The Study On Thomas Aquinas' Theory Of Being And Essence

The discussions on Being,Essence and their relationships are the basic topics in western philosophy tradition.Based on the former discussions on these topics,Thomas transfered these topics in Theology,and in the meantime put this discussion in the relationship between God and its creatures.Consequently,Thomas lay down the basis of his theory concerning happiness,which is the happiness with God is the most desirable happiness for human beings.And therefore,this change made his philosophy finally point to the highest happiness in heaven,and this happiness is initially from the happiness of common-wealth in the world of experience,his philosophy finally points to the Goodness and the Highest Goodness.In this thesis,firstly,I discussed the basis of Thomas' Being,Essence and their relationships.In the history western philosophy,the Being concerning philosophy was firstly brought up by Parmenides.In his theory,this Being is the existence of the essence of the world.Following this explanation,Plato insist on the proposition "Being is Essence".As for Aristotle,he showed hesitation on the relationship of these two concepts.On the one hand,he defined the Being as the most particular existence,and therefore the Essence is the common form lying among these particular things.On the other hand,he defined Being as the common form,so the Being equals to the Essence.On the basis of Thomas' endeavor to explain Being and Essence in a sense of Theology,he managed to combine Aristotle's theory and Plato's theory.In a general sense,he treated both as the Truth,and this resulted in the two propositions in his theory,namely,"Being is Essence" and "Being is Not Essence".Based on these propositions,he discussed the relationship between being and essence from two aspects.Firstly,he studied on the relationship in compound substance,Angel,Humans' spirit and God.He thought that the relationship between Being and Essence in the process of transfer from compound substance towards infinite substance is a process of depriving material.His purpose is to demonstrate only God,the pure form(essence)is the independent existence by himself,while other beings exist just because of God.Secondly,he studied on the relationship between Being and Essence in the connection between God and its creatures and these furthermore highlighted that God is the self-existence while others exist because of God.In the academic field,scholars pay much attention to Thomas' theory of Being and Essence,and they somehow drew contradictive conclusions based on their study.Therefore,next,I examine the contradictions among the scholars as to this topic.Based on the proposition "Being is Essence",some scholars pointed out that Thomas' philosophy returns to Platonism.While,on the other hand,based onn the proposition "Being is not Essence",some scholars thought that Thomas overturned Platonism and set up Realism.Through the method of analysis,as far as I am concerned,these two conclusions were drew from two different dimensions,respectively Ontology and Epistemology.On some level,they do not contradict with each other.But concerning his interest,he fell back to Platonism.Lastly,I point out the Goodness in Thomas' philosophy and managed to comment on that.The aim of discussing Being and Essence is to demonstrate the life with God in heaven is the most desirable purpose for human beings and he named this purpose as Goodness,it is consisted not only by common-wealth in This life,but also by the highest happiness in After life.Due to the discussion on Being and Essence is the pivotal theory in Thomas' philosophy,thus,the Goodness in his theory of Being and Essence means the Goodness in his philosophy.Though this orientation of Goodness has its own limits,it still contains some reasonable elements.