Talk:Thomism

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As a neo-Thomist, I find the vast majority of this article quite accurate and informative. The only point that really sticks out to me is the explanation of "Philosophical Realism." I don't have any texts handy, so I can't provide support yet. I believe that St. Thomas holds all men to be of one species, while every individual angel is a species unto itself, with no two angels of the same species. Summa Theologica I, Q. 75, a. 7 touches on this. Article 4 of the same question touches on the matter of man's body, as does article 4 of question 76. It would be far less controversial to state that man is made of body and soul, the body being the matter and the soul being the form, without arguing that the body must be prime matter. "Philosophical realism" might better be described as "Hylomorphism", which is the understanding of material things as being composed of matter (hylo) and form (morph). "Philosophical realism" seems to have more to do with the existence of universals in the things that actually exist, and with the things we sense actually existing in themselves, and not simply in our minds. St. Thomas is, quite clearly, a philosophical or metaphysical realist.

-Dane Weber