.

Perfect Subjects, Shields, and Retractions: Three Models of Impassibility

Vivarium ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-101
Author(s):  
Zita V. Toth
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Causal Powers

Abstract According to theological consensus at least from the thirteenth century, at the End of Times our body will be resurrected and reunited with our soul. The resurrected body, although numerically identical to our present one, will be quite different: it will possess clarity, agility, subtility, and the inability to suffer. It is the last of these characteristics that will be of most concern in the present article. There are two reasons why impassibility presents a problem in the medieval framework. The first has to do with how to characterize impassibility more precisely; the second arises because at first it may seem that impassibility is not metaphysically possible at all. The article will look at three attempts to tackle these problems: those of Thomas Aquinas, Durand of St.-Pourçain, and Peter of Palude. As the article aims to show, looking at how causal powers work on the New Earth may shed some light on how medieval thinkers thought they worked on the present one.

The Doctrine of Occasionalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Platt
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Efficient Cause ◽  
Divine Concurrence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Scholastic Tradition

Chapter 1 explains the doctrine of occasionalism. Section 1.1 unpacks the occasionalist claim that God is the only efficient cause, by explaining the concept of an efficient cause, as it was typically understood in medieval and early modern texts. Section 1.2 contrasts occasionalism with a theory of divine providence developed by Thomas Aquinas, which says that God “concurs” with the actions of created substances. Section 1.3 clarifies the difference between occasionalism and the Thomistic theory of divine concurrence using the notion of a causal power: According to this analysis, occasionalism entails that created substances do not have intrinsic active causal powers. Malebranche expresses this claim by saying that created beings are “occasional causes” that merely “give occasion” to God’s actions. However, section 1.4 argues that there is also a Scholastic tradition that uses terms such as “occasion” and “occasional cause” to refer to a type of true efficient cause.

‘Counsel, Comfort, and Conscience’ in More’s Letters to Fellow Prisoner Nicholas Wilson

Moreana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (Number 176) (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
John F. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Tower Of London

This is a study of the two letters of Thomas More to Nicholas Wilson writ-ten while the two men were imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation illuminates the role of comfort and counsel in the two letters. An article of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae is used to probe More’s understanding of conscience in the letters.

The Ethics of Natural Law according to Thomas Aquinas

Verbum ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-368
Author(s):  
Dalia Marija Stancienė
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Thomas Aquinas
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