| A | B |
|---|
| Theism | The theory that maintains there is a God or gods |
| Atheism | the denial of theism, usually on the basis that everything can be explained without God |
| Agnosticism | the philosophical position that whether God exists or not cannot be known |
| Plotinus | a Neo-Platonist who ignored his bodily needs and cared about other-worldly mystical union and had Platonic ideas which ended up influencing Augustine |
| Augustine (from North Africa) | Influential Christian thinker who was greatly influenced by Plato (through NeoPlatonism) |
| Aquinas (from Italy) | the most influential thinker of the Medieval Period who synthesized Platonic and especially Aristotelian elements in an original way |
| Original sin | the idea promulgated by Augustine that everyone is born with this condition of the soul (because of Adam and Eve) which makes it more likely we will do bad things |
| Free will | Augustine said that this spiritual ability wrongly used brought evil into the world |
| Avicenna | Aquinas' argument for the existence of God based on possible (contingent) beings came from this Persian/Islamic philosopher |
| Aristotle | Aquinas' argument for existence of God based on motion came from this Greek philosopher |
| Aquinas on natural law | uses Aristotle's idea of everything having a nature that needs to fulfill its purpose |
| Martin Luther King, Jr | Used natural law theory to justify civil disobedience in saying an unjust law is not a law |
| just war theory | is based on natural law idea of right to defend one's life or life of another, introduced by Cicero, then Augustine and elaborated on by Aquinas |
| Augustine on knowledge | just as the Sun allows us to see the objects around the outside of the cave (in Plato's Allegory), so, too, our minds are illuminated (lit up) by God in order to be able to know for certain the things we know. |
| Problem of evil that Augustine dwelled on | By definition, God is good. By definition, God is all-powerful. Fact: There is evil in the world. If God is all good and all-powerful, how can there be evil? |
| Solution to problem problem of evil for Augustine | Evil is an absence of good, not a positive thing, and it is caused by a turning away of the will (decision-making ability) from God: so we (Adam and Eve) sinned through use of free will and brought evil into world, not God |
| Cicero and then Augustine said this | an unjust law is not a law--an idea of natural law theory |
| just war theory includes | just reasons for entering war and proper behavior for behaving in war |
| police science and our own self-defense when encountering attack | just war theory can be utilized for these two areas |
| Last Resort criterion | A just war can only be waged after all peaceful options are considered. The use of force can only be used as a last resort. |
| Just Cause criterion | A just war needs to be in response to a wrong suffered. Self-defense against an attack always constitutes a just war |
| Proportionality criterion | The violence in a just war must be proportional to the casualties suffered. The nations involved in the war must avoid disproportionate military action and only use the amount of force absolutely necessary. |
| Civilian casualties criterion | The use of force must distinguish between the militia and civilians. Innocent citizens must never be the target of war; soldiers should always avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are only justified when they are unaviodable victims of a military attack on a strategic target. |
| Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr | Includes specific references to Augustine and Aquinas and just war theory |
| We have a natural inclination to want to live | In Aquinas' natural law theory it follows that things like murder and suicide are wrong. |
| We have a natural inclination to sex and raising of children. | In Aquinas' natural law theory it follows that things like contraception, abortion, homosexual sex, sex outside marriage, masturbation are wrong. |
| We have a natural curiosity, including curiosity about the existence of God | In Aquinas' natural law theory, it follows that people should not be denied an education or prevented from practicing their religion. |
| We have an inclination to be sociable | In Aquinas' natural law theory, it follows that we should not offend each other and we should obey laws of government unless they are unjust |
| Avicenna | Aquina's argument for the existence of God from contingency came from this Islamic philosopher. If everything was merely a "possible being" then at some point there would have been nothing. Therefore, there has to be a being whose existence is necessary. |
| Aristotle | Aquinas' first argument for the existence of God is essentially identical to the Unmoved Mover or First Cause argument of this philosopher. |
| Reason | For Augustine, faith illuminates (makes work better) ______, and for Aquinas, ________is utilized to reach faith. |
| Hume | This philosopher reacts to Augustine, and says because evil exists, there can't be a God. He doesn't accept Augustine's free will argument. |
| Argument from design | Another name for Aquinas' last argument for the existence of God, that when things act as if they have a purpose, there must be a designer. It has been the cause of debate between creationists and evolutionists but there is the hybrid position that God could have started off the evolutionary process. |
| Augustine maintained, contrary to the Manicheans, this thesis about evil | it is the absence of good |
| Manicheans | believed that there is an eternal principle of good and an eternal principle of evil battling each other. Augustine believed in their teaching before he converted to Christianity. |
| Augustine on relationship between faith and reason | faith seeking understanding |
| Aquinas on relationship between faith and reason | I understand in order to believe |
| Feuerbach and Freud | we desire a God as a source of comfort and thus make up his existence |
| Objection to Feuerbach and Freud | our desire for God does not rule out his existence: all other desires of our nature have an object: we desire food and there is food, we desire drink and there is drink, etc. |
| Finnis | a contemporary natural law theorist who adds to the list of basic goods values such as aesthetics and play |
| Happiness | Aquinas says that the essence of God includes this |
| Perfect and imperfect forms of happiness | For Aquinas, God enables the perfect form in heaven and the imperfect one on earth |
