Joseph Hollcraft MA
Econ 352
September 25, 2007

I. Research and History: When researching any subject matter you must always respect the history of the discipline that is under the scope of research. You start with its primary source and then move to the secondary source. The nature of research is built upon the principle of history: historia (L.) meaning “to weave a pattern”.

A. Classic Philosophy: Aristotle/Plato/Socrates…These giants of their time focused on core principles of philosophy that included such topics as metaphysics, rhetoric and the art of dialogue to discover truth.

1. Major impact upon culture and thought in (1) antiquity, (2) the Early Christian Era and (3) the Middle Ages.

B. New higher learning centers emerged--the University (1170). They initially began as a guild of scholars that would be built up to the Universitatis Studiorum. Originally, Universities attracted clergy and were financed by the Church.

1. Universities of Paris (theology), Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge pioneered the genesis for schools of higher learning.

a. Studied at these Universities were Economics, Medicine, Natural Philosophy, Civil and Canon Law, and Theology. The study of God was the queen of all sciences.

b. Scholars who studied at these Universities were versed in the Classics and wanted to demonstrate that worldly knowledge could fit into the Christian view of the world and reality.

1. Thomas Aquinas-Summa Theological. Constructed a system of question and answers in which he explains faith and reason in a clear and concise manner. This is one of the great achievements in the quest for Truth

b. The church cherished, preserved, studied, and taught the works of the ancients, which would otherwise have been lost

II. What is Philosophy and Theology?

(1) Philosophy (Philo-sophia GK.): means “lover of wisdom”

(2) Theology (theologia GK.) means “the study of the Word who is God.”Both disciplines are approached as sciences. Science defined: Scientia (L.) meaning “knowledge of order and beauty.” Historically speaking, Theology is synthesized under faith and Philosophy reason, both in the pursuit of acquiring knowledge of the Creator and the purpose of being.

A. Faith and Reason: “Two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of Truth” (John Paul II). Reason must always set itself upon some sort of faith. The rationale of Science concludes this in its fiduciary principle—all science is faith-based. What does Science mean by this?

1. Reason (Science) places its trust from a previous experiment that is built upon a previous set of credentials that is built upon a series of journal, etc…faith is necessary if reason (science) is to exist. So why are science and religion opposed? Simply, we have replaced faith with experience and concluded that there is a higher authority in experience as opposed to faith…although, as we have now seen, all science is tied to some aspect of trust.

a. Logic is an instrument of reason. What is logic? As defined by Dr. Hahn in Reasons to Believe:“Logic is simply a reflection of how the mind structures its thought, which is itself a reflection of the structure of reality” (Hahn, 19). If a person wishes to disprove logic, the individual runs into a wall because they have to do so in a logical manner.

b. Logic allows us to move from the material to immaterial and visible to the invisible…ultimately from faith to reason and reason back to faith. This is characteristically human

1. Letters represent sounds, which in turn become words representing things all around us. We are mathematicians from adolescence and yet they produce immaterial things. Scientists who want to disprove God use numbers all the time!

a. Virtue, which people innately see as a necessity, is immaterial in itself but yet objective!

2. Freedom and the Moral Law: Freedom is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Freedom is not what we please to do but what we ought to do. Freedom demands our attention to rules and laws, which give form to the purpose of freedom—to achieve excellence.

a. “Rules” our seen by many as an infringement upon our freedom, because they see freedom as “willfulness” as opposed to a gift given to freely submit in obedience to the principles of a particular discipline…analogy of pianist and linguist!

1. Consider the natural law and our dietary needs. In obedience to our natural dietary needs our bodies will know health. It is easy to obey the laws of nature when it comes to food…the moral law is no different. In the Christian vision of law, we move from rules to virtues!

b. The moral life is not something added on to real life from the outside. It is life lived by human beings. We live in the gap of the person we are against the person we ought to be…always room for growth in the potential of becoming who we are called to be

1. Morality: ethics is determined by the intention, object and circumstance. We are called to generalize, reflect and discern to understand the proper choice…what operates our motives?