Back to nature in Aquinas

Medieval Philosophy and Theology

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 205-243

  Twetten, David B ^a  

^a MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 63149157530     PISSN: 10570608     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5840/medievalpt1996529     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. For discussions of nature in Aquinas, see Jan Aertsen, Nature and Creature: Thomas Aquinas's Way of Thought (Leiden, 1988), pp. 278-310
2. J. I. Alcorta, "El concepto de naturaleza en Santo Tomás," in La filosofia della natura nel medioevo (Milan, 1966), pp. 465-70
3. Anthony F. Beavers, "Motion, Mobility, and Method in Aristotle's Physics: Comments on Physics 2. I 192b20-24," Reviexv of Metaphysics 42 (1988): 357-74
4. Z. Bucher, "Die Natur als Ordnung bei Thomas von Aquin," Salzburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 19 (1974): 219-38
5. Santiago Fernández Burillo, "'Motus naturalis': La autonomía operativa del Ente Creado, según la mente de Santo Tomás de Aquino," in Atti del IX Congresso Tomistico Intemazionale (Vatican City, 1991), vol. 2, pp. 323-30
6. A. Ghisalberti, "La concezione della natura nel commento di Tommaso D'Aquino alla Metafisica di Aristotele," Rivista di filosofia neoscolastica 66 (1974): 533-40
7. Helen S. Lang, Aristotle's Physics and Its Medieval Varieties (Albany, N.Y., 1992)
8. M.-J. Nicolas, "LTdée de nature dans la pensée de S. Thomas," Revue Thomiste 74 (1974): 533-90
9. Raimundo Panikkar, El concepto de naturaleza: Análisis histórico y metafisico de un concepto, 2nd ed. (Madrid, 1972)
10. José Petit Sullá, "La aportación tomista al concepto de naturaleza," in Atti del IX Congresso Tomistico, vol. 2, pp. 261-66
11. Filippo Selvaggi, "Il concetto di natura in Aristotele e S. Tommaso," in Scritti in onore di Carlo Giacon, ed. F. Battaglia et al. (Padua, 1972), pp. 259-76
12. Jakob Schneider, "Physik und Natur im Kommentar des Thomas von Aquin zur aristotelischen Metaphysik," in Mensch und Natur im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1991), vol. 1, pp. 161-92
13. Cf. Zev Bechler, Aristotle's Theory of Actuality (Albany, N.Y., 1995), p. 46: "natural motion [in Aristotle is] a new, third kind of motion, that is, neither caused by another nor by itself but rather uncaused motion."
14. For other articulations of an 'agentless' natural motion in Aristotle, see Mary Louise Gill, Aristotle on Substarice: The Paradox of Unity (Princeton, N.J., 1989), pp. 237-40
15. Troy Organ, "Nature and Non-Nature in Aristotle," The Thomist 39 (1975): 575-601, at 576
16. In addition to Weisheipl's works cited below, distinctive accounts of 'agent-less' motion in Aquinas can be found in James A. McWilliams, Physics and Philosophy: A Study of Saint Thomas's Commentary on the Eight Books of Aristotle's Physics (Washington, D.C., 1945), pp. 15-18
17. and William A. Wallace, "St. Thomas and the Pull of Gravity," in From a Realist Point of View: Essays on the Philosophy of Science, 2nd ed. (Lanham, Md., 1983), pp. 147-69, at 161 and n. 49
18. reprinted from The McAuley Lectures 1963: Science and the Liberal Concept (West Hartford, Conn., 1964), pp. 143-65
19. Antonio Moreno, The Law of Inertia and the Principle Quidquid movetur ab alio movetur, " The Thomist 38 (1974): 306-31, at 320-25
20. reprinted from Isis 56 (1965): 26-45
21. See Anneliese Maier, An der Grenze von Scholastik and Naturwissenschaft: die Slruktur der materiellen Substanz, das Problem der Gravitation, die Mathematik der Form-latituden, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1952), pp. 149-51
22. See The Relationship of Medieval Natural Philosophy to Modern Science: The Contribution of Thomas Aquinas to Its Understanding," in Nature and Motion, pp. 261-76, at 262-73; reprinted from Manuscripta 20 (1976): 181-96
23. "Principle Omne quod movetur," p. 92
24. reprinted from The New Scholasticism 28 (1954): 377-408
25. and from Nature and Gravitation (River Forest, Ill., 1955), pp. 1-32
26. cf. "Quidquid movetur ab alio movetur: A Reply [to Nikolaus Lobkowicz]," The New Scholasticism 42 (1968): 422-31, at 422-23
27. cf. "Specter," pp. 99-100
28. "Principle Omne quod movelur," p. 92, n. 63
29. "Concept," p. 21
30. "Aristotle's Concept of Nature: Avicenna and Aquinas," in Approaches to Nature in the Middle Ages: Papers of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies (Binghamton, N.Y., 1982), pp. 137-60, at 146, n. 29
31. See "Aristotle's Concept," p. 149
32. "Specter," p. 109
33. The Development of Physical Theory in the Middle Ages (New York, 1959; Ann Arbor, Mich., 1971), p. 47
34. reprinted from St. Thomas Aquinas, 1274-1974: Commemorative Studies, ed. A. Maurer et al. (Toronto, 1974), vol. 1, pp. 467-88
35. "The Concept of Nature: Avicenna and Aquinas," in Thomistic Papers, vol. 1, ed. V. Brezik (Houston, 1984), pp. 65-82, at 72, 76
36. See also the passages cited above, n. 10
37. "Relationship," p. 269
38. "Quidquid movetur," pp. 422-23
39. Cf. "Concept," pp. 14-15, n. 61
40. Aristotelis Metaphysica, ed. W. Jaeger (Oxford, 1957), A.14 (1020b17-22)
41. In Phys. 8.4, 1. 8, nn. 1-2 (1029-1030)
42. I have discussed this demonstration in pp. 247-49 of "Why Motion Requires a Cause: The Foundation for a Prime Mover in Aristotle and Aquinas," in Philosophy and the God of Abraham: Essays in Memory of James A. Weisheipl, O.P., ed.J. Long (Toronto, 1991), pp. 235-54
43. cf. "Aristotle's Concept," pp. 146-48
44. "Specter," pp. 100, 105, 118-20
45. See "Concept," pp. 9-21
46. "Concept," p. 14, n. 61: "The point is that this axiom [OQM] applies only to nature as a passive principle."
47. Scriptum super libros Sentenliarum, ed. P. Mandonnet and M. Moos (Paris, 1929-1947), 3.5.1.2: "natura autem a nascendo nomen accepit, quae proprie dicitur generatio viventium ex similibus similia in specie producentium. Unde secundum primam sui institutionem natura significavit generationem ipsam viventium, scilicet nativitatem. Item translatum est nomen naturae ad significandum principium acti-vum illius generationis, quia virtutes agentes ex actibus nominari consueverunt. Inde ulterius processit nomen naturae ad significandum principium activum cu-juslibet motus naturalis. Et ulterius ad significandum etiam principium materiale cujuslibet generationis. Et inde etiam ad significandum principium formale, quod est terminus generationis. Sed quia generatio non solum terminatur ad formam, sed ad substantiam compositam; ideo translatum est ad significandum quamlibet substantiam, secundum quod dicit philosophus in 5 Metaphysicorum, et ad significandum etiam quodlibet ens, sicut dicit Boetius."
48. Aristotle, Phys. 2. I (192b21-22)
49. For Weisheipl, Albert's doctrine of nature is identical to Thomas's ("Specter," pp. 108-10
50. See Bruno Nardi, "La dottrina d'Alberto Magno sull' inchoatio formae," in Studi di filosofia medievale (Rome, 1960), pp. 69-101
51. James Weisheipl, The Axiom Opas naturae est opus intelligentiae and Its Origins," in Albertus Magnus, Doctor universalis: 1280/1980, ed. G. Meyer and A. Zimmermann (Mainz, 1980), pp. 441-63, at 455-56
52. Cf. CG 2.92 (Substantiae enim); 2.90 (Praeterea. Si); De spiritualibus creaturis 6, in Quaestiones disputatae, vol. 2
53. For Aquinas's doctrine, see Barry Brown, Accidental Being: A Study in the Metaphysics of St. Thomas (Lanham, Md./London, 1985), pp. 70-141
54. "Nature as form simply acts spontaneously whether there is a resisting medium or not" ("Aristotle's Concept," p. 148)
55. In addition to the texts cited above, n. 10, see "Specter," pp. 112-13
56. De generatione et corruptione 2.10 (336a18-19), in Aristotle on Coming-to-Be and Passing-Away, ed. H. H. Joachim (Oxford, 1922)
57. On celestial causality generally, see especially Thomas Litt, Les corps célestes dans l'univers de saint Thomas d'Aquin (Louvain/Paris, 1963), pp. 110-99
58. Cf. Aristotelis Meteorologicorum libri 4, ed. F. H. Fobes (Cambridge, Mass., 1919), 1.2 (339a21-32)
59. Cf. John Duns Scotus, Quaestiones subtilissimae super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis 9.14, in Opera omnia, ed. Vivès (Paris, 1891-1895), vol. 7, pp. 584-85
60. See Roy Effler, John Duns Scotus and the Principle Omne quod movetur ab alio movetur (St. Bonaventure, N.Y., 1962)
61. See Alexander's position in The Refutation of Alexander of Aphrodisius of Galen's Treatise on the Theory of Motion, ed. N. Rescher and M. Marmura (Islamabad, 1967), p. 17, f. C67a17-20
62. Cf. J. E. McGuire, "Philoponus on Physics 2.1, and the Motion of the Simple Bodies," Ancient Philosophy 5 (1985): 241-67
63. E. M. Macierowski and R. F. Hassing, "John Philoponus on Aristotle's Definition of Nature: A Translation from the Greek with Introduction and Notes," Ancient Philosophy 8 (1988): 73-100