Aristotelian Insight

And I thought Constitutional Law was tough. Philosophy class has stretched, challenged, twisted, contorted, and drained my mental capacities from the first opening of the twenty-pound (I exaggerate slightly) textbook.

I have been dragged along by my red high heels by a professor whose IQ must approach 190. I am aware that Einstein's IQ was 189.

The most challenging aspect of this class is not purely mental or academic, however, but it is spiritual. Reading the writings of some of the greatest minds that Western Civilization has beheld has made me acutely aware of all of the things I have not resolved and reasoned through. From St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument to Acquinas‘ examination of the will to the inquiries of Aristotle and St. Augustine into the nature of time and its relation to the First Mover and therefore the nature of His sovereignty, there are copious matters that I need to work through in the next six and a half semesters. The beauty of a classical liberal arts education. :)

I am amazed by the faculty of reason that God has entrusted to man. Reason can get man so painfully close but so vitally distant from an accurate perception of the nature of God. I’ve found the thoughts of Aristotle to be most illustrative of this idea.

Aristotle promoted a particular concept known as the Intentionality of the Mind. Is his discussion of Plato’s theory of dualism, Aristotle reasons that the mind must be spirit, because it is able to take the form of whatever is is thinking.

With this philosophical backdrop, the Apostle Paul exhorted the believers in Romans 12 to not be conformed any longer to the ways of this world but be transformed according to the renewing of their minds. If Aristotle was accurate in determining that the mind can actually form to its thoughts, this is revolutionary to the understanding of Romans 12.

This is nothing original or particularly profound, but I was encouraged by the usefulness of seemingly “secular” learning to spiritual development. Acquinas had it right: all truth is God’s truth.