Putting Things in Motion

The fundamental argument of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is the existence of God. Aquinas argues that to demonstrate if God exists, one could show through cause and effect. Effects depend on a cause; if effects are known, then a cause must exist and thus, be able to be demonstrated. Because the effects are not equal to their cause, we cannot perfectly understand the cause, only demonstrate the cause’s existence.

He then offers five proofs for God, relying on Aristotle’s prime mover. The prime mover is the cause of motion but itself is not moved by a prior action. The cause must exists before and outside of its effects. If the universe is an observed effect, then it must have a cause before and outside of itself.

Aquinas’ quinque viae or five ways to prove God via cause/effect are as follows:

• Motion 🠈 Unmoved mover
• Cause/Effect 🠈Uncaused cause
• Contingency 🠈 Non-contingent necessary source
• Gradation of perfection 🠈 Absolute perfection
• Order 🠈 An orderer

We can observe motion--something changes into something else. There must be something that causes that change. And something that causes that to act. The chain cannot go back forever, so there must be a mover that begins the chain of motion without something causing it to move: an unmoved mover. Similarly, we observe effects--the result of a cause. At the end of the chain of cause and effect must be the first cause, a cause that is not an effect itself: an uncaused cause. 

We observe things come and go. People live and die. Stars burn and burn out. Buildings are built and demolished. The generation of something new comes from an effect of something else. If this were true for everything, there would be a point where nothing existed, and then something/everything would come from nothing. For there to be a cause of first generation and final destruction, there must be an eternal agent beyond generation or destruction: a non-contingent source. 

We observe varying degrees of quality. A well-made dinner is better than a poorly-made dinner. A healthy dog is better than a sick dog. Happy is better than sad. Because there are degrees of quality means there must be the standard: absolute perfection. Further, what is most in a genus (true, perfect, being, etc) must be the cause of all else in that genus, as everything that is less than most genus has degraded in some form. 

Finally, we observe repeatable, predictable behavior, such as physics. This cannot be due to chance since the behavior would not be predictable. The behavior must be set: ordered. Chaos cannot order itself since it is non-intelligent and has no notion of how to set behavior. Therefore, behavior must be set by something outside that which is ordered and something intelligent, capable of ordering: an orderer. Sometimes we forget how what we commonly experience is rare and specific: an existing universe, rules of physics, life. 

If this unmoved mover, uncaused cause, non-contingent source, perfect, orderer is what we call God, then there are other attributes of God that we can observe and demonstrate. The next arguments of the Summa work through God as: simple, perfect, good, infinite, immutable, eternal, one, intelligent, alive, free (will), loving, merciful, just, provident, powerful, happy, and triune. I won’t go into the arguments for every attribute (I don’t want to paraphrase the entire Summa), but each relies back on the Five Ways. It also relies on the concepts of matter, form, potentiality, and act, which I will look at more in the next post about the human soul.