Introductory
The
second edition of the book “Finality and Intelligence” belongs
to the elucidation of the problem and analysis of existence of God.
The fact of writing on God’s existence in our times maybe
surprising to a number of people who are under the spell of the
existential confusion in philosophy, literature and art of our
times. Frankly speaking, very many people, some of them known
scientists in different branches of modern science consider such a
topic simply very much out of date. One can hear from many sources
statements to the effect of complete lack of interest in such
questions. Did not science settle this problem once and for all. Did
not even some existential theologians after Nietzsche, Albert
Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Arthur Schopenhauer acknowledge the death of
God? Is not the matter settled for good? We also have to mention
here the very aggressive group of scientists who openly stress the
fact that they are scientists but draw conclusions which are
metaphysical in nature. And of course the conclusion whether God
exists or not is metaphysical. Metaphysics is also the generally
accepted way of analysis of the Universe and God’s existence until
the very Modern Times. Philosophy whether for the Ancients or as a
matter of fact any attempt to answer the fundamental origin of
existence is metaphysical in nature. On this level the mind moves
from existence to another existence as the necessary condition
explaining the present observation of the universe and it’s
intrinsic structure. There are some phenomena immediately
experienced, which can only be explained in terms of existence of
God. To such belong (1) the rationality implicit in our experience
of the world . Human rationality discovers the possibility of
knowledge because of the presence of rationality in the structure of
the universe. When it comes to higher levels of phenomena we would
have to mention (2) life, (3) consciousness, (4) conceptual thought,
the power to articulate and understand symbols and meaning of
language, and finally (5) the human self. Some atheists claim the
existence and necessity of so called scientific reductionism, the
evolution of the cosmos, the evolution of life including humans as
“arguments “ against existence of God.
On
the contrary the book is one of some other books to follow about a
serious reconsideration of the problem of God’s existence. No
matter how much progress has been made in many areas of our life and
no matter how scientific investigations modified our view of man’s
position in the cosmos , the nature of the vast immensity of billions
of galaxies forming themselves in the vastness of the surrounding
world, and no matter how the human life and situation has been
apparently dwarfed, the thirst and desire for discovery of some
meaning of life is not only not belittled but in the chaos of
different views and opinions intensified for the average man today.
The problem of God’s existence will be amply analyzed in the
forthcoming book by Leszek Figurski “God or no God”.
The
present book is an evaluation and analysis of the last Way of the
known Five Ways leading the human mind to the existence of God
elaborated by Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Fifth Way will be considered
within general context of Thomistic philosophy. It is not the
intention to analyze all Five Ways of Thomas but center on the
ascent of the mind from the orderliness of the finite beings
observed in this world towards final infinite intelligence of the
First Mover and the First Creative Cause of the world.
The
analysis is done on the metaphysical level; it acknowledges the
right of the human mind to complete intelligibility of being as such
and the power of the mind to answer the ultimate questions to which
of course belongs the problem of the existence of God.
Thomas
Aquinas was not the first to elaborate the argument from finality
and its relationship to the mind, but he developed it and put it on
the strictly ontological level .
All
the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas have very similar structure of
argumentation. They begin with existing facts which are directly
observable and then they attempt to discover the ultimate
presuppositions of the observable phenomena . This is why Thomas
Aquinas does not use the word arguments or proofs of existence of
God , instead he prefers the word ways of reaching the ultimate
presuppositions of what is already in experience directly given to
man. The Fifth Way is very important for the whole Thomistic
philosophy. It points to personal intelligence as a necessary
presupposition of the orderly activities of finite causes in the
world. The fact that observable entities are goal oriented in their
activity must have some explanation. Thomas does not mean here the
teleological action of say human beings or even the small degree of
teleological behavior of lower forms of life; he is pointing to the
fact that in- animate structured beings because of their
structured natures contain a presupposition in their activity
towards definite goals or ends.
This
is why the universe is telos-oriented, this is why human
rationality meets the cosmic rationality, this is why science and any
kind of knowledge is possible at all , this is why the harmonious
orderly world must be finally grounded
in
some cosmic intelligence. After all the world did not have to be
the way it is ; it could be a forceless chaos, not in any way open to
the human mind ; or perhaps it could consist only of photons and
electrons. But it is not a chaos but an orderly cosmos as the
Greeks noticed and called it at the beginning of philosophical
reflection.
To
the objection of the evolutionists, the scientific reductionism and
some other possible objections Thomas would if he lived in our age
simply answer : “re-think the problem carefully and without
prejudice and you will realize that there is no other valid solution
but mine.” How the argument will be accepted and understood as
valid and sound or not is up to the judgments of the reader.
Irene
Ciszewska Saunder
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