 Welcome to this lecture on aspects of western philosophy, lecture 7 and this lecture is on medieval philosophy. And primarily there are two important thinkers, the contributions of two important thinkers are going to be discussed in this lecture. The first one is Saint Augustine and the second one is Saint Thomas Aquinas. These two important thinkers are selected because of their contributions, because of their relevance in the hall of philosophy on the one hand and particularly in the development of what we today designate as scholastic philosophy or medieval philosophy. So, the important topics which we are going to discuss today are Saint Augustine and his problem of evil, Saint Thomas Aquinas' concept of faith and reason and the third one is proof for the existence of God which is primarily proposed by Saint Thomas Aquinas. So, these three are the important topics which we are going to concentrate today. And when we talk about medieval philosophy as I have already indicated, the important thing to be focused is primarily the contributions of Christianity as a philosophical theology that is going to be discussed. And when we talk about the relationship between philosophy and religion, primarily Christianity in the context of Europe, it is during the last period of Hellenic speculation Christianity became popular in Roman kingdom. So, it was during that period when there was a visible decline of the Roman empire on the one hand and also the glorious Greek philosophical era on the other hand. So, these two were happening simultaneously on the one hand and on the other hand you could witness the emergence of Christianity as a more organized religion. So, Christianity required a philosophical support on the one hand and these two civilizations the Roman the Greek Roman civilizations they require certain institutions or some very strong institution which would support cultural life. Because with the demise with the decline of the Roman empire there is no strong institutions in Europe which would support strong cultural institutions. On the other hand Christianity as a religion cannot progress without strong philosophical and theological support. So, these particular period in human history in European history is very crucial because it brought together two very important institutions or two very important periods actually. One is the Greek Roman civilization the philosophy their culture and their moral and world outlook on the other hand Christianity as a religion. And this is what I mentioned during the last period of Hellenic speculation Christianity became popular in the Roman kingdom and on the other hand in turn Christianity was influenced by the philosophical traditions of Greek or Roman world. And again to give a rational expression to fundamental Christian beliefs Christianity required philosophy the Hellenic thought early Christianity had to justify its faith to reason. Because the Greek or Roman culture as we have already seen in the previous lectures of this course was predominantly rational their methods of enquiry were rational. And the Greek civilization had already given birth to many phenomenal thinkers like Socrates Plato Aristotle and many others. And Christianity on the other hand is a religion which is primarily based on faith. But with faith alone a religion cannot gain acceptance in a culture you need to justify faith in the light of reason. So, this is what Christianity or the Christian early Christian thinkers were trying to do. So, the apologist philosophically defended faith in the Christian tradition this is what the apologist did. They philosophically defended faith and they also had to formulate doctrine and theories like philosophers formulate doctrines and theories in order to substantiate and justify their world pictures. These thinkers also had to do that to what is revealed through the Bible has to be justified rationally by formulating doctrines and theories. To expose, systematize and demonstrate the Christian dogmas by the schoolmen and this in these attempts of the schoolmen the birth of scholastic philosophy what we today understand as scholastic philosophy as emerged. So, I repeat to expose, systematize and demonstrate the Christian dogmas in the light of philosophical theories developed by the Greek philosophers primarily by Plato and Aristotle. So, the two important thinkers I have mentioned just now Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. We can see the influence of both these great masters of European thought Plato and Aristotle. Augustine in Augustine's philosophy will see both the contributions or the influence of both. But Saint Thomas Aquinas is predominantly an Aristotelian yet he is a person he is a philosopher who had written commentaries to Aristotle's work and taken lot he has taken a lot from Aristotle's philosophy in order to justify and substantiate Christian faith. Now, scholastic philosophy it accepts the truth of Christianity without questioning them. So, this is one very important point to be underlined. Scholastic philosophy as said though we call it philosophy though the rational aspect is emphasized wherever there is a tension between faith and reason. Scholastic thinkers had a tendency to accept what is important in faith. They always considered faith as more important than reason though later on we could see that there are attempts particularly by people like Saint Thomas Aquinas to find out that there is no real tension or there is no real contradiction between faith and reason. But still the acceptance of Christian belief or Christian dogmas without questioning them is so central to scholasticism. Philosophy at the service of religion hand made an of theology. So, we could see the birth of systematic theology during this period and philosophy has been treated as an hand made an of theology it is just at the service of religion. And then we can see that Postel Paul offers a Christian theology for the first time. So, it is often said that Saint Paul is responsible for the institutionalization of Christianity as a religion. That is because he is the first one to offer as Christian theology per se in the most systematic and accepted manner. The Gnostic attempted developing a philosophy of Christianity. This is what is furloughed the Gnostic they tried to develop a philosophy of Christianity and by reconciling Greek metaphysical doctrines with the dogmas of Christianity. So, I have mentioned in the beginning of this lecture itself that this is precisely the aim of scholastic thinkers to reconcile the great philosophical metaphysical insides of the Greek tradition with the principles or with the revealed truth that is present in the Bible. The apologist furloughed with more systematic approaches. So, this is how scholastic philosophy gradually developed. And when we talk about medieval philosophy we can say that it is the period from the end of the Roman Empire in Italy until the Renaissance. So, this is what the historical period which we mentioned to. The period from the end of Roman Empire in Italy until Renaissance Italian Renaissance and till that period we normally designate we normally refer to as medieval philosophy or scholastic age. We can be more precise by saying that it is from the fifth to fifteenth century AD almost 1000 years. This period is also known as dark ages because these people as I have already mentioned considered treated philosophy as an anemdian of theology. It is at the service of legion faith was more important than reason. So, in that sense philosophers started calling it a dark ages. The philosophy of western Europe between the decline of classical pagan culture and renaissance and that which dominated European thought from Augustine to renaissance. So, another way to put it is this from Saint Augustine to renaissance. So, Saint Augustine in that sense is a very important and very crucial thinker in this hall tradition of medieval philosophy, but at the same time we have to recognize we have to realize that Saint Augustine is a very important philosophers in the hall history of European philosophy. So, this is what we are trying to do in this lecture. Latin was the Sanskrit of medieval philosophy. Sanskrit in India was the language of the learned class. It was the language in which all scholastic, all scholarly works were composed of in India. We can see all great Puranas, Shastras, everything was composed in Sanskrit. Similarly, Latin was a Sanskrit of medieval philosophy. All great scholarly works across Europe were written in Latin not in their respective mother tongues. So, even we can see that even French and German philosophers when they write, they write in Latin not in their respective mother tongues. And now let us see some of the very important historical factors that triggered the development emergence of scholastic philosophy. As I already mentioned the collapse of Raman civilization and other related important historical events that come to our mind. This is a very important factor, the collapse of Raman civilization. As I already mentioned it in the beginning of this lecture, afterwards the empires social structures also collapsed. This is very important. Any great civilization, it requires certain social structures which was very strong, built on certain fundamental moral assumptions, fundamental certain fundamental beliefs. So, with the collapse of Raman civilization, these social structures of the empire also collapsed. So, the European civilization required another social structure, another set of cultural social structures to sustain its civilizational beliefs or its civilizational strength. The church was the only institution in that sense capable of supporting intellectual culture in the entire Europe during this period. And till 12th century this was the situation. So, we can see that from 12th century onwards there is a gradual change. By 15th century it culminated in renaissance, but till then it was all dark ages. Christianity was the only institution. It was the only institution which supported all forms of intellectual intervals in Europe during that period, almost 1000 years. And now let us see the major influences of scholastic thinkers, scholastic the schoolmen and primarily two philosophers whom we have mentioned, but there are many others. The two important thinkers as I have already indicated are Plato and Aristotle. The doctrines of Plato and Aristotle and the entire Athenian philosophy, not just these two thinkers, the Hall of Greek philosophy were philosophers or philosophy was a great influence for this schoolmen, but primordially these two thinkers. And one of the schoolmen Berthius who lived between 480 to 525 AD brought commentaries on Plato's and Aristotle's works. Slowly they are trying to digest the Greek philosophical insights into Christianity. The Jewish tradition was another significant influence because primarily Christianity itself is an offshoot of the Jewish tradition, the Jewish civilization. The Old Testament is an accepted text for all the three Abrahamic regions. So, the Jewish tradition was also a great influence for them. The early Islamic philosophers were also influenced by the Greek thinkers. So, their influence is also visible in the development of scholastic philosophy and even the Indian thought, Indian thinking. Though many western philosophers would not accept it, would not acknowledge it openly, there is sufficient reason to believe that the Greek philosophers themselves were tremendously influenced by Indian philosophers, Indian thinkers. There was a very active commercial and other forms of cultural interactions between these two great civilizations, the Greek, the European, the Greco-Roman primarily the European civilization and the Indian civilization. So, naturally there were a lot of exchanges, intellectual exchanges that had taken place during this period. So, the influence of the Indian thinkers or Indian philosophical traditions were also there and it was acknowledged by some European thinkers and naturally when the Christian, early Christian philosophers when they try to accommodate or when they try to sort of interpret their dogmas and beliefs in the light of Greco-Roman philosophical tradition. These insights of these great other philosophical traditions also would have played a very important role. Later by 12th century Aristotle became more influential or rather Aristotle became the most significant influence on the scholastic thinkers. Now, let us see a little bit of Platonism and Christianity because Plato, the first system builder in European philosophy has come up with a very special kind of philosophy which separated, which introduced a dualism, appearance and reality. What appears? This world, this world of sense experience according to Plato is unreal. What is real? Reality is constituted of abstract universal ideas or forms which are eternal, which are imperishable. The world of these objects are subjected to destruction while eternal realities will never perish. This is what the crux of his philosophical ideas were and in connection with this philosophical ideas Plato also developed a theory of eternal soul, which was taken by Christianity as well because according to the Christian belief the soul, the human soul is also eternal. The moral development of the soul is also something which Christianity would have taken from a Platonic philosophical assumptions and the separation of the soul from the body because there is a fundamental separation Plato envisages between soul and the body. Soul is something which is eternal, body is something which is perishable and which is reminiscent of the form and matter distinction which Plato makes. But of course there are certain difficulties, certain significant problems which Christianity phases when it tries to interpret its fundamental dogmas in the light of Platonic thought. The first one is the doctrine of resurrection in Christianity and Plato's notion of reincarnation. So, Plato's notion of reincarnation is almost very close to the Indian concept while Christianity never believes in reincarnation. Christianity the notion is resurrection there is a Christian world is constituted of the heaven, the hell and the world. So, there is a heaven and the natural abode of the soul is the heaven it has to go back that is a teleology built into it. But Plato conceived the possibility of reincarnation, rebirths which is very close to the Indian belief. So, there is a kind of tension between these two assumptions and again Plato envisages a union of the soul with the ultimately good. This is again I would say a reminiscent of the Indian ideal the conception of the Atman the soul being one with the ultimate universal soul which is conceived by Plato in a very significantly different way. But still you can see that there is a sort of similarity between these two views, but Christianity never conceived it. Christianity separated God from man, God is a creator for Christianity and it to conceive that the human soul or the individual soul becoming one with the universal soul or God is blabbering according to Christian belief. So, these are some of the difficulties which Christianity as an organized religion encountered with Platonic philosophy. With these fundamental ideas in mind let us now start examining the contributions of Saint Augustine who lead between 353 AD to 430 AD. Saint Augustine is conceived as the most influential of all middle ages thinkers and a showed that there is no fundamental a position between religion and philosophy or faith and reason. So, usually there is a belief that faith and reason would not go hand in hand. There is a fundamental contrast or fundamental contradiction or tension between faith and reason because faith demands absolute faith, absolute submission to something without any questioning and reason is always built reason is always sort of based on questioning why certain things happen. So, there is a contradiction between these two, but Augustine was trying to show that there is no fundamental contradiction between reason and faith or philosophy and religion. Religion can aid philosophy in its rational pursuits this is what he was trying to assert and Christianity can be enraged by revealing its philosophical basis. So, this is what he thought by revealing the philosophical basis of Christianity philosophy can do a real service to Christianity. So, he was trying to do that and this his book The Confessions which is even today conceived as a classic a philosophical classic is one of the most influential and important philosophy works of all times. So, this is what some basic information about Saint Augustine and when we talk about his intellectual endeavours, the works of the Platonist influenced him significantly. So, we could see the influence of Plato here in the case of Saint Thomas Aquinas the influence of Aristotle is more visible, but here Augustine was more influenced by the Platonist. The separation of physical from spiritual substance is a very important problem in Augustine's philosophy and again when we talk about his important philosophical views the only knowledge both having is the knowledge of God. So, this is from where he starts. So, we can see the influence of Plato here even in Plato the most significant the most important knowledge which according to Plato is wisdom the highest wisdom is knowledge about goodness. It is the knowledge about goodness. So, Plato actually starts with that question all his philosophical endeavours begin with the question what is goodness how do you know it. Similarly, here goodness is replaced by God or rather equated with God. Augustine equates goodness with God and affirms that the only knowledge both having is the knowledge of God. God created substance not only order and arrangement. So, everything was created by God including substances everything in this world order arrangement God was responsible for everything in this world in this universe and time was created when the world was created till then there was no time before God created world there was no time with the creation of the world time also emerged. God is eternal and hence timeless God is beyond time it is God who created the world and time. So, he is beyond all that. So, these are some of his fundamental assumptions which is again taken from or rather substantiated by Plato's philosophical positions. God is the ultimate source and point of origin of everything in Plato it is the idea of goodness from where everything emerges. So, God here is the ultimate source of everything God is equated with being goodness and truth. So, this is Augustine's position you can see a dualism here see here you have something called the sensible world. The sensible world is private and isolated transitory objects and on the other side you have the intelligible world which is public and open to all enduring objects and he says the intelligible realm holds out the prospect of fulfilling our desire for the unity that we seek in friendship and love a unity that we can never really be achieved as long as we are immersed in the sensible world and separated by physical bodies subject to inevitable dissolution. So, this is again Plato that can never be achieved the highest goal can never be achieved because it is something which a prospect of fulfilling our desire for the unity that we seek in friendship and love. So, this can never be achieved if you are stuck to this world of perishable sensible objects again when you talk about legion and philosophy the question of faith and reason the relationship between faith and reason comes into picture reason is capable of comprehending God. This is what Augustine was trying to effort because usually there is a belief that reason can never attain reason can never comprehend God. God is a matter of faith, but Augustine underlines the fact that reason is capable of comprehending God. God has given reason to us because the primary purpose of reason is to understand God understand everything including God. So, it is God who has given us reason God has given us reason in order that we may know all things including God. To philosophize is to see truth directly and without the intervention of the eyes of the body and again reason is the eye of the soul. So, he is trying to equate again you can see the influence of Platonism he is trying to equate reason with not with the body, but with the soul that separation is so fundamental in Plato as well as in Augustine. So, reason is the eye of the soul, wisdom is the highest truth after which we should strive like Plato and again wisdom is nothing but God and to have wisdom means to have God again Platonism goodness here it is God, wisdom is nothing but God and to have wisdom means to have God. So, here Augustine makes a point very clear he says that true philosophy is identical with true religion. So, there is no real fundamental separation between philosophy and religion as if you know we can see with today philosophy is a rational interval which deals with secular objects and on the other hand religion is something which demands faith acceptance this and that. No the true philosophy according to him is true religion itself and both have the same strivings for the eternal it is based on the same principle to understand the eternal to know the eternal. So, both philosophy and religion aim at that God despise reason his first born son which is God himself to us in order to make us more perfect than other beings and again chronologically faith precedes intelligence. So, this is what he was trying to assert. So, though there is no fundamental contradiction of tension between these two chronologically faith precedes intelligence in order to understand a thing we must first believe it then we can try to rationally comprehend it. Faith is a condition of knowledge he asserts this it is a condition of knowledge and it is a provisional state inferior to knowledge and ultimately resolves itself into it. So, every knowledge begins with faith according to him. Understand what we firmly believe see the rationality of our faith and understand in order that you may believe believe in order that you may understand this is the famous agustinian phrase I repeat understand in order that you may believe believe in order that you may understand they are mutually complementary for in a scheme of things when you focus on the concept of God it is so central to agustin's philosophy for that matter to the entire medieval philosophy, but for agustin more importantly God is the being beyond whom outside of whom and without whom nothing exist everything is God in that sense. So, it looks like a sort of tantism which is actually not correct, but God is the being beyond whom outside of whom and without whom nothing exist. God is the beginning the middle and the end of all things again he is good and yet without quality he is good and yet without quality he is great without being a quantity. So, agustin was trying to sort of capture this God which is not possible to capture with reason alone. So, you could see that he develops a scheme which involves everything reason, faith, understanding, comprehension everything and everything surrounding the concept of God which fundamentally remains as a reality which is identical with goodness. Goodness, justice and wisdom are not accidental attributes of God, but is in a most essence God is goodness itself justice itself, wisdom itself they are all in a most essences of God omnipotence omnipresence and eternity are is divine essences. So, these are in a most and divine essences of God and everything is in God though he is not the all he surpasses or rather he goes beyond everything though everything is in him he himself goes beyond everything you cannot put everything together and say that it is God. God is not just a combination or a putting together of everything he goes beyond all that again he is the creator of intelligence and yet superior to it he has created intelligence no doubt in that he has created reason no doubt in that, but he is beyond that he is beyond his creations the creator is beyond his creations creator is greater than the created objects he is present everywhere without being bound to any place you cannot bind him to one particular place and say that God is here God is everywhere is present everywhere he exist and yet is nowhere we cannot say that he we cannot pinpoint him to one particular location and say that he belongs to that location he lives eternally and yet is not in time he is the principle of all change and yet immutable and reason encounters antinomies in speculating about God this is an issue which we are going to discuss further when we come to modern philosophy particularly to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Hegel because it was Immanuel Kant who highlights this issue that reason encounters antinomies when it tries to speculate about ultimate reality. So Augustine also recognizes this and says that reason cannot comprehend God completely reason states what God is not or with reason alone one cannot contribute God's nature in its entirety reason can only conceive God partly not completely, but one cannot comprehend God in the fullness of his perfection to comprehend God in the fullness of his perfection one needs to be perfect, but no one is perfect except God. So God's creations cannot be as perfect as he himself is. So in that sense complete or absolute or perfect comprehension is impossible. God is in that sense absolutely holy and cannot will evil in him willing and doing are one what he wills is done without any intermediate being and again in him are all ideas or forms of things. So everything is there in him though he goes beyond everything else everything of its form to him is the ultimate creator of everything and he created the world out of nothing a continuous process of creates the continuous process it goes on world depends on him every time world depends on it is not that God has just created world and left it like that it still depends on him every moment it depends on God time and space are also created by him God has created matter God created the world and on account of his infinite love and this is what he says. So as I already mentioned if this is a case if everything is created by God in one sense we can say that then everything is God because he is created everything, but as I already mentioned this might indicate a kind of pantheism which is actually not correct pantheism is the view which says that God is world and world is God identifying world with God or God with world is pantheism Augustine's position is very close to pantheism but is fundamentally different because he says that everything is in God no doubt but God is beyond everything God is more than that God and the world are different in that sense they are different the doctrine of X and hello is something which makes him not a pantheist and now we come to a very important problem which the hall of scholastic philosophy grappled with the problem of evil. I would articulate it in this way as it is done by David Hume in his dialogues concerning natural region he is he or the deity willing to prevent evil but not able then he is important is he able but not willing then he is manoeuvrable is he both able and willing when then is evil so this is a question or to put it in another words where does evil come from seeing that God who is good has created all these things good Augustine in his confessions. So, the problem is to articulate it differently God is the cause of everything God is absolute goodness the hall of creation is an expression of his goodness everything that exist is then good he would have built everything for the best of his creatures then what about evil if all these propositions stated above are true if God has created everything if everything God has created is good for his creatures then what about evil evil also is his own creation evil cannot create itself so everything is created by God including evil and if everything that is created by God is for the good then evil also should be for the good which involves a contradiction so if everything is good then evil also must be good how can evil be good is it a contradiction this is the problem the problem of evil. Now let us try to understand the answer the way in which these thinkers provided a solution to the problem every kind of existence is good even evil this is what they say like the shadows of a picture it belongs to the beauty of the hall this is Augustine's view like the shadows of the picture which is actually a limitation of the picture in one sense the shadows are something which is unavoidable inevitable limitations but they add to the beauty of the picture evil as such is not good but it is good that evil is present it is good because evil is a privation of essence evil is the omission of good it depends on the good it is only an absence of good it is not a positive presence it is only an absence like a shadow if there is no good there is no evil privation of good is evil it is an absence it is the absence of something which nature ought to have so in that sense we can say that moral evil comes from a defective will the worst evil is turning away from God now the question is why did not God omit evil which he could have as nothing is impossible for him nothing is impossible for God so God could have omitted it but he did not do that why he preferred it to serve the good this is the answer given by Augustine he wanted he wants evil to be there to serve the good to enhance the glory of the universe so this is Augustine's view real evil does not exist evil is a privation of the good the presence of evil makes man responsible and this is how he tries to so Augustine takes up a very some of the very important some of the very crucial questions of scholastic thinking scholastic philosophy and tries to answer them the first one is the concept of God itself is elaborated by Augustine and when you try to understand the concept of Christian God as a creator God as a father figure then and particularly try to philosophically substantiate this view then naturally you encounter several problems like the most one of the most important problems which you encounter is the problem of evil and the answer given by Augustine to the problem of evil is that evil is only a privation of goodness it is like shadows of a picture which would add to the glory of the universe rather now with this we will wind up our discussion on the contributions of saint Augustine now we will come to the next philosopher saint Thomas Aquinas who is a very important thinker as I already mentioned these two are treated by many as the most important thinkers and when it comes to saint Thomas Aquinas the primary objectives are to demonstrate the rationality of the universe as a revelation of God relationship between philosophy and theology and faith and reason to bring out this to show how philosophy and theology or faith and reason supplement each other to demonstrate the superiority of faith which every Christian philosopher every scholastic thinker was trying to do this when you see saint Thomas philosophy as I already mentioned in the beginning he was one of this scholastic thinkers who was greatly influenced by Aristotle while Augustine was mostly influenced by Plato you can see the influence of Aristotle more prominent in Thomas there is a synthesis of Christianity and the philosophy of Aristotle in Thomas works and he had written commentaries on Aristotle's work like on the solve Nicomachean ethics metaphysics all these are very important works in Aristotle's philosophy and Aquinas approaches as I already mentioned Christian theology prior to Aquinas was predominantly Platonic like Plato it refuted concrete physical reality and emphasize the realm of abstract and purely spiritual forms and ideas Aquinas adopted a form of Aristotleianism and opposed this predominantly Platonic point of view which was there in scholastic philosophy. So, when you try to understand is Aristotleianism Aristotle is different from Plato primarily because in Aristotle the kind of dualism which Plato maintained is absent of course, Aristotle was also a dualist, but for Plato form and matter are absolutely separated one is real the other one is unreal, but for Aristotle maintained both for him both form and matter eternally coexisted he treated the abstract universal forms as the last the concrete objects in this world as equally important. So, the physical world for Aristotle has some value similarly for Aquinas also the world which is a creation of God is a valuable world is an important reality or in other words soul and body are in a union like form and matter in Aristotle soul and body are in a union and against the prevailing body negativism for which Plato was responsible body and the natural world have value in Aquinas philosophy. So, as in the case of Aristotle we can see a compromise here as well the domain of God which is pure and the world which is not as pure as the former knowledge of God faith or reason. So, these are all issues which we will find in Aquinas philosophy and when we talk about knowledge and the Roller philosophy all our intellectual knowledge rise from senses. So, here again like Aristotle who believed that all knowledge begins with sensations he also says that all our intellectual knowledge rise from the senses. All philosophy start with what we know about existing objects and common starting points to human thought are downed in sense perception and philosophy should identify them. Aquinas is Aristotleianism unlike Plato Aristotle saw the empirical world as real as I mentioned knowledge about and the empirical world is a major concern for Aristotle and for Aquinas as well created world is not to be completely negated scientific intervals can be legitimized and reason has its place and value in human intervals, but it has its limitations as well. So, again we are back to the problem like reason and faith how to reconcile them. So, there is another way which Aquinas tries to reconcile reason with faith with reason alone we cannot demonstrate things like trinity incarnation originals in creation of the world in time and sacraments etcetera. There are certain things which reason cannot understand philosophy cannot deal with these things say for example, the concept of trinity which is so central for Christian world the Christian dogmas one of the very important Christian dogmas which cannot be understood by philosophy they are revealed truths beyond reason not objects of philosophy can neither prove nor disprove them. So, reason alone we cannot either prove or disprove them yet they are not unreasonable. So, to understand this to accommodate this he develops a two fold theory of truth about the religious claims religious claims always call for a two fold theory of truth one the one which the enquiry of reason can reach cannot understand see for example, that God exists. So, reason can give provide proof for the existence of God which he actually gives and that which surpasses the whole ability of the human reason which reason cannot do anything see for example, the conception of trinity. So, he was trying to argue that there is no real contradiction between these two the one which is reason can understand and the one which surpasses the domain of reason and matters that are revealed are not necessarily unreasonable this is what he was trying to argue if you believe in them their reasonableness would become clear. So, faith in that sense is presupposed we cannot provide rational proof for the mysteries of religion they presuppose faith. Faith is a matter of will that commands acceptance and it is an inner instinct coming to us from without something which comes from within something which is part of our natural constitution according to him. God invites us to believe it is it is God's own invitation in that sense. So, here there is a court from Aquinas which would indicate the two fold mode of truth. There is a two fold mode of truth in which in what we profess about God. Some truths about God exceed all the ability of human reason such is the truth that God is trying, but there are some truths which the natural reason also is able to reach such are the truth that God exist that he is one and the like. In fact such truths about God have been proved demonstratively by the philosophers guided by the light of natural reason. This is from Aquinas, Sama, Contra, Gentilas, chapter 1 book 1 chapter 3 and number 2. So, the two fold theory of truth can be articulated in this way there is reveal theology which is dogmatic which is beyond errors and there is rational theology which is philosophical, but it can and reveal theology is a genuine speculative science. It is not based on natural experience and reason science concern with knowledge of God nobler than any other science. On the other hand rational theology can make demonstrations using the articles of faith as its principles. Can apologetically refute objections raised against the faith even if no articles of faith are presupposed. So, now we will move on to the last topic which we are going to discuss in this lecture. The proof for the existence of God as I already mentioned the two fold theory of truth tries to argue that there are certain things which reason can understand which can be proved that is that God exist God is one and the like. St Thomas Aquinas has come up with certain proof for the existence of God which are known as the five ways. They are the celebrated five ways or the five proofs for the existence of God. God as the necessary cause of certain observed phenomena like motion, existence of efficient causes, reality of contingency, different grades of perfection in the natural order, and directed activity of natural objects. Each one of them is an observed phenomena and God is conceived as a cause of them. So, this is the way in which these arguments for the existence of God are designed. Now proof for God existence. So, Augustine outlines as I already mentioned five proofs. The first three ways deal with the cosmological argument which is again taken from Aristotle. The fourth deals with the moral arguments that there is a moral governance we can see in this universe. And the fifth proof relies on the teleological arguments which says that there is a design in this universe and which presupposes a design. And when we talk about cosmological argument which is again as I mentioned based on Aristotle's conception of prime mover or the unmoved mover. In Aristotle we had seen this that there is motion in this universe and motion presupposes a mover who itself is unmoved. So, the concept of unmoved mover, universe demanded the existence of something which moves other things without itself being moved by anything. This is what Aristotle says in his metaphysics book 12. All moving things presuppose an unchanging unmoving entity and this is the first way from motion. Motion implies the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality. A seed becomes a tree. It moves from the form of a seed to the form of a tree. So, the potentialities are actualized. So, motion implies the reduction of potentiality to actuality and something that is already in actuality alone can move a thing from potentiality to actuality. So, it presupposes a form which is already a tree that prompts the seed to move and a thing cannot be both a mover and moved at the same time. Objects in this world cannot be self moving. They presuppose a mover. Whatever is moved is moved by another and that by yet another. This cannot go to infinity otherwise it would become infinite regress which is not possible. There should be a beginning for this moment. Hence, there must be a first mover who itself or himself is not moved which is unmoved, unmoved mover which is God. Now, the second way is based on the idea of efficient cause which says that the world has an order of efficient causes. Everything in this world has a cause. A thing cannot be the efficient cause of itself as it cannot be prior to itself. So, an object cannot be its own efficient cause because then theoretically or logically the object should be present prior to its existence which is impossible. So, there must be another object which is the cause of this object. Every efficient cause as a prior cause but this cannot go on infinity. There should be a beginning and that is God. Therefore, there must be a first efficient cause who is God. So, that is the second way. The third way is from the reality of contingency which says that certain things are found to come into being and be destroyed and hence they either may or may not exist. Objects in this world, most of the objects in this world they come into existence prior to that they did not exist and they also will perish after some point of time and after that they do not exist. So, they may or may not exist. They are contingent. We are not sure about them either existent or non existent. If all things were mere accidents then nothing would actually exist which is not true. I mean just because objects may or may not exist, just because they are all contingent all things cannot be so. If that is the case then nothing exist we would have to conclude that nothing exist which is not the case. Hence, not all things are mere accidents. There must be one necessary existing being. Every necessary thing must have a cause of its necessary existence but the chain of causes cannot go back infinitely. Again it comes to that cosmological argument. Hence, there must be something necessarily existing through its own nature not having a cause elsewhere but being itself the cause of the necessary existence of other things and this is God. So, that is the third way and when we come to the fourth way from degrees of perfection, we find degrees of perfection among things. There are greater and less degrees of goodness truth and nobility in this universe. Different things have different degrees. They exhibit different degrees of goodness truth and nobility. These are in relation to something which is perfect. So, how do you say that this is greater than that always in relation to something which is the greatest. So, that relating entity something that is the truest the best the most noble and the greatest being. This is God the cause of the existence of all things and of the goodness and of every perfection whatsoever. And now we come to the fifth way which is the last way which is an argument from design. I quote we see that things which lack knowledge such as natural bodies act for an end and this is evident from their acting always or nearly always in the same way. So, as to obtain the best result. Hence, it is plain that they achieve their end not fortuitously but design it. Now, whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore, some intelligent being exist by whom all natural things are directed to other end and this being we call God. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia article 3 question 2. So, this is the fifth way from design. All natural objects are arranged according to a plan. There is something intelligent by which all natural things are arranged in accordance with a plan and that is God. So, let us summarize God is the first mover. He is the first cause. He is the necessary being. He is the greatest being and he is the intelligent designer. This figure will provide you a summary of the five arguments, five ways, five proofs for the existence of God provided by Saint Thomas Aquinas. We will now conclude our discussion on this medieval philosophy. So, we have taken up two important thinkers, Saint Thomas Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas and their contribution. Some of the important issues which we have discussed are the problem of God, the problem of faith, the problem of reason and faith, the link, the relationship between reason and faith. The question whether there is a real contradiction, real conflict between these two and the scholastic thinkers were trying to show that there is no real contradiction or a real conflict between these two approaches, faith and reason. They rather complement each other, but at the same time they were trying to highlight, underline the importance of faith over reason and then in which these thinkers were influenced by the Greek philosophers, particularly by Plato and Aristotle. Plato's influence is more visible in the case of Saint Augustine while Saint Thomas Aquinas was an Aristotelian. With Saint Thomas Aquinas, he says that or rather he develops a two-fold theory of truth which ultimately argues that truth or God can be attained, God can be approached from two directions or religious truth can be understood from two directions through faith and true reason and both ultimately reach the same destination. He says that faith is something which is more important than reason, but reason as such has got certain limitations, but it can do certain things. For example, it can actually prove the existence of God, it can demonstrate that there is only one God who is a creator God, all those things, but Saint Thomas Aquinas is more known for his providing a proof for God's existence which is primarily based on Aristotelian insights, the cosmological argument number one, then argument from design and moral governance. So, we have seen the five ways and which would in a sense summarize the contributions of or the nature of thinking propagated or advocated by the scholastic philosophers. Thank you.