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2 results

  • Chapter 4 - The First Way

  • Peter Weigel, Washington College, Maryland
  • Book:
    Reading Aquinas's Five Ways
    Published online:
    05 June 2025
    Print publication:
    19 June 2025, pp 81-123

  • Summary

    Chapter 4 examines the First Way, the argument for God from motion or change. Some introductory remarks on the Five Ways are followed by a translation and stating the premises of the First Way. The chapter then turns to the controversial premise that “whatever is in motion is moved by another,” that every change in a thing requires a separate cause of the change. Objections to the premise include ones stemming from Newtonian laws. The chapter then examines the per se ordered causal series the argument has in mind. There is a look at why Aquinas thinks that such a series cannot be infinite, but must have a first uncaused cause of change. The chapter notes a few characteristics of this first mover. A final section looks at why Aquinas thinks that this being would be understood to be God. It is explained how each Way concludes to a description that is a nominal definition of God, which Aquinas thinks successfully designates the divine nature for those able to recognize it.

Reading Aquinas's Five Ways
  • The Arguments for God in Summa Theologiae
  • Peter Weigel
  • Published online:
    05 June 2025
    Print publication:
    19 June 2025
  • Thomas Aquinas's famous five arguments for God's existence, or 'Five Ways,' in Summa theologiae Ia q.2 a.3 are a cornerstone of thought and discussion about God and are still much debated today. In this book Peter Weigel provides the philosophical background, particularly surrounding Aquinas's metaphysics and theory of causation, needed to understand the Five Ways and examines the thinking behind the premises of these often difficult arguments. Weigel also considers larger issues surrounding arguing for God's existence beyond Aquinas's views, including more recent philosophical and scientific developments. He introduces readers to a wide array of thinkers and positions on the issues surrounding arguments for God, considers objections and other views from numerous historical and contemporary sources, and contemplates how Aquinas might respond to them. Written in clear prose with full explanations of technical concepts, his book will benefit a wide range of readers from undergraduates to advanced scholars.