Introduction
I chose Akbar the Mughal Emperor, Procopius, and Thomas Aquinas as my three to attend a dinner party. I knew I wanted to write about knowledge. Originally, I wanted to include the Queen of Sheba as a member of the dinner party, but I questioned whether I would be able to include enough about this character. My first choice was Thomas Aquinas, because he focused on reason as a way to acquire knowledge. This means that knowledge is internal for him. One section in the Summa Theologica is the “Gift of Knowledge”. I also wanted to play with Aquinas’ writing style. I chose Akbar because he invited so many diverse scholars to speak about a wide array of topics. I use his character to discuss the ways we use knowledge. My final choice was Procopius. I chose Procopius instead of the Queen of Sheba, so I could bring up how we present our knowledge and how our knowledge evolves. Procopius wrote The Secret History and the History of the Wars. These works have alternate views of Justinian, that evolved with events during that time period. My goal is to find a conclusion from these about the value of knowledge, how knowledge is used, and how knowledge is presented.
Thomas Aquinas was born the 13th century in Italy. At fifteen, Thomas Aquinas was sent to the University of Naples. During this time, he was exposed to Aristotle. Although Aquinas did not agree with many of Aristotle’s arguments, he fell in love with his style of argument. It was also during this time he learned to use this method to preach, with other Dominicans. He went on to study with other friars in Cologne. Then, he was sent onto Paris where he settled the strike between the papal authority and the professors who taught Aristotle. In 1260, he wrote his master...
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...writers? Looks were exchanged, pages were ripped out, and who knows what was kept from this document. Having a record is the best way to present the gift of knowledge, so that we can make the world better but so much is affected by the surrounding situation. Our knowledge is fallible.”
Works Cited
Aquinas, Thomas. "Of the Gift of Knowledge." In Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas, 423-424. n.d.
Evans, J.A.S. "Justinian and the Historian Procopius." Greece and Rome, 1970: 218-223.
McCabe, Herbert. On Aquinas. New York: Burns and Oates, 2008.
Monserrate, S.J., Trans. Hoylands, S.J. The Commentary of Father Monserrate, S.J. On his Journey to the Court of Akbar. London: Milford, 1922.
Procopius, and translated by Richard Atwater. The Secret History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961.
Sayre, Henry. The Humanities: Part 2. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012.
St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas were considered as some of the best in their period to represent philosophy. St. Anselm’s argument is known as the ontological argument; it revolves entirely around his statement, “God is that, than which no greater can be conceived” (The Great Conversation, Norman Melchert 260). St. Thomas Aquinas’ argument is known as the cosmological argument; it connects the effects of events to the cause for why they happened. Anselm’s ontological proof and Aquinas’ cosmological proof both argued for God’s existence, differed in the way they argued God’s existence, and had varying degrees of success using these proofs.
Thomas Aquinas was merely one of the first men to defy the feudal order, allowing the common people more than what they were force fed under The Church’s feudal system. The system might have been unorthodox to common law, but was effective in maintaining order. Thomas Aquinas worked around this system to keep the law, but still defy it. The Church itself was the one to institute both the law and feudalism, since they were granted the power to be above basically everyone. “Throughout his career, [Thomas Aquinas] walked a fine line, and he managed to do so without losing integrity either as a man of faith or as a thinker" (Knight
Aquinas, St. Thomas. “The Existence of God,” in Introduction to Philosophy. 6th edition. Perry, Bratman, and Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2013, pp. 44-46.
Religion was an important part to the medieval society and the development of medieval synthesis. An important person that contributed to this was Saint Thomas Aquinas between 1225-1274. His “Summa Theologica” was an important element that influenced the synthesis. The Summa Theologica simply means theological summary. His idea presents the highest example of the medieval synthesis of faith and reason. The summary included the proof of existence of God and man. It described the relationship between the two and how a man’s reconciliation with the Divine is possible through Christ. This shows that Aquinas believed the cosmological argument that shows proofs for the existence of God and its reason. Aquinas Summa Theologica also described the nature and purpose of human being. He devoted his attention to the nature of God and its role that show relationship between God and man. Aquinas tried to explain the origin and purpose of the universe. He also tried to show the different roles that live in the universe and their purpose. Aquinas never doubts...
Foucault, Michel. “Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977,” Ed. C. Gordon, Pantheon Books, 1980. Print.
Aquinas added his own observations on Aristotle, which included reasoned plans based on certainties revealed by God. Aquinas also spent much of his life writing summaries of Catholic doctrine that also attempted to c...
Writing is an ancient art, used from long ago to convey various characteristics, including entertainment, education, recording of history, critiquing and rebuking, writing revelations and many other purposes. There are various forms of writing, in which authors engage to put forth their feelings and intention. Additionally, history has many productive writers who made names for themselves through writing instinctively about various themes and issues. Among the writers who have revolutionized the art of writing is Flannery O’Connor, a dynamic woman who wrote her work from distinctive features and issues within the society (Gordon 31). Many lovers of her work indicate that she loved writing, and wrote from her heart, communicating clearly to her audience. Through her visible achievements, this is evidence of her success achieved through the art of writing.
Augustine, Saint. “Of the Foreknowledge of God and the Free Will of Man, Against the
Thomas Aquinas proved himself as the important historical figure we know him as today with his leadership in the Catholic Church and by helping people understand the religion. Thomas Aquinas was heavily involved in the church and took on smaller behind the scenes leadership roles. For example, Thomas Aquinas would always help with teaching about the church. One major thing that helped Thomas Aquinas reach such a high level of popularity was the fact that the Catholic Church was at its height of popularity. With the church being so popular, Thomas Aquinas was able to spread his beliefs easier and be recognized. Thomas Aquinas enforced his theological beliefs and shared them through primary sources. He wrote many different books and informational pieces that pertained to the Catholic Church and they mainly were from a Philosophers prospective which made him different than all of the other people in the Catholic Church. His philosophical point of view gave the reader a more informational piece that included more evidence than most religious books. In one of his books about the Catholic Church he wrote, "God could have made something that has always existed. It remains to be seen, therefore, whether something that has always existed can be made." Thomas Aqui...
Descartes was born in LaHayer, France on March 31, 1596. Trained in Aristotelian school, he attended boarding school in a Jesuits-based boarding college at the age of 8 years old, going on to law school at the age of twenty two. His father placed increased focus on the importance of education, as he was a member of the provincial parliament of France. Descartes’ mother died while he was young and so he was raised by his grandmother and then sent to boarding school. Descartes schooling focused on theology and philosophy as well as science and mathematics, including the study of the metaphysical and geometry. He was first considered a mathematician and then philosopher by many, with his addition of his wo...
It is often said that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. It is true that technology has changed civilization and wars have shaped the earth, but, loosely speaking: the duties of man, the importance of knowledge and our morals are still almost the same as they were since the dawn of civilization. For the last 8,500 years man has harvested, learned and practiced righteousness. Yet, man is always progressive. We seek to find the most efficient means of working, learn as much as we can and search for what is meaning of “good”. Man has learned a lot from the past successes and past mistakes making written history possibly our greatest invention. What has happened in written history that we might have overlooked or forgotten? What can we see happening to our nation now that should be avoided due to past failures? And where have we progressed? Our time is compared to many times in history but in this paper we will compare it to Europe in the Middle Ages. How are the Middle Ages in Europe like the U.S. today and how is it different? How is this good and how is this bad?
Knowledge is gained through a myriad of personal experiences through a variety of ways that shapes a person’s understanding. The knowledge we obtain is the culmination of our experiences as we learn what our brain interprets from our senses. Knowledge is the transmission of information that shapes a person’s understanding on a particular topic using a way of knowing. The language used by others to formulate our own ideas and thoughts produce knowledge. The knowledge obtained can either be objective and subjective. The two areas of knowledge, history and arts, are both typically at fault for being inaccurate or bias. The role of history is to study, interpret and analyse the events of the past and relay these findings through language. Language communicates thoughts and ideas through a verbal or written broadcast, thus allowing knowledge to be conveyed. The arts are a broad area of knowledge that communicate knowledge through the manipulation of our sense perceptions that allow us to experience sensations through any of our five senses. The inaccuracies and biases of these areas of knowledge and ways of knowing is due to the pre-set beliefs and values that affect how an artist or a historian chooses to express a particular message to others. Each historian belongs to a school of historiography that holds the belief that an event was due to a specific set of factors and the language used supports this claim. Similarly, artists utilize our sense perceptions to convey a message through a painting. Arts are a broad area of knowledge to i...
Another purpose for writing is to inform. Information is power. In today’s society people need a lot of information to perform, thus making information qui...
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write because there is some lie I want to expose and some fact I want to draw attention to…”
384 B.C.E., Aristotle was born in Stagira, Greece. At the age of fourteen, Aristotle went to Athens to study Philosophy with Plato. Although he studied with Plato, he did not always agree with some of his teachings. When Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and traveled to Macedonia. While in Macedonia, Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great. Later on in his life, Aristotle returned to Athens and created a school of him own, Lyceum. When Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C.E., Aristotle fled to Euboea to avoid charges and execution. He died shortly after in 322 B.C.E. (Aristotle Biography, 2015). Aristotle is seen as much more than just a great philosopher of his time. He practiced in ethics, biology, science, and much more (Chaffee, 2013, p. 250).