Whether the Moderate Realism of Aquinas is a Better Approach to Understanding the World Around Us than Ockham’s Nominalism

Introduction The problem of universals: Do essences exist? Are they real? The interdependence between epistemology and metaphysics The denial of essences in Ockham’s nominalism and its effects in all areas of philosophy Metaphysics Logic Epistemology Anthropology Ethics Politics

Real Distinction Between Essence and Existence in Aquinas’s Moderate Realism The real difference in God’s mode of being from all other being Being is composed of essence and existence for created being In God essence and existence are one Existence is an act Created things participate in their act of existence which they receive from God’s creating act Essence receives and limits existence in created things What is substance? Operation follows upon being

Are Essences Real? Plato called them forms or ideas and believed they existed in “another world” “Two worlds” in the Extreme Realism of Plato Concrete world we know through our senses Forms world through which we know concepts Aquinas’s moderate realism says one world Things exist as particulars Universal concepts are real abstracted forms of substances Nominalism is the opposite of Extreme Realism

Nominalism Pure Nominalism says universals don’t exist William of Ockham: “… universals are not things other than names” Denial of essences in Nominalism No basis in nature for the similarity in things outside the mind Denial of universals in language Conceptualism (a milder form of nominalism) admits universal in the mind but denies essences or any natural basis of similarity of things outside the mind

Ockham’s Conceptualism Concepts are mere groupings of things performed mechanistically by the mind Words are signs signifying the mental concepts Signs don’t communicate similarity in nature because there is no basis for the similarity outside the mind Being is equivocal – the being of each thing is in every way different from the being of another thing Being for Aquinas is analogical – each being is similar but different from every other being Metaphysics is the key to understanding the world around us

The Failure of Ockham’s Nominalism If all trees are different, how can we call them all trees? A self-contradiction by using terms we deny Signification of a universal concept by means of a sign, which is an image or picture cannot communicate reality reliably The denial of real natural classes without a metaphysical basis for their assortment into classes in the mind A failure to account for the similarity in things outside the mind

Terms Are Either: Univocal – has one and only one meaning In “I ate an apple” ate and apple are univocal Equivocal – has two or more quite different meanings When I say “the river has two banks” and “the town has two banks” banks is used equivocally Analogical – has two or more meanings that are: Partly the same and partly different Related to each other When I say “a good man gave his good dog a good meal” the term good is used analogically

Aquinas’s View of Nature and Creation: the Analogy of Being What does Aquinas mean by the term natural? Natural kinds Caused by God supernaturally The world is a single co-participate organized in relation to one another Natural things have an origin and end God possesses every being possible in His self- knowledge God is All Perfections: Goodness, Beauty, Truth… For example, The Goodness in God is analogically the goodness in natural things

The Problem of the One and the Many “How can that which is universal in the mind represent what is not universal in reality? Things exist as particulars, however they exist as composites of form and matter. Essential forms are received in matter Essence receives and limits existence The first act of the intellect: understanding Substantial forms are received in the senses and an intelligible species is abstracted by the intellect The intelligible species is that by which the active intellect knows universal concepts of “things in themselves”

Duns Scotus’s Influence on Ockham Duns Scotus believes being is univocal “God and creation are situated within one extension of being with God being more powerful in every respect”1 Denies Aquinas’s analogy of being Denies analogical use of language, language is univocal Consequently, God’s supernatural influence, grace, is viewed outside the extension of univocal being and super-added Effects split between faith and reason, philosophy and theology…pushing religion to the margins of humanism Voluntarism is a result of nominalism and denies natural law Ockham goes one step further and believes being is equivocal – there is no similarity in particulars outside the mind 1 Joel Garver, “Nominalism and the Modern”, www.joelgarver.com

Deconstruction of Moderate Realism Depends on the denial of essences and functionality of substances - Operatio Sequitor Esse or “Operation follows upon being” Conceptualist path in Locke and Kant - Idealism Nominalist path in Hume and Hobbes – Empiricism Both paths deny: Causality Teleology Natural Law The natural “fallacy” in Hume – an “ought” cannot be determined from an “is” Denial of a discernible scale of natural values prevents moral norms that are objective, universal and intelligible

All Areas of Philosophy Depend Upon a Legitimate Metaphysics Area of Philosophy Moderate Realism Nominalism Metaphysics Universals are real and individuals are real. Universals are the forms of individual entities Universals are not objectively real. Epistemology Reason knows reality by abstraction from senses Reason is deceptive when it goes beyond sensation Anthropology Man is composed of a soul/form + body Man is composed of a body + brain Ethics Supreme good for man is happiness practicing good through virtue Supreme good is unknowable Politics Goal of society is enabling good through virtue balancing common with private good Goal of society is to do well: focus on self and individual property, not virtue Source: Peter Kreeft, Socratic Logic, South Bend, Indiana, St. Augustine’s Press, 2004, p. 360.