John S. Morreal.
Aquinas’ fifth way can be expressed through the following syllogism. Is there an real reason why the Unmoved Mover (of the 1 Way) is the same being as the perfection of Goodness (4th Way)? Thomas Aquinas The Fourth Way (thelycaeum) This is the argument by degree. The Fourth Way to demonstrate the existence of God is from the objective degrees of desirable qualities of things.
This obvious order is the substrate for all natural science — after all, without natural order, scientific study of nature would be an exercise in futility.
The fourth way actually feels a bit more like a Platonic approach to God, but yeah all of Aquinas' arguments try to get at the same thing. Taking the statements in an overly simplistic way or without an understanding of Aquinas’s other philosophical statements is an unfair and misleading approach. In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by God, the intelligent designer.
The Fourth Way of Thomas Aquinas Background Platonic Forms – Perfection in Being as the basis of knowledge and goodness Heraclitus had understood that all material things are in a state of flux, i.e., everything in our experience is constantly changing. Simply because we can conceive an object that is in a greater He is famous for the saying “One cannot step in the same river twice.”… While the first three proofs are from passivity, activity, and contingency, the fourth is from the perfection of things — the capacity for nature to participate in transcendence. Aquinas expands the first of these – God as the "unmoved mover" – in his Summa Contra Gentiles. When everyone uses the same reference point of perfection, degrees of perfection are consistent and not subjective. What he specifically wants to show is that there exists some kind of "pure actuality," something that has its existence identical with its essence by showing how everything else derives their existence ultimately from it. What is the fourth way?
There are many different styles of presenting Aquinas’s Five Ways. Aquinas’ Second Way: Causation Of Existence. Aquinas states that common sense tells us that the universe works in such a way, that one can conclude that is was designed by an intelligent designer, God. Again the fourth argument from Aquinas: The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things.
Aquinas' Fourth Way. Aquinas’ Fifth Way is the proof of God’s existence that is easiest to grasp in everyday life.
The order of nature points to a Mind that gives it order. In Aquinas’ words: The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things.
which proceeds: There exists things that are caused (created) by other things.
P2: whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence.
There is …