Reading Questions

W 10 Nov
Aquinas, selections; al-Ghazali, Rescuer from Error

1) al-Ghazali, Rescuer from Error (sel.)

Try to sort out the steps in al-Ghazali's intellectual development.  What are the crisis points?  How does he resolve these crises?  Is it fair to characterize him as a mystic (as opposed to a rational thinker)?

Why is al-Ghazali so concerned about the criticisms leveled at rational thought?

What is the distinction between mystical knowledge and mystical practice?  What is the epistemological role of mystical knowledge for al-Ghazali?  What is its relationship to knowledge acquired through reason and through revealed tradition?

2) Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles (sel.)

What is Aquinas trying to accomplish in these work with respect to reason and faith?  What are the difference in the ways reason and faith operate?  How does Aquinas draw on Aristotle?  How does he depart from or go beyond him?  Is there any Plato here?  Augustine?  How does this compare to al-Ghazali?

3) Thomas Aquinas, De regimine principum (sel.)

How is Aquinas's account similar to and different from Aristotle's?  Is his method similar?  Does he reach a different conclusion?  Why?  What is the proper relationship between secular (royal) and ecclesiastical (papal) authority?

4) Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae (sel.)

Again, what do we see of Aristotle in here?  Of Augustine?

Be prepared to prove the existence of God.  Why does Aquinas bother trying to do this?

Pay special attention to the "Treatise on Law" (pp. 44ff.) What is law? Eternal law? Natural Law? Human Law? How do we know what they are? How do they fit together? Is Aquinas doing anything new here, or have we heard this all before? If so, from whom? What are the purposes of law for Thomas? Does he agree with Augustine?  With Aristotle? What are the limitations of law? (Look also at II-II.104, pp. 75-76!)

In Aquinas's system, does a ruler have to enforce a (positive) law that violates (moral) conscience?  [This is a complicated question.  What parts of the treatise offer evidence relevant to this problem?]

How does Aquinas come to conclusions on all of the questions addressed on pp. 60ff?  What is his "rule of procedure"?  (There are lots of questions with contemporary relevance in here; have fun with them.)