Why Every Catholic NEEDS Aristotle and Aquinas

what is missing in the Catholic Church in the past 50 to 100 years that has led to decline in fact we could say it's been missing in the West even missing in humanity in the answer to that question is virtue virtue are the habits the patterns in your life in the life of everyone around us that makes us not only good and great but happy I'm here of Tim Gordon he studied this in his dissertation work I study this in my dissertation work and we are passionate about the virtues in Aristotle and in Thomas Aquinas and we're passionate about it because it changes our life and it will change your life too because you'll understand this is why I'm acting this way and this is how I change and become great Tim welcome thank you we're gonna talk about Aristotle I'm gonna you're gonna handle Aristotle today on the Hale Thomas Aquinas we're gonna talk about this important forgotten method of thinking and acting and that is virtue crucial crucial to the life of everyone note note what you said dr. Marshall I'll be covering the great of all time the goat a great pre-christian spy greatest of all time you're covering the goat greatest of all time post Christian scholar and the reason they're so close together one is there's an there's an influence the former has on the ladder but - they're like the two smartest guys ever and I said says I and they understand how crucial the the big you know heady concepts like metaphysics and Thomas makes metaphysics about cetera ology all this heady stuff they understand how important that is they also understand at what they consider to be the bottom end of the spectrum day to day life out how Bert you is the center to people's happiness it's also why a pre-christian who doesn't have the grace of our love the graces of the sacrament the graces of soteriology or the cross Aristotle has none of that we call him the Blessed Pagan because he understood natural virtue so very well in the center to everyone's happiness they're subtle called it you domine it is virtue his natural moral virtue so everyone's accountable for it everyone's responsible for it Precure Christians post Christians people that have never heard the word Jesus it's centrally important and but you'll people will understand why if they begin reading the ethics or they just watched this podcast all the way through why would it's it still sounds philosophical to people who haven't studied this why did Aristotle and Thomas consider it important but unglamorous compared to the metaphysics because they're talking about things like habit and and why habit is at the beating heart of the virtues why the golden mean is the way that the word the virtues work so what we'll talk some about that it's really really easy to digest stuff I've been teaching it to seniors in high school the last three years people didn't think I'd be able to do it because it's Aristotle but it's eminently doable and it's also eminently important like you already said now you have a lot of stuff on this with the new st. Thomas Institute but what what most specifically keys in I know there's a lot so we're gonna talk about before cardinal virtues primarily today but if people if you like this go to my Institute new st. Thomas Institute new st. Thomas comm and we have an entire curriculum a certificate called Catholic philosophy in tow mystic studies and in there we talked about the 11 passions of your soul how your soul works with the will the intellect and the eleven passions we talk about the cardinal virtues the theological virtues all of this basic Catholic philosophy I don't want you guys to glaze over and say oh I don't need to learn philosophy I'm just gonna pray the rosary yes pray the rosary but this stuff is not beyond your grasp you can do this so like a free resource would be go to my website Taylor Marshall comm and I have a book called Thomas Aquinas in 50 pages get that book for free there's a glossary in the back that gives you keywords this book has been over a hundred thousand people views this book it's very basic you don't even need a bachelor's degree to understand it get it and learn the vocabulary learn the philosophy and then if you want to go the next level go to new st. Thomas calm and take our curriculum which will only take you a few weeks maybe a month our curriculum in Catholic philosophy and toh mystic Studies so today we're gonna get into that kind of an intro and we're gonna talk about the virtues now the first thing we've got to focus on so what is a virtue and Tim kind of already said a virtue is a habit it can be if it's a good virtue if it's a good habit we call it a virtue if it's a bad habit we call it a vice but in a virtue is not like oh I helped a lady old lady cross the street I'm a virtuous person no if you help a lady across the street a hundred times and it's habitual you now have a virtue if you have a you know if you make a good decision once that's not virtuous if you do it five hundred times you have the virtue of prudence so it's the repeated pattern in our lives and this is unique to Catholic theology we focus on the repetition and the transformation of the person not just a singular act tives why yeah that there's a book one of the Nicomachean ethics Aristotle says virtue like you said is not an act but a habit here's here's why people have to understand this there are two parts to the human soul that aren't in that are immortal right that aren't in the animal soul the intellect in the well and that's what he's only imago Dei the image I God the intellect in the will your dog has passions but didn't have an intellectual will fanatic he's got a vegetative soul he's got an appetitive soul he appetites for things but no the the freewill is rendered free by the intellect so these two work together now when you're doing when you're in a state of vice right which all of us are in we inclined toward more naturally in media stress if you just take any person's life and start a movie about him on whatever day random day we're all inclined toward vice after the fall of Adam and Eve whereas we were that's called concupiscence we are more we're more virtuous than Bish's before the fall now it's the other way around so if you take anybody on any random day that's not laboring actively to become more virtuous right they will be in a state where they're ruled by their will right not by their intellect so take again take the idea of you realize on December 31st you've eaten too many holiday foods you're out of shape and what you which you're not knowing if you haven't studied Aristotle is that your intellect in your well the two uniquely human aspects of the soul are misaligned like specifically you're being ruled by your will if you just sit down three pizzas before pretty much anyone I love pizza right they'll keep eating and eating and eating it's the intellect that says now this is probably not a proper amount and this is what's happened anyone so when you say okay New Year's resolution starting tomorrow I'm going to do a daily run it's your intellect that is trying to take back over and to tell your weld the is why you have to get off the couch and start running so the first day you do it as everyone knows this is just this is pretty much all of Aristotle's system the first day you do it your will will revolt right you hate it your body hurts you made every minute of it the second day you do it it'll hate it but it'll hate it a little bit less the key to understanding Aristotle is that what's happening as long as your will will follow your intellect at the beginning at least enough to keep doing it you don't have the virtue yet because a virtue is not an act but a habit and if you do it enough days you're actually your intellect is molding your will via habit and you're getting better at it every day and that virtue which what do you call a virtue just done once it's called accidental virtue right it's not a net cuz virtues distich a Greek concept it's just an individual excellence there are many virtues and so you're just working on the virtue of safe fitness running specific fitness that day do you do it once that is what we call an accidental virtue but it's very accidental why the test is whether you enjoy the virtue after you've done it and as you're doing it you don't at all you hate it but let's say you keep up that run for three months right do it about 90 like we just we're finishing exit' is 90 90 or 100 times they say this is about the amount of time it takes to develop a good habit after that come March as long as your will followed your intellect enough to stick with it even if you you openly hated it in day one day two day three by the time you've done it 90 times you get your runner's high your form is better right you're right Aristotle says you can measure true virtue by are you doing the right thing at the right time in the right manner the way that the just man would do it the way that the virtuous man would your forms perfect you miss it if you get sick and you miss a day you're like I don't feel right today I'm bored i know i got arrived i got a run that is aristotle I just took to say it that's that's the whole first half of the ethics where he explains how it works and what we know that about running we know that about diet everyone knows okay January first I'm gonna stop eating carbs and then eight days in they ice cream right and what what happens is is over time like you said uh Aristotle says a coin everybody says the intellect begins to mold the Wills and those passions are you mentioned concupiscence we have eleven passions according to Thomas Aquinas love/hate desire a version joy sadness hope despair fear daring and anger those are just bubbling around just think of them down in your guts and they are trying to take over the kingdom it is a mutiny and whenever you allow them to do that they get stronger in your intellect gets weaker so what's a battle and the more your intellect rules the ship the stronger you are and it's not just true and running it has to do with pornography it has to do with being kind as a parent has to do with study and homework every area of your life runs on this principle and this is what Tim and I are saying this has been lost in the past 50 to 100 years bless you people have not been taught that we used to be taught this from childhood now we are taught either nothing at all or just say a prayer and it will fix it well there has to be a habituation involved in it or you are going to lose the battle whether its moral let's say pornography or whether it's just being a great mother or husband or worker priest habituation right think about think about the pseudo piety involved by this all too often heard comet nowadays in the sort of post post Aristo tow mist crisis time of the church when people like no no no I I you know you might like you might like to to study and to talk about virtue and things like that but I just say a prayer why is this so unchristian an anti-christian because Christianity unlike is the true religion the one true faith unlike the other false baits which which are full of all kinds of Airy platitudes like just like that mysticism there's proper mysticism but this is an instance of bad mysticism they they repudiate all that that remains here below with us and our faith is Aristotelian precisely because Aristotle and Catholicism this is something else that will happen to luck in to get right embraced both the material the bodily and the formal right the formal of course is hierarchically as primacy but accept our material lives matter what we do our material what we choose to do in terms of the individual virtues or excellences they actually mold our character in a way that matters as well it's not all just about fasting in prayer right this these might be the top ways to get the virtue of religion but the in the individual virtues of you know even courage courage matters Aristotle it's one of the first virtues he talks about and courage is also by the way the best way to introduce the concept to people that virtue is not an extreme and it's not an opposite of Vice it's what our subtle calls a contrary advice because it's in the middle on a spectrum so say courage Aristotle identifies as he does for all of the individual virtues is between a deficiency and an excess always in need that's what he calls the gold means so courage is but is the midpoint between total deficiency there of like cowardice right which we more commonly identified as its opposite and to too much of it which he calls rashness he says courage is when you know to stand and fight and you'll you'll exhibit the proper middling amount in the way that the courageous and would so you'll stand and fight one man you don't have to stand and rush headlong into battle against fifteen soldiers that's rashness and this is all the virtues right and they matter in a uniquely human way the animals cannot get these virtues the moral virtues anyway and they matter because they are what we're designed to do right we are designed to become excellent we were given an intellect in fact so that it could mold our wills in this more perfect image of God under where we're created in the image of God but it makes us more like God when we become more virtuous and and really so it's Protestantism that began stripping at this because whatever hated ethics he hated virtue ethics he called Aristotle the buffoon who ruined Christianity right yeah and it's kind of clear to see why because it all sounds a little bit like Pelagianism like the idea that we can build our own stairway to heaven when you take it out of context right but really all Aristotle's saying is that our day to day lives do matter which Protestantism by and large rejects yes you know going back to Luther the for first of all what are the virtues okay so there's for moral or cardinal virtues Cardinal just means a hinge like our lives hinge on these virtues there are four cardinal or natural virtues and then there are full us are three supernatural virtues the three supernatural virtues we find in st. Paul Faith Hope charity Faith Hope Love this is all Baltimore Catechism stuff man but we've lost it Tim we have lost this bedrock then the four cardinal virtues this is how I teach them to to students at high school college and the new st. Thomas Institute peanut butter jelly french toast PJF tea prudence justice fortitude temperance it sounds stupid but if you just remember peanut butter jelly french toast you will never forget them prudence justice fortitude temperance these are actually found in the Bible do you know Tim not specifically look at the Bible that Martin Luther cut out of the Bible and that is the book of wisdom so you member Martin Luther he removes seven Old Testament books that deuterocanonical x' one of the books that he removed is called the wisdom of Solomon chapter eight verse seven says wisdom teaches temperance prudence and justice and fortitude which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life so what we're talking about what ten-hour talk about today goes back to the Old Testament it's not something just Greek or just Aristotelian it's Jewish it's Hebraic it's biblical we just the keyed in to Aristotle all the time anyway remember he is three lives three hundred fifty years before Jesus we should talk about his situate sister'll situatedness for a second and and even the the form of the natural law that came down to him in the tragedians real fast but think about everyone think for a moment he is living three you know three fifty three seventy years before Jesus the only form of extant monotheism in the history of the world is Judaism at that point the two latter monotheism there are only three of them we say the stay theist there are 10,000 religions well yeah but all of them except three-year polytheistic and so obvious right offs right this is what I say every time a debate an atheist but there was only one at that time this is pre-christian by just a couple centuries and and so Aristotle not only reasoned his way basically to the idea without being a Jew without really much contact with Judaism at all there any to speak of he reasoned his way to monotheism in a very judeo-christian way he reasoned this way to the not quite the connection between ethics and metaphysics but at least the ideas of ethics arguably better than the Jews without without supernatural revelation of the Old Testament so it t is very very very prescient precocious smart for a pagan and that's the essence of what the natural law and the natural reason can do in its superlative form Aristotle's brain now if we had it you know in a like a preserved somewhere in in Greece this should be studied because Aristotle's brain is one of the greatest things ever created even though it's pagan so we came down to Aristotle since we're going back a little bit further than even air so now is the what's called the tragic period of ancient Greece you go back a little before that and it's called the Homeric or he's the otic period of Greece you know when when really the stuff of the myths is being first told by Homer and he's eon and that's that's like you know eight hundred a thousand years before Jesus but between eight hundred and four hundred when Plato and Aristotle kind of took over BC is what we call the tragic period more like seven hundred to five hundred and the great Greek tragedians were really the first ones to ever record the oral tradition of the natural law which in its first well expressed form comes to us in book five of Aristotle's ethics but the natural law is the capture within nature of God's laws as moral laws as he created and as he intended them to be which is to say Universal which is why you don't get to say I can murder I'm off the hook because I am NOT a Christian that was before I scratched it it's like no no you knew you know the basic stuff even as a pre-christian so the three tragedians that come down to us Sophocles Euripides in Aeschylus it's amazing amazing stuff and really study of these three tragedians like constitutes a good education you know when you're in middle school early high school which is another thing that has been lost absolute like listen everybody out there we have to wake up we have been robbed you know if you are under the age of 70 years old you have been robbed you did not receive training and logic you were never taught how to think formally most of us you did not learn Greek tragedy you did not learn you did not learn later Virgil you didn't read it Cicero you didn't learn the Aristotle all this you were ripped off I need to be a little upset about it because the way of thinking and the way becoming great was taken away and we need to restore it so it's not just enough to say we need to go back to traditional liturgy we need to go back to traditional theology traditional very training look we what we are stating right here is is like a even bigger red pill what we were taught on how to be human and think and act has been lost for decades right we're at work we are in Mordor in Hook right we were in big trouble right like what dr. Marshall means is well I studied literature I studied it at a Catholic school in the 70s or 80s it's like Bjork studying literature you were studying smut garbage that someone wrote in the last century or two that's not literature literature is what we used to call philology right the classics right look at all those thinkers he's just talking about in many many many more the late Greeks and early Romans who wrote pure genius and again we're not even just talking about Christians you have to ask yourself why at some point if you want to if you want to interrogate the claim that he just made or even challenged it okay why were all these pagans so important to a Catholic education from the time of Augustine st. Agustin through Thomas up to I don't know whatever Pope Leo the 13th was educated on you know almost in are very much up to 1900 right up to 1900 say let's use that as the dead date why were they all studying Ovid Virgil you know Aeschylus a Herodotus and then Europe ADIZ and Sophocles - why were they all doing that none of those I don't think any of those guys were Christians so so why you know Cicero why were they why were they studying these Stoics and peas or even the lower classes like Shakespeare and his plays but he's making constant reference to all of this people off the street in London know it and get it and laugh and understand it that's right that's right yeah so what you work with you and I were talking about before and you just we've made a random poll the natural law is sort of the it's the provocative answer to the the rhetorical question you or I just ask we're kind of both asking and it's the real answer it's it's very it's very rare that something is both the rhetorical provocative answer and the true answer the natural law is what enables all of us to kind of figure things out right our natural reason in conjunction with the natural law goes for a level to a certain - gingy of course you're not gonna sit around on the island and come up with the Trinity and the Nicene Creed and the Incarnation or understand how you know transubstantiation works no no with natural truths some of which are very deep even deeper than just how to habituate running and fitness some go deeper but none of them go as deep as the transubstantiation why because God created nature that way that's what you have to tell your Protestant friends that's what you now have to tell your Catholic friends God wanted it this way the Creator he wanted to create a creation that was moral intelligible and goal driven and this is how I I always these three prongs are what the natural law is they were available to Aristotle before before the Christian era Aristotle and Plato brought a new era to Greece before him brought the tragedians like Sophocles right we're gonna talk about Sophocles and a half half a minute like Homer even Homer the really the first sort of Greek writer the game of mythology understood aspects of the natural law because it was intended by the Lord the creation itself that is to be moral it's the most important thing in human life in human happiness and thriving is being moral it was intended to be intelligible to all not just converted Christians not just the nation of Israel in the Old Testament even the you know even those outside the 12 tribes were accountable for the natural law and there is a goal to it those are the three prongs the way I always break down the natural law now take Sophocles there's this there's this famous tragedy by Sophocles called the Antigone and it's about this character and taken II who is caught between the positive law the laws of our country and the natural law the laws required by the gods right in the heavens the higher law and we would say like natural civil law and then I'm sorry a civil law and a natural law so right most people would think of it in a common example would be in America these civil law says you can have an abortion it's legal no punishment but the natural law says you cannot murder your baby in the womb so we have a disconnect that's just like the very one that everyone can recognize right away that there are disconnects between the natural law which is always right in the civil law which is sometimes right sometimes wrong in this way by Sophocles Antigone is really a drama playing off that tension right especially when to make it to take it one step and make it even more tragic the true definition says the scholar walter kaufmann real tragedy is that when your ice cream falls on the floor and it's dirty now and this got dust all over real tragedy is when you like Antigone are ordered by the state or by an agent of the state to do something and you're gonna lose your life if you don't do it that violates the natural law so positive law and natural law which your suppose we're going to talk about this a little in Aristotle are supposed to work together they're not exactly the same but they're supposed to be enough overlap to make the positive along the natural law work together positive law the laws of the land should be roughly based on the moral law even if they're not perfectly moral but when they go diametrically opposed to one another then you get any of the great tragedy is the the Auris Dyer in this case the Antigone to make your example dr. Marshall even more tragic it would be like you're ordered by the state to pay taxes which support Planned Parenthood which has been the case for many of us or in trying to order have an abortion on the medical table because of a one-child policy your your being right right what do you do this is true tragedy I you know it's one of the best things the scholar Walter Kaufmann ever said I don't endorse other things but it's this is I think the real definition of tragedy the way the Greeks understood it and this is what came to Plato and Aristotle the the tragedians who wrote things like Oedipus right this is a [ __ ] this is a horrible situation to kill your father and to marry your mother and not even to know it you're going to get out your eyes hopefully like like Oedipus does I mean if you wind up with a life this tragic we all suffer our share of it then yeah the only thing you can do is couch out your eyes are worse but it's only after you go through the tragedy says I guess that that's you know the first of the great tragedians then we only have three remaining to us that's when you see you you gouge out your eye and then you see or or you know Sophocles and Aeschylus the later chewed Indians say the same thing basically you go through the tragedy and that's what makes you uniquely human Plato and Aristotle take this tragic period the Greeks they say there's much beauty almost all beauty and human drama comes from suffering one of the great untold truths in in you know raw raw American life it's absolutely true but they say there is a way to codify it to sort of untangle the web to order it a little bit and the best way to do it I'm being really generalist ik here is through virtue right I mean the good part about Aristotle is he's utterly realistic so he always says you need a share of health and a share of wealth and other accidental little things you don't need huge shares of these but you need decent semi-decent help you need semi-decent wealth to be truly happy like if you have the world's worst headache for the rest of your life it doesn't matter how virtuous you are you're not going to feel you're you die Munir right if you're starving and you have a bellyache you will not feel you're happier stop always takes into account the bodily and the spiritual the formal and the material but he says the main share of whether or not human being will have be happy or not getting it some from the tragedians that he's correcting is what they have to control what they can control sounds like an Alcoholics Anonymous tip or something like control what you could control in the moral realm and get the moral virtues right which is just you know the difference between excess and deficiency and you have to habituate it by your intellect first you get it in dear well then it's what we call second nature you get those individual virtues and that will make you mostly happy now play though Aristotle's teacher wanted he really really wanted to find like a super virtue that would make it easy to get all the other ones like I think we should talk about this some because there's there's a lot of sort of it's it seems like something that that would make sense and Aristotle talks about the virtue of justice since it's one of our four cardinal virtues as the greatest contender for this Aristotle always challenged that if the virtues if there's a unity of the virtues like one ring to rule them all one ring to bind them to get all the other virtues for you which we love would that be great it'd be amazing yeah I mean it would be easy you can a scratch off you're like instantly virtuous in all categories Oh like done I would love it too you don't have to work but think about it think about it we were talking about this beforehand like cuz neither of us wanted to be the kind of guy ever that was in grad school was just a pencil neck right cuz I didn't like guys like that I knew a lot of them in grad school you know a lot of them in law school it was like what what really saying is just to put it in terms every can understand is you got to get the virtues one at a time I always wanted I was always naturally good at studying and things like that even as a little kid and I knew I'd be a you know a scholar someday but like I always wanted to be good at sports I always wanted to be a really virtuous man I always wanted to be you know good at making friends these are all different virtues courage temperance nowadays people refer to as the Renaissance man but back in the day they called that being a virtuous man that's right right that you're firing on all cylinders you know I think it's something particularly German that everyone has this little specialty right right there's a hundred different piece of the pie and which piece are you and I think the Greek way the Aristotelian way in the toe mystic way is know there is a call on your life to excel in the virtues plural and to fire on all cylinders but I see that with Christ he's the ideal man he's the new Adam and we see him you know he's a carpenter he's a teacher he's prophetic he's of course you know moral in every single way like the divine which is perfect in every way there's a simplicity to divine but there's a perfection in every way comes through in his humanity right like think of think about what you just said Christ I'm sure was a good carpenter I don't I don't imagine Jesus like you know cutting corners no pun intended right I'm sure he was good at what he did because doing the small things well matters right but think about it think about it in your workout routine about whether or not there's a unity of the virtues you said like four things I wanted to respond to there think about like those guys in the gym that just work out their upper body and never their legs right they're like huge and then they have these little like toothpick legs the virtues are like that you literally you can work spend all your time on one but there it Plato desperately wanted to find a unity of the virtues that we're like oh if I just work on my quads I hold on guys try it now yeah yeah the whole body will blow up and people do argue this about the quads by the way little workouts it's not true you got to work everything out individually like you are saying there are certain muscles that you work out and they greatly enhance your other workouts right like though that's kind of what the cardinal virtues are cuz Aristotle talks about more natural virtues than just these lies about the intellectual virtues I mean he's got a lot of virtues in the bag we're focusing on the four you know wearing shoes yeah and there's something to the idea of whether Cardinal birds Cardinal a hinge right and so they they do that you can make the case that they sort of open up the other ones for instance justice Aristotle talks about in the sense he's like well there's general justice in particular justice general justice isn't a virtue it's just law abiding this right and if you live in an in a regime under a constitution that's basically good but it's more good than bad then when you follow the laws the laws will be helping you to pursue virtue and so if you have a generally docile point of view with respect to good laws that means you're generally docile to what's moral writ large right but he says there's also a particular virtue particular particular justice is giving to each his share which is why you shouldn't take more than you do which is why socialism is wrong we quoted this when we were talking about leo xiii if if io-22 this employee and tend to this employee it's unjust to say you know what i owe 30 in total I'm gonna split the difference given these 15 I gave you five too much that's unjust I also gave you five too little and nowadays we'd say we're giving the one guy five to five dollars too little is not good but there's no unjustice when you give a guy five too much Aristotle and the the older more precise thinkers like no you shouldn't be overpaying soand by five dollars particularly not for some sense of equality right equality always strikes against justice unless it happens to exist and that what you just said right there is a hundred eighty degrees against American discourse everyone believes that justice is equality right right if if a kid on the team didn't score a goal that's a problem right if the high school had it had 10% I got F's there's an injustice in the school right people are now looking at outcomes and it does not outcome equality they believe it's contrary to what they call social justice made these social justice warriors going around and they're pointing at the under liars and saying this proves injustice that's because everyone's been taught to think wrongly diametrically wrong justice does not mean equal outcomes right right can we talk about this per se like I would be to a minute and a half sure yeah so so Aristotle calls basically what we consider Galit arianism this this miswired view that that things should end up equal he calls this arithmetic arithmetic proportion meaning everyone gets equal shares he talks about true justice as what he calls geometric proportion geometric proportion is precisely what I said before he says justice happens when we're honoring geometric proportion because in geometry you could have all triangles have 180 eighty degrees but you could have an enormous triangle or a little triangle but they're still triangles right that's how geometry works there's a ratio in greg maddux two plus two is always four five plus five is always ten so is Eisley that's what air stall is referring to he's saying give great amounts great chairs to the great give small chairs to the small if you owe this guy 20 give him 20 if you owe this guy 10 give him 10 the this even figures into his lesser virtues like magnanimity you know the the light you don't want the lesser man taking more share of honor that he's do also challenges this American Western European style of socialistic honor distribution right oh we want to we want to honor the small guy what were all the great Shakespeare's lower all the Shakespeare play is about with the great men Royals right the idea of let's let's tell a story about the everyday man it's too much honor for the everyday man so it would say Aristotle would say Thomas Aquinas so so key to justice is rewiring the way that you think the founding fathers thought like Aristotle there secretly reading Aristotle on the sly and they would say this is precisely right and in aerosol is precisely wrong in our modern course to talk about justice as egalitarianism Aristotle says their opposite they all think about it this way you're watching a basketball game right you want the game closely called this is geometric proportion by a ref that's calling every exact thing so that you don't wind up with a tie so you wind up with a disparity an outcome that's a good game or football game or any sport what's a bad game what a Galit arianism is is rest who cheat for the weak side in order if they're told fudge the rules fudge everything to make sure that this score ends up a tie it's the opposite of what we want it's the opposite of how you want society-wide that's specific justice which is a virtue giving to each right is due now what are someone says you guys don't sound very Christian that doesn't sound very Christian that there are graters and lessers Hey look this is how God runs reality both on the natural level and the supernatural there are angels that are better than us they're smarter if they're faster they're quicker all that we I will never be an angel I'm never gonna reach that natural attainment that they have God set it up that way and God loves it and so I accept it and I rejoice in it same with salvation God did not set up an equal outcome system some will go to hell some will go to purgatory and then go to heaven some will go straight to heaven based on performance and Christ even says there will be greater punishment lesser punishment greater reward lesser reward he records every man according to his deeds it is geometric not it literally it is a ratio well I don't I don't expect and I do not demand that I get a equal treatment as the Blessed Virgin Mary Theotokos in heaven for eternity if I make it to heaven I'm not gonna be like well how come she gets to sit at the right hand of Jesus and I quit yeah yeah why well there's a lot of people mature so I want to be Queen right now and then I think it should be equal no in fact one of the most beautiful things in Dante's paradise is that he says that everyone has the beatific vision so in that sense they are kind of equal but yet there's a hierarchy in heaven there's a greater and there's a lesser and poetically I think Dante somewhat successfully illustrates that reality of everyone having immediate access to God and yet they're also being a hierarchy in a gradation geometric ratio in heaven it's kind of a mystery but we need to we all need to just accept in order to be happy you're gonna be miserable few don't accept this God likes hierarchy God likes gradation he likes ratio and there is not an equal outcome system and if you try to make reality equal outcome you will be a miserable social justice warrior you will be miserable because you cannot bend reality to that ideal it's not a bad made ideal it is man-made it's not the way the Lord created nature this is arguably the the heart of today's sjw's known survey on right they won't serve because nature made men and women unequal right men are better athletes men are going to be there bigger faster stronger best UW's can't accept that certain men and accept bigger faster stronger smarter than other men yeah they can't even accept well if you kill a chicken that's immoral because they're equal to us no they're not they're not illogically different just like an Angels ontologically different for me it being happy and being virtuous and being fulfilled and finding your meaning in this life is accepting reality that's why I love Thomas Aquinas he's the master of reality it's not just a Black Sabbath album master of reality right no it's really really important that's why we're tough but this this goes back to what you're asking me to describe before which I might have done insufficiently in adequately that's why studying nature even the the nitty gritty was studying habit which is really air stubble and Thomas didn't think it was glamorous but they thought it was important which we've said the Protestants and Protestant izing Catholics have kind of repudiated that's why because you have to accept reality for how it is and when we say reality we mean nature the way that God wired it he wired it hierarchically he wired it in such a way that habit matters the only virtue that matters is not just prayer and fasting that that's higher but first you have to learn just to eat the proper amount at meals not to be a phatso of order to pray and a fast requires the virtues we're not not eating food for 24 hours requires most people can't do that surprisingly because they have not been a bitumen that's right prayer praying the rosary most people can't pray the rosary every day for 365 days a year why because they haven't been habituated in the virtue of it so even in the supernatural means attending Mass every Sunday going to confession regularly praying the rosary reading the Bible every day mental prayer all of these things require a bitchu a tional so it's all it's all wrapped up it's all mingled together that's right that's exactly right just just to finish off justice which is you know the heart of the natural law remember what Jesus says in the parable of the talents he wants us each investing our talents rrumel he gives different amounts to different people I love this because it vindicates both aristocracy over a Galit arianism and vindicates like market economy right he says it does it all at once with one little parable he's God that's how smart he is only man who ever walked the earth that's smarter than Aristotle and Thomas by I think it's Jesus of Nazareth but I always say I always say that our lady was the greatest philosopher theologian yeah I'll put her above Aquinas she used to me she just didn't write much debate yeah she wasn't a huge huge huge discourse er not discursive but but Jesus says you'll be given different amounts even if I gave you just a small amount I still want you to invest it you give you a kind of common medium amount like the fat part of the bell curve I want you to invest it properly if I give you the most I inspect you I expect you to make the most money investing it right I expect you to take it and have it have it blossom the most so too great a Christian I mean Christ the derivative endorsement of geometric proportion it's excellent real quick you said just to hit a couple of the other cardinal virtues prudence you get to in book six of Aristotle prudence is the only all the other virtues he talks about are what he calls the moral virtues the virtues that you you get the meat you get the middling amount the golden mean and you'll be between the excess and the deficiency in a geometric way by the way for all the moral virtues this is just an aside it's also interesting this is how important geometric geometric proportion is there are always the mean between excess and deficiency but it's always closer to one side than the other which is very interesting so he says even though rashness is too much of courage cowardice is too little of it courage is slanted toward rash it's a little closer to rashness than cowardice because of geometric what we're saying about geometric proportion we're always dealing in geometric means rather than arithmetic so you go through you get all of these individual moral virtues which even include things like magnificence how to spend magnanimity how much shared take of Honor justice temperance all the ones he talks about in books one through five and then you get to book six of these like there's also intellectual virtues I'm only going to talk about one of the intellectual virtues says Aristotle in book six but he says it's prudence and it's basically it's this it's okay you have all the virtues you have all the habits so bitumen real time which verts you to draw from like like little canisters here's my courage here's my you know friendliness even amicability is a moral virtue what should I draw from in this situation where this guy is challenging me to a fight should I draw from courage or should I draw from amicability and the only way to know says Aristotle and says the Christian tradition is having boots on the ground and having good prudence so prudence is literally which virtue do I draw from and win and they're all snap decision the prudence is the DJ right yeah he's he's running all that there's a there's another great video I did an interview with a Dominican priest father Bradley Elliot I'm gonna put in the top right corner he and I go through all the intellectual virtues of which one is prudence we're looking at moral so if you want to take it to the next level check out that video in the right corner you know another cool thing about prudence or phronesis is in Dante I love Dante go read go read The Divine Comedy it's a genius excellent but he has the four virtues and they're wearing purple because they're natural and they're royal and they're regal but the leading the procession of the four view virtues is prudence and he has three eyes he has an extra eye I hear right I don't know if it's right in the forehead but he has three eyes and that's because he's the leader and he's insightful and so really you know it's not like there's a a secret virtue or a unified virtue but if there were one it would be Riordan right because prudence is so you know wisdom is understanding the universe now everything works together in a general way prudence is looking at the universe the cosmic order and then making a very defined rational decision for example which minivan should I buy for my family right well I have this much money what is the best deal I can get to bring the best outcome for my wife and my children for their safety and their transportation in real time in real time you're making these decisions here below and making that decision and bringing joy and fulfillment to the family with regard to that minivan decision it's that basic guys is prudence right where should our kids go to school prudence who should I marry prudence which pair should I attend prudence how often should I go to confession prudence this is a habit you have if you're making bad decisions repeatedly guess what you don't have prudence you that you make even worse decisions if you make my dad used to always tell me this it's very philosophical he said success is thousands of thousands of good little decisions surest Italian Kuya hired for that job you know maybe you made the decision six years ago but all those little decisions over time add up to great success there's like this one thing you do and you become successful its thousands and thousands of little Prudential judgments and that's another thing that we've been ripped off on people we haven't been taught that no we've all been taught there's a scratch-off and you get it and you win the big life prize it's a lie takes you tens of thousands of little good decisions to become prudent well you were talking about this before you said it's very German to to consider anyone that that tries to be an Aristotelian well-rounded virtue ethics man a Christian is what I call it calls him you know like a polymath you know he's trying to be good at our or Renaissance man it's like that's also given to modernity through the the poison pill of jean-jacques rousseau to compartmentalize everything and to make everything a car it comes a lot - yeah yeah all these guys are influencing each other we're so in common they were and ended up influencing the American pragmatist like John Dewey got very into this at the University of Chicago make everything a separate study Gender Studies which shouldn't even be any in any kind of study you know all and compartmentalize them and to take them out of the realm of these two intellectual virtue we're not talking about wisdom what it truly is but they deep prudential eyes the study of you know the studies of the academy writ large and they deal wisdom eyes dit - but it's like cuz because this is this is key to being human what is most key to being human aside from our contingency our thoroughness art the fact that every challenge that will be thrown at anyone out there watching a video today or you or me will be thrown at us in real time we're not gonna get a warning like you go to the store and just random crap happens around I mean literally I yeah I mean I'm in I'm in California I need to get out it's getting weirder and weirder here a couple months ago I was at the store my family nearly just nearly got to fight with a wacko guy you know and in there like soup I'll you know you're not expecting that so again do I draw from this virtue I'm pretty good at this this rich you I'm really good at this virtue is kind of a weak point which one do I need to draw from in this situation just for the best outcome it's a function of prudence and it's that's why it's one of the cardinal virtues it's not just it's not the same thing as it's not the same thing as the moral virtues yeah you know some of the some especially college students have asked me okay so if I get really good at prudence while the other three come up like will I get them as well or if I get really good at justice well the other what threes come up and and the answer is no of course like he's like you've been saying over and over like you can excel at one and not the others but I use the analogy of buoys tied to a rope like in the water you have like four buoys tied to a rope in them and the waves are moving and so prudence could be higher but it's never gonna be where you're like 100% prudent and 0% temperate right they do pull at each other and bring balance to your life so it's not like you know it's not like you're gonna be super extreme but they aren't rigidly connected so you're like well I'm just a very just person you could still make really dumb decisions in your life because you're not prudent or you could be very timid and fearful even though you're Prudential and you're just you might just be a fearful person hopefully your spiritual director notices in the patterns of sin in your life you need temperance or you need fortitude or whatever and by the way here's another way you've all been ripped off in the confessional good priests that I've gone to will hear my confession and they'll say you know what sounds like you're really short and fortitude and temperance and hope yeah why do you think that is and they were there reading and maybe we can switch to Thomas Aquinas here Tim they're reading the Summa theologia they're looking at the old manuals and they're saying huh there's this constellation of sin in your life Taylor and that points to these two virtues in which you are low in so since right now you're low in temperance maybe you should think about fasting as a penance right or if you're low in fortitude every day I want you to do something you don't want to do if it's call that person write that letter finish that chapter that for the next two weeks I want you to work on those daily fortitude exercises of doing what you don't want to do if you if a priest has never told you that you've been ripped off by old the old way of training priest has they heard the confession and they said okay there's a constellation of sins here that are mapping on to these or lack of these virtues let's write a prescription like a doctor and help this person out with that I remember the first time I went to a confession it was an FSSP priest and he actually did this diagnose it for me and I walked out a confessional like oh my goodness that's the most incredible thing ever really yeah and it woke me up to thinking I've been struggling these sins and not just detached there is a pattern there and there is a wave I mean I've been studying it in University and Academy virtues and then seeing it actual to a practical application of sins in my life and trying to become a saint I realize wow I've been ripped off here's why here's why you're right and uh aristotelian is out there that just learned the sort of basic oh there's no unity of the virtues in there they're squirming in their chair well why they're reading this all wrong I mean that that of course is right there's no super virtue but but your your buoy your buoy theory is dead right here's why I think it is it's because the or there's just like we talked about in the Bible and then we're going to Thomas Aquinas is the perfect segue and just like the the concept of seven as' in the Bible is like completeness the concept of bornus particularly as it relates to the moral life always Bryn particularly as it relates to Aristotle always brings me back to the concept of causation because there are these four causes right yes so the way that that Aristotle's many moral virtues get distilled into Thomas Thomas Aquinas this account which is more which brings them up into the supernatural realm is through foreigners justice which we talked about temperance and fortitude are almost more methodological the other two remaining cardinal virtues and and think about it this way there's always in Aristotle and in nature four kinds of causes for any given phenomenon anything that's happening there's always a final cause a goal there's always a formal cause what really makes the thing its intelligible self its noble so always a material cause before the the visible like presentation there's always an efficient cause which is actually the work being done you know it's actually pushing it like an engine get it now we're not talking about any one virtue in particular but anyone who's striving after the virtuous life which is supposed to be all men unfortunately it isn't so if we're talking about virtue writ large which Aristotle doesn't generally want us to do prudence is like the the efficient cause right prudence is actually what pushes you to make a decision for one of your virtues you've already gotten in real time and like we just talked about justice I'm not talking about justice the specific form of particular form talking about the general form is like the final cost right the goal is you know that that writ large rightness recto Roxio a rightness of outcome is justice so it's the final cause this this this explains your bowie theory i think this is the the internal logic temperance is the the formal cause the way that all of the virtues work how do they work by selecting a middle the golden mean and that's what to be temperate is Aristotle says you shouldn't be insensible this is someone that never has fun someone that gets mad at us or making a joke we see it every time you know the prig or the stickler Aristotle says this is too little fun he calls a buffoon it's too much fun right even has a virtue a middling system the system of temperance which is usually when he uses specifically it's for food and drink but real our July to the system I'm saying it's like the formal cause for form for virtue in general it's you should be the kind of person that can laugh some right you need to have a little bit of fun in your day-to-day life you need to have a little bit of everything that's good every virtue and then fortitude I know I think I think I know where you're gonna want to go with this fortitude is almost like the material cause it's a specific virtue yes I'm being unrested taylean and saying this but it's almost like the material virtue that enables all the other virtues right because let's say I want to get to be really really good at you know magnanimity well I have to have the fortitude to persevere in in even the habit formation so literally there's virtues that are cross constitutive and this explain these are the main four that you know prudence accounts for really what's efficiently happening justice is the goal yeah about the writ large form temperance is the way that it looks right selecting the middle the golden mean in every case and fortitude is what you need to stick with the AK position of a new virtue not just courage itself no III like your buoy theory yeah I like use to say you know another way to and that's a really great outline of the for cause is another way to understand the four virtues is how it applies to the hierarchy of your soul and the four parts of your soul and there's a whole lesson on this in do st. Thomas Institute new st. Thomas comm in which we do the structure of your soul and how it works and hundreds of people have gone through that less than like this is the best thing I've ever learned because I finally understand why I'm doing the things I do how come I succeed and how come I fail it's roughly this do you have an intellect you have a will that decides things and then you have passions we might call them emotion that's not really technically correct but that's a way to understand it and those emotions or passions divided up into irascible and concupiscent was like you're you're a grit you're fight it's like your chest and your concupiscence are it's your lust it's your sex it's your hunger it's your thirst so that's the structure of your soul and it needs to be in that order intellect will passions intellect will passions and so prudence perfects like you were saying what chooses the mind justice perfects the will giving to each right forward a tude perfects the irascible the courage and temperance tippets perfects the concupiscent your desires I want to eat a whole pint of ice cream I want to sit here and a bag of chips no no no temperance and so Thomas Aquinas when he arranges the four cardinal virtues he sort of pins the tail on the donkey for each of those parts of your soul the intellectual prudence the will of Justice the irascible passions which are good when were rightly ordered with fortitude and then the Khan Cuba's well passions with the temperance and you'll begin to see as you excel in virtues in different ways those parts of your souls are ordered correctly good school and that is called being a capital S st. right right that's what sanctification and becoming a saint the reason we have faith hope and charity perfects those lower virtues which perfects who God made you with an intellect will and passions perfects you to become an ideal human saint right and he loves that that's the whole reason he made us people might be out there thinking how can the irascible like passions be good I always go back to people I think people are probably becoming accustomed to hearing me say this think of Robert Bellarmine saying not getting mad at the correct things to get mad at can actually be sinful and deeply disordered right when you're willing to non irascible abide in justice someone being someone really innocent being picked on a baby human yeah that's that's really that's that's messed up yeah if your if your wife is getting raped you better not be just stay cool just stay calm know what yeah that is not the virtuous thing to do in that moment and so like the classic cases our Lord in the temple he braids a chord which signifies which signifies a measured temperate kind of rage right think about braiding up a rope didn't just grab him off the ground like a born start beating people crazy making it braiding the whip shows that he is intentionally preparing for a moment of expressed anger good evening anger yes and he's not gonna go over and he's not gonna go under it's braided that's the that's in the divine plan whites are braided whip and he doesn't just go in the temple and say I got a whip he's whipping he's women people he's whipping it good in the temple and he's turning over tables there is physical violence and strength being exhibited by the way perfectly 100% perfectly by the eternal logos the Incarnate Jesus Christ right and people so how do your how do the typical pastors with the watered down castrated homiletics deal with this story in John's Gospel they don't they just leave it out that Jesus they'll sometimes talk about the overturning of the money changers tables you will never hear students are shocked to hear the Jesus actually fashioned a whip which takes some effort I imagine I never made a whip and then he was using it on people yes oh and like you said this beat we know because he Jesus is the ideal man he's the god man but everything he did was perfectly prudent everything he did was perfectly temperate perfect in every conceivable way that this was proper but isn't that really extreme well it might be extreme compared to your culturally you know de-balled expectations but he said it was it was perfect by definition anything else is pure heresy to say jesus' was off base there but I think it's really important you're saying that the way you just put it is stark in the the god of Old Testament Israel was constantly scourging the people go back and read it he's scourging the people he's disciplining them that's what discipline means to whip discourage so Jesus is you know as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be it's not like the Marcion heresy where God was really kind of mean and he was frustrated he had anger issue problems until a t-33 and then he chilled out that's a heresy right it was Christ speaking from the burning bush to Moses there's a Trinitarian element to who God is interacting with people in the Old Testament that's what the Greek left of the cabin ocean fathers teaches that's what the Greek fathers of the all the father's teaches it is one God as it wasn't baiting beginning is now and ever shall be he does not change and so we see Christ disciplining his people particularly in a liturgical context the temple that's good I like that we say some things about Aquinas a little bit it's one of bring let's bring it you know bring a full circle here with a coin it's so I'd encourage everybody to I always say read the Summa theologia if Thomas a coin that's so hard that's crazy no it's not he wrote it for beginners he says at the very beginning and the preface I wrote this for beginners now are there difficult parts in there do I get confused sometimes yes absolutely it's not a walk in the park but you can do this again if you go to new st. Thomas calm we have in our philosophy curriculum the whole first module actually second module is how to read the Summa how to understand how Thomas Aquinas is speaking how he arranges the arguments you spent 15 minutes in that it's like we the key is turned and you understand how to read all this stuff the key part for what we're talking about today is the Summa Talos yay second part of the second part basically Thomas wrote a first part a second part in a third part but the second part was so big it didn't fit in one book so there's the second part a second part beat we call it first part of the second part second part of the second part a little bit confusing but once you get it you get it and in that section he goes over the virtues the seven virtues he begins with Faith Hope charity and then he goes to prudence justice fortitude and temperance and along the way he's basically Timmy's basically quoting Aristotle the whole way Nicomachean ethics what you've been talking about but he's bringing about the supernatural Aristotle didn't have faith hope and charity and that's why Aristotle ultimately fails it's it's great but it doesn't get you all the way it gets you pretty virtuous but it doesn't get you to heaven and so Thomas Aquinas calls this basically what Aristotle's teaching as the preambles of faith chapter one if you're a guy Aristotle and you're really smart and you observe natural law ethics you understand that there is a right and wrong that there is virtue that there is a God or a prime mover that there are preternatural beings that help us like angels there is an afterlife so you can get that without a Bible but if you want to get all the way and get to heaven and have remission of sins you need things like Baptism Trinity incarnation etc and so what Thomas is doing in the Summa is he's taking all the great nuggets all the diamonds all the gold from Aristotle and he's saying okay Aristotle got to 89% let me get you the remaining 11% why say absolutely I mean this is the discursive tradition this is what Aristotle did to Plato right I mean Plato is the one they gave us the West ontological dualism he's the one that gave us fat matter in form this is how you explain the fact that some things change thought some things never change which the pre platonic didn't understand so the Aristotle just said yes there's matter in there's form and here's how it works Plato could never solve the most basic problems you're standing on the shoulders of geniuses in the case of Thomas who works out the errors and Aristotle he unlike what Aristotle did to Plato he is working out the errors with all of the the goons of the graces and he sacrament Eliza's it he baptizes what's right and Aristotle which is most and he he pulls out the wheat from the shaft when it comes to the errors and Aristotle but they're still had done that to Plato Plato had done it to Socrates Socrates that even listen to great deal to the pythagoreans in Greece so there's this tradition this is what we call scholarship and but talk Thomas ends up having the closest basically the closest thing to just a perennial philosophy right all right just a correct philosophy we can follow so yeah Thomas always gets all of our yours my every every Catholic philosopher every right minded philosopher he gets the highest endorsement people out there yeah they probably know through dr. Marshall the new say Thomas Institute why is what's what's with this I I've had people count to me like why is it all about say Thomas with you guys you know isn't it about Jesus like it's definitely all about Jesus but say Thomas is the greatest scholar ever because he has the fewest errors ever it's very basic he studied the right people you know he's when he's studying the Bible he studying Agustin and Jerome and all the patristic sand he attends to Thomas was super super super coudn't he pulled exactly what he needed to call from each individual source and he knew exactly the ultimate AJ he's the ultimate DJ that's really you know he can he can spin all these different tracks and they all come together like it's it's genius I can't believe he pull just Thomas was so genius he would dictate six books at a time so he'd be at a desk and there'd be six scribes in front of him and he'd say okay describe a and he would recite a paragraph for his commentary in the Komachi and ethics scribe beak alright here's a paragraph on commentary on Romans scribe see here's a commentary on Dean easiest the areopagus scribe D here's a commentary on Psalms and he's literally writing six books at one time with one mind stupid its inquisitive Florida stupid he's incredible now they called him the dumb ox and they called him the dumb ox and by the way if you're indicating Thomas Institute once a month I have a special podcast called ox talk and we just talk about that kind of stuff dumb ox Thomas Aquinas one of the cool things Tim about what Thomas does here in the secundus a [ __ ] day of the Summa Taylor GA is he he puts his finger on something that Aristotle did not and that is Aristotle's basically Pelagian you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps bootstraps you need a little bit of wealth you need a little bit of health and you can make it but the experience of humanity this is where aerosol it kind of gets it wrong is that no we can't we screw up some of us don't have the health some of us don't have the wealth some of us are born in really bad moral situations you know you're born on some Satan is commie and I don't know you know you're not set up in you know Athens 400 BC right you know maybe you're set up in Afghanistan so what's missing is something supernatural something that can elevate the virtues and what we see in Catholic history are Saints who are born in all kinds of situations but through the gift of faith hope and charity those other virtues receive a supernatural boost what we'd call infused virtues this actually does happen now we don't all count on it like if I just believe in Jesus boom when they get 100 percent virtues no but we do see it sometimes and Christ in His wisdom and his prudence does use the supernatural deposit of grace with faith hope and love to give us boosts in these virtues so you can see someone who was maybe you know a heroin-addicted prostitute for 20 years they come to Christ they have a conversion and five years later they're just super prudent or super temperate it doesn't make set Aristotle would not understand that supernatural hyper boost I don't know athlete what's to call it in a in a catchy way right there is that element and Thomas acquainted the great example from Thomas Aquinas says they wanted him to sleep with this prostitute his parents his mom his mother's bringing in the prostitute because this ovary world had just gone okay let's just get him a hooker and he'll chill out and he gets a log from the fire he chases her out of the room and then with the smoldering log he puts a cross on the wall he falls on his knees to worship Christ and the Angels put this cord around his waist and he says never for the rest of his life did he ever struggle with the sin of impurity sexual sin great in other words God gave him a hundred percent temperance in that moment right okay that does happen for most of us and most of our life God calls us to fight the fight it's a battle but I mean you want to add anything there on Aristotle that did I dog Aristotle too hard there not at all not at all I mean he look he is a pagan he is the blessed pagan yeah but he's the statue right you don't the the philosopher capital P for Thomas but he's a pagan at the end of the day he lives before the the kind of grace that enables people to to come by faith hope and charity and yeah so when I was saying there's no super virtues one ring to rule them all one ring to bind them that's just with the natural moral virtues there's a but with the with the faith hope and love now you're operating on a post Jesus plane yeah that is possible look at the corridors look it like look it Saint John Vianney was not a smart probably an IQ eighty right almost like a Forrest Gump and look what he was able to do just through faith hope and love you know he couldn't even pass the like the boards to get into the priesthood so no that all breaks down once we take it to the to mystic level it goes to a higher level ontological II and therefore the analysis even goes to a higher level now the one thing we should just say is that's super interesting and I know you talked about it before is what's a st. Thomas had such amazing prudence to fight for his right to use Aristotle right at the University of Paris where Albertus Magnus he dragged him there and this is like just what an amazing time to be a student you know guys like you and I would just you know only the size about being mighty to give my left arm for that yeah to be at you know before it was the Sorbonne and was you know all studying stupid post enlightenment drivel it was the University of Paris and it's like literally you had in dialogue Muslim Aristotelians Jewish Aristotelians Dominican Christians who Dominican Catholics who were arrested tunes you had the neoplatonist sand in the Bonaventure bergens no individual I mean what an amazing time to be alive and they guys like Bonaventure were not in favor of bringing Aristotle into the church and say Thomas was so he was such he took AJ he took some heat he took sit mole got in big big trouble yeah big trouble had the free air stomach Aristotle was on the index right no in st. I was like no we need we need Aristotle because not because not because the Scriptures are insufficient alone obviously but because there's so much gold here yeah that explains in a superlative way how the natural virtues work but he never said part of his defense of Aristotle was Aristotle never tries to explain how the infused virtues work he peace he's ignorant of them utterly so no you said everything perfect yeah Aristotle would reject that openly yeah he would say I don't I don't understand how that would work how it God how the prime mover so far away would infuse justice into a person right does it make any sense well if you think if you have an incarnation and though in the eternal logos becomes man through the womb of the Virgin Mary that is a possibility that's what we bring as Catholics right I know the Garris total would have denied the possibility but still he was just I mean he was reasoning to the idea as a non Jew he was reasoning to monotheism that's impressive enough yes right and and in disbelieving in the the greco-roman God's the Olympians I mean that's impressive right there he was reasoning his way to what we know are the natural virtues that are are they just Christian virtues well yes but also know they're for everyone he is reasoning his way without the scriptures to that he never saw fit to make the connection between theology between the Incarnation and in story ology right now that's just too far above his head if for his place in time he would have accepted it though because he accepted all things reasonable and good that were available to him yeah hopefully hopefully good so so um let's do some homeless find some homework Tim all right so um I would say if you want to get if you want to understand what Tim just said about you know the twelve hundred Thomas Aquinas Bonaventure Aristotle what's going on in Catholic theology how did all this happen I have a free book for you Tom I click the little button in the top right of the corner Thomas of coins in fifty pages it gives you you know ten pages of biography ten pages of his philosophy and theology ten pages of his writings and all that kind of stuff and a dictionary in the back it's free it's simple it'll get you up to speed really really quick Thomas of coins and fifty pages by the way if you sponsor this channel on patreon the links I'll send you a signed copy of that book physically so check that link patreon /dr Taylor Marshall what else is good should would you recommend someone just saying pick up the Nicomachean ethics and read it yeah I was talking to a mutual friend through Patrick often and he was like should I just pick up the ethics I'm like it's so basic it's so basic the language is so so straightforward but again it's not gonna be like an enthralling read like a pirate adventure novel but its base it's difficult and a little bit dryer not the same thing the ethics kind of like reading Thomas like reading the Summa is eminently understandable I always encourage the reading of Nicomachean ethics it's the most pre-christian now the ancient philosophy is far and away the most understandable and the most valuable most private value for your life every fall I run through this with the 12th graders I promised them there's going to be more value pound-for-pound paid page 4 page in Aristotle than any other thing they'll read aside from maybe the Bible or st. Thomas which I doubt they will ever get to because I'm not forcing either of those two on them and they sort of scoff but they sort of know that I wouldn't say that by this time of the year by Thanksgiving when we're mostly done with it we go through all 10 bucks there like that the Tiger is amazing it's just the out literally even book eights on friendship oh just get into the ethics this is what I was saying to this this mutual friend of mine impact coffins get into it if there are any if you have any doubts which you won't have many he's pretty clear about what he means and he's unpacking things that you preternatural II know he's just unpacking the interior logic then you can you can find a commentary online in that rare case and I would say the best commentary on the Nicomachean ethics is Thomas Aquinas is commentary on Aristotle's ethics it's a little bit harder but you can do it you can do yes I live one of my greatest joys in life is bringing so many people young and adult or they say I thought I couldn't read Aristotle or Plato or Aquinas and I started reading him thank you for me making the world a more - mystic place and people just getting over the initial fear right that's one of that's like my apostille if you want to call you love it when people say hey I just finished the first book of Summa thank you I'd write it's it is possible people we have this i have people a new st. thomas institute who have read laymen who have read the entire Summa in a year you can do it it's not is the thing is the distinctions are helpful right right it's not I wouldn't tell people that about reading slam mocker or contour Hegel or Feuerbach but the good part is this is how nature was designed it's it's wrong philosophy anyway it's hard and wrong right it's the worst of both worlds Aristotle and Thomas are the best of both worlds there they're not they're easy but they're not simple right I mean compared to like German philosophy French velocity it's really really straightforward it's not that orange it's based on nature because it's basically nature so you already know these two are damn a start right and and and so it's it's true and it's relatively easy or relatively easy and I'm not just saying that you know both Aristotle and Thomas get into the primary text themselves and the beautiful thing is yeah it's amazing because you read Aristotle it's it's not like other stuff where you need secondary literature you just might want secondary literature and then you can go and get Thomas the secondary literature the only guy when I went up to the job yeah it's a win-win because he cleans it up it's like when I read scripture which is not my strong point it's not my forte I'm not super well-versed I read Thomas's Cuttino area where he's already collected best scholar of all time in addition to like one of the smartest guys at all time he's already collected all the patristic Slyke line by line paragraph by paragraph just equip yourself with brass knuckles we have gold knuckle school golden huckles container yeah that's what I tell people they say what's the best I'm looking for a good biblical commentary on name a book Romans and I say Tom's the coins like what no I mean like a modern one on me no dude go get cop Thomas's commentary it's the best it's so clear it's so clear for example Thomas's commentary on the book of Hebrews is so amazing I just want to cry every time I read it it's so good is it and now a story well so there's a there's a there's a story that Thomas Aquinas is they heard men in Thomas's cell late at night right this will kind of get in like modern church history now like why they're men late at night in the rectory of so-and-so priests so they heard suspicious male voices in Thomas Aquinas is monastic cell they were ported it to the superior the superior says who are these men in your room late at night and Thomas wouldn't answer so he said under obedience who are the men in your room and Thomas says well I'm writing my commentaries on the epistles and so at night Peter and Paul appeared to me an apparition explained the text really those are the voices you hear Peter and Paul my cell yes Wow so if that's a true story I think it is that means Thomas Aquinas is writing commentaries on the epistles and he's got apostolic help Wow and you read them and they're so good so we need to make the world a more - mystic place yeah yeah did you know that at the Council of Trent the only book they allowed up on the lectionary besides scriptures was Thomas Aquinas yes I knew that that's that's a council I like that's what we like all things that's well - you and I are so trying to costal that's right that's right that acosta okay so get get my free book Thomas Aquinas 50 pages you want a signed version support the channel on patreon if you want to get class into Mystic studies new st. Thomas comm and then as Tim says pick up a copy just get a copy Nicomachean ethics Aristotle you got to have one in your house put on your nightstand maybe just the good vibes will get to you right hey and I get to sue Matteo GA if you don't know which one to get again we have guidance and these think Thomas did sit on how to get the summa which one to read and get deep I want to go back to what we said the very beginning before we close off and that is you have been ripped off it's not your fault you have been ripped off intellectually if you're under the age of 70 80 even if you're under the age of 100 so it's pretty much all of us we were not rightly taught not only catechesis about the Catholic faith which we were ripped off on but also just basic human knowledge logic rhetoric tragedy literature ethics how many of us received a good ethics class where we learned anything that we talked about today nobody my students yeah only students are watching or some my old students are watching maybe them but it's very rare it's very rare and the good news is you can order it on amazon.com today you can get what you need start to read it it's not that hard and it will change your life forever yes there will be easier get over your allergic response to saying oh I went to Catholic school K through 12 so I know that you don't you know what Archbishop Sheen said about Catholic education it's under attack we should really do a show on this it's been under attack for this whole time which is what caused in in a causal sense that's the explanation for what you just said I add it to why I actually left after tenth grade basketball conflicts which is why you're okay let's save Jersey why yeah but I mean it's we're all bastard children of the Enlightenment the Enlightenment set out to ruin education and it did its work well yep absolutely okay so that's your homework folks thanks for watching god bless check out all the links in the description below this video and if you're listening on also if you're listening on iTunes some of us I've been hearing all people they listen I to they're not seeing the video didn't even know what you look like Tim they just listen to the audio so if you if you're listen the audio thank you if you're on iTunes please subscribe and write us a review I love to read the reviews on iTunes so go on to iTunes write a review really appreciate that that would be awesome of course if you're watching it on YouTube which is a lot of people as well go ahead and hit the subscribe button hit the bell that'll notify you for future videos until next time be the Maccabee be virtuous excel and virtues be intentional Tim last word to you go yeah in this case be virtuous even until next time and even thereafter yeah habitually speaking yeah good all right Chile speaking yeah signing off god bless everyone as anyone ever asked you to explain a Catholic topic and stumped you st. Peter our first pope once wrote this always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asked you to give the reason for the hope that you have but do this with gentleness and respect the problem is it takes years and even decades to study Sacred Scripture the Church Fathers Magisterial documents and counsels most of us don't have that much time even if we wanted to so what if there were a way to have all of these answers prepared for us literally at our fingertips my name is dr. Taylor Marshall the founder of the new st. Thomas Institute and we have created an online library of video and audio resources answering the most common objections against our Catholic faith as a student member of the new st. Thomas Institute you'll have access to our short and informative lessons by searching for the topics that interest you for example how to explain the Crusades how to answer the top-ten atheist objections how to answer Mormon and they come your front door and how to easily and quickly explain the Eucharist the Blessed Virgin Mary the papacy the sacraments and much more you could easily spend thousands of dollars taking classes at universities or seminaries but our tuition is the most affordable on earth plus you'll have free access to our popular certificates in Catholic philosophy Catholic theology Catholic apologetics church history and New Testament studies so if you're struggling with a topic and you need help we have resources and answers waiting for you take your faith the next level become confident in your Catholic faith join the new st. Thomas Institute today you [Music]

Channel: Dr Taylor Marshall

Views: 73,076

Rating: 4.8973675 out of 5

Keywords: Dr Taylor Marshall, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Virtue Ethics, Dante Alighieri, Catholic

Id: 5CSFdi8qPHg

Length: 92min 4sec (5524 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 26 2018