The Concept Of Truth As Contained In The Summa Theologica Of St. Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

"All men, says Aristotle, have a natural desire for knowledge. The need for knowledge is a law of our mind. Just as hunger and thirst urge upon man the necessity of satisfying his desire for nourishment so as to safeguard the conversation and development of his physical being, in the same way a nobler appetite unceasingly stimulates his intellect and prevents it from ever forgetting that he needs the food of truth if he wants to attain to the perfection of his human nature. Thus the desire for knowledge is innate in the human mind. It manifests itself in the many whys and hows which the child never tires of asking, since even in the most humble state of its evolution the human intellect feels the need for a certain totality of understanding." (1) To know it is to possess truth. (2) Every question of Philosophy and, for that matter, of any other science, is basically a question of truth. If all Philosophy is out after truth, it must concern itself with the notion of truth. The Angelic Doctor considers truth in several of his writings.* It is our purpose in this dissertation to present the Thomistic teaching as found in the Summa Theologica (I, q,16). The present writing is primarily a presentation, not a commentary."All men, says Aristotle, have a natural desire for knowledge. The need for knowledge is a law of our mind. Just as hunger and thirst urge upon man the necessity of satisfying his desire for nourishment so as to safeguard the conversation and development of his physical being, in the same way a nobler appetite unceasingly stimulates his intellect and prevents it from ever forgetting that he needs the food of truth if he wants to attain to the perfection of his human nature. Thus the desire for knowledge is innate in the human mind. It manifests itself in the many whys and hows which the child never tires of asking, since even in the most humble state of its evolution the human intellect feels the need for a certain totality of understanding." (1) To know it is to possess truth. (2) Every question of Philosophy and, for that matter, of any other science, is basically a question of truth. If all Philosophy is out after truth, it must concern itself with the notion of truth. The Angelic Doctor considers truth in several of his writings.* It is our purpose in this dissertation to present the Thomistic teaching as found in the Summa Theologica (I, q,16). The present writing is primarily a presentation, not a commentary.