>>23324837
>>23324844
>Aquinas

Quite right.

Read Chesterton's The Dumb Ox.** The starting point of Thomas's philosophy is that we can trust the senses. The starting point of Kant's theory is that we *can't* trust the senses. Kant reasons from this assumption to his idea of the noumena, or the "noumenal realm." But it is a dubious inference that can never be proven, certainly not empirically.

Chesterton talks about all modern philosophies needing to start with a "queer twist" -- an idea that does not correspond to a common-sense view of reality, such as that of St. Thomas wrt trusting the evidence of the senses.

In turn, an elaborate overarching philosophical superstructure is then built upon the initial "queer twist." Kant's system of philosophy is an archetypal example of this process.

>Since the modern world began in the sixteenth century, nobody's system of philosophy has really corresponded to everybody's sense of reality: to what, if left to themselves, common men would call common sense. Each started with a paradox: a peculiar point of view demanding the sacrifice of what they would call a sane point of view. That is the one thing common to Hobbes and Hegel, to Kant and Bergson, to Berkeley and William James. A man had to believe something that no normal man would believe, if it were suddenly propounded to his simplicity; as that law is above right, or right is outside reason, or things are only as we think them, or everything is relative to a reality that is not there. The modern philosopher claims, like a sort of confidence man, that if once we will grant him this, the rest will be easy; he will straighten out the world, if once he is allowed to give this one twist to the mind.

Thomas stands in opposition to these modern philosophies because, as an initial matter, he trusts in the evidence of the human senses, because the senses were created by God. (Of course, if the senses are merely a product of mindless evolution, all bets are off; you would have no particular reason to trust them; why not be a Kantian?)

If you trust in the senses, Thomas's moderate realism makes sense. If not, you will end up lost in space in the noumena.

**Online here: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100331.txt

Back | Go to board

Board:

/lit/

Thread:

WHAT PHILOSOPHER ACTUALLY CAME CLOSER TO THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW THE WORLD WORKS?