Joseph Bobick, Saint Thomas Aquinas Translation On Elements, 2006 University Of Notre Dame

Joseph Bobick, Saint Thomas Aquinas Translation On Elements, 2006 University Of Notre Dame

Author: Joseph Bobick, Saint Thomas Aquinas

Year: 1901

The concepts of principle, cause, and element are related but distinct, forming a hierarchy of universality. A principle is defined as something first (a primum) from which something else begins or takes its origin. A cause is a type of principle from which the existence of the posterior follows, meaning the primum contributes something to the existence of the posterior. An element is a special kind of cause, specifically a material cause, defined as that "out of which a thing is primarily composed, which is immanent in the thing, and which is indivisible according to form". The interplay between these foundational concepts allows Aquinas to build a sophisticated account of the physical world. Would you like to explore the crucial distinction Aquinas makes between the survival of prime matter versus the survival of elements in a newly generated physical substance, and how this distinction illuminates the discussion surrounding modern particles like quarks and leptons