five ways to prove the existence of God
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The "five ways to prove the existence of God" are St. Thomas Aquinas’s classic set of philosophical arguments—based on motion, causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, and teleology—offered in the Summa Theologica as rational demonstrations of God’s existence.
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
argument for the existence of God
→
philosophical argument → scholastic doctrine → theological argument → |
| aimsToShow |
existence of God
→
|
| alsoKnownAs |
Five Ways
→
quinque viae → |
| author |
Thomas Aquinas
→
|
| centralConcept |
final cause
→
first cause → first mover → gradation of perfections → necessary being → |
| concludesThat |
God is a necessary being
→
God is the first efficient cause → God is the intelligent director of natural things → God is the maximum in being and perfection → God is the unmoved mover → |
| describedIn |
Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2, Article 3
→
Summa Theologica → |
| field |
metaphysics
→
natural theology → philosophy of religion → |
| hasBeenCriticizedBy |
David Hume
→
Immanuel Kant → |
| hasInterpretation |
cosmological argument
→
teleological argument → |
| hasPart |
argument from contingency
→
argument from degrees of perfection → argument from efficient causality → argument from final causality → argument from motion → teleological argument → |
| influenced |
Catholic apologetics
→
classical theism → contemporary philosophy of religion → |
| influencedBy |
Aristotelian metaphysics
→
Aristotle → Islamic philosophy → Jewish philosophy → |
| language |
Latin
→
|
| method |
a posteriori reasoning
→
|
| religiousContext |
Christian philosophy
→
Roman Catholicism → |
| timePeriod |
13th century
→
|
| tradition |
Scholasticism
→
Thomism → |
Referenced by (2)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
St. Thomas Aquinas
→
|
knownFor |
|
Summa Theologiae
→
|
notableIdea |