Understanding Infinite Regression in Terms of Hierarchical Formal Causality in Aquinas’ First and Second Ways

EXCERPT:

Understanding Infinite Regression in Terms of Hierarchical Formal Causality in Aquinas’ First and Second Ways

"In the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas provides his five famous proofs for God’s existence which so many people are familiar with. Because of their brevity in the Summa Theologiae they often have been open to misinterpretation. One of the most common misinterpretations comes in trying to understand what Aquinas means by the impossibility of an infinite regress of movers or efficient causes. On a first reading it may seem as though Aquinas is talking about a linear regression in time of movers and causes so that the conclusion is that the universe had a beginning in time, which therefore required God’s action. The goal of this paper is to show that this is not the argument that Thomas was making. Aquinas’ belief in the impossibility of an infinite regress is not meant to be thought of as linear regress spread out in time, but a hierarchical one that regresses here and now with regard to the formal nature of things. This will be shown (1) by demonstrating that Aquinas is presupposing the eternity of the universe in his formulations, (2) that he is drawing from Aristotle who had this notion of a hierarchical causal series with regards to the formal being of things, and (3) that this is how the great Thomists of the 20th century interpreted Thomas."