Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The existence of God can be proved in five ways.”
Thomas Aquinas · Scholasticism · Medieval · c. 1265–1268
What does it mean?
Aquinas holds that God's existence is not self-evident to us, yet can be demonstrated from change, causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, and the directedness of things. The sentence announces that reply and is not itself the five proofs. A rival reading treats the ways as five short arguments that stand free of Aristotelian physics, which they do not, since each depends on premises later philosophy will contest. The article states objections first, including the existence of evil, and only then begins the ways.
Did Thomas Aquinas really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The opening of the reply in the Summa, first part, question 2, article 3, which presents the five ways. This is a standard English of the Latin. The proofs are the rest of the article, not this sentence.
Where it comes from
Summa Theologiae I, question 2, article 3
Approximate date: c. 1265–1268.
How to use it
A discussion group in a Leeds parish quotes the sentence as if the quotation were the proof, and nobody opens the article far enough to meet the objections or the separate ways. A table of contents is not an argument. Each way has to be read to see whether it follows, and quoting the announcement in place of the ways is how a summary quietly replaces a text.
A mindset reading
He sets out the case against the conclusion before the demonstrations begin, and that order is a habit worth copying even if every way is rejected. A confident citation that skips the objection from evil has already left the article's own method. Disagreement belongs at the start of the page, not as an embarrassment brought in after the result.
Understand the philosophy
The five ways are short because the Summa is a teaching summary for students rather than a treatise that pauses to defend every premise. The key term is demonstration, a proof that starts from what is better known to us, not a claim that the conclusion is obvious without argument. He has just denied that God's existence is self-evident to us. Critics of causation, or of the premise that nothing changes itself, are answering those compressed proofs.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
Aquinas holds that God's existence is not self-evident to us, yet can be demonstrated from change, causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, and the directedness of things. The sentence announces that reply and is not itself the five proofs. A rival reading treats the ways as five short arguments that stand free of Aristotelian physics, which they do not, since each depends on premises later philosophy will contest. The article states objections first, including the existence of evil, and only then begins the ways.
Did Thomas Aquinas really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The opening of the reply in the Summa, first part, question 2, article 3, which presents the five ways. This is a standard English of the Latin. The proofs are the rest of the article, not this sentence.
Which work is it in?
Summa Theologiae I, question 2, article 3 Approximate date: c. 1265–1268.