The historical influence of Aristotle (384-322 BC) rests on the labours of one man, namely, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). I find it remarkable that Aquinas made Aristotle’s philosophy popular even though he had never intended to do so. Aquinas was an Italian Dominican monk and theologian, who aimed at spreading Christian ideals. He could not care less about Aristotelian ideas as such, but he had read Aristotle and realized that Aristotelian philosophy is true. The validity of Aristotelian philosophy confronted Aquinas with major questions: How could he present the Gospel as true if it is contradicting Aristotle? How could he claim that Jesus Christ is the only source of truth, if Aristotle had devised a solid philosophy four centuries before Jesus Christ? Aquinas devoted most of his life to reconciling Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy because he had realized that anyone reading Aristotle would find it very hard to regard the Bible (in particular, the Gospels) as true. During the last five years of his life, Aquinas wrote down a series of arguments (“Summa Theologiae”) using Aristotelian philosophy to justify Christian beliefs. The driving principle in “Summa Theologiae” is that reason and faith can coexist. Aquinas wanted to demonstrate that there are no contradictions between reasons and faith. To this end, he placed the Aristotelian ethics and metaphysics at the service of Christian theology. Truth be told, Aquinas did a wonderful job, but I consider it more a work of imagination than a work of philosophy. He did find ways to twist Aristotle’s ideas into supporting Christianity, and presented them in polished, flawless Latin. Despite Aquinas’ ingenuity, there are aspects of Aristotelian philosophy that cannot be conciliated with Christianity. I refer for instance to Aristotle’s definition of virtue (courage, justice, wisdom) compared to Christian virtue (modesty, altruism, self-sacrifice, charity). I must nonetheless express my gratitude to Aquinas because he made it possible for Aristotelian philosophy to spread across Europe and the rest of the world. Aquinas reinvigorated ideals that had been dormant for centuries and enabled them to grow strong roots. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/aristotles-influence-on-western-philosophy/

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