Aristotelian teleology and Thomas Aquinas’s Fifth Way
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/1983-3636.2026.62489Keywords:
Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, teleology, final causeAbstract
This article examines aspects of Aristotle’s teleology that may have influenced Thomas Aquinas’s in his Fifth Way to demonstrate the existence of God. The discussion focuses primarily on Physics II.8 and Metaphysics Λ, along with Aquinas’s commentary on these Aristotelian texts, and on part of the recent literature on the subject. It is also considered that Aquinas’s interpretation of Aristotelian teleology, at times and in certain contexts, tends toward a conception of an extrinsic teleology. In addition, the article highlights elements in Aquinas’s commentary that appear to echo the text of the Fifth Way.
Downloads
References
ANGIONI, L. Metafísica de Aristóteles: Livro XII. Cadernos de História e Filosofia da Ciência, Campinas, Série 3, v. 15, n. 1, p. 201-221, 2005. Disponível em: https://www.cle.unicamp.br/eprints/index.php/cadernos/article/view/615/493. Acesso em: 06 jul. 2025.
AQUINAS, T. Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. Translated by Richard J. Blackwell, Richard J. Spath, W. Edmund Thirlkel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.
AQUINAS, T. Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics. Translated by Richard J. Regan. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2007.
AQUINAS, T. Commentary on the Metaphysics. Translated by John P. Rowan. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1961.
AQUINO, T. Suma Teológica. Volume I: I Parte – Questões 1-43. Tradução organizada por Pe. Gabriel C. Galache e Pe. Fidel García Rodríguez. 3. ed. São Paulo: Loyola, 2009.
ARISTOTE. Métaphysique: Livre Lambda. Introduit, traduit et commenté par Fabienne Baghdassarian. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2019.
ARISTÓTELES. Física I-II. Prefácio, introdução, tradução e comentários de Lucas Angioni. Campinas, SP: Editora da Unicamp, 2009.
ARISTOTELIS. Metaphysica. Greek Language Edition edited by W. Jaeger. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.
ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s De Motu Animalium: Text with Translation, Commentary, and Interpretative Essays by M. C. Nussbaum. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978.
ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s Metaphysics: A revised text with introduction and commentary by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924a. v. I.
ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s Metaphysics: A revised text with introduction and commentary by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924b. v. II.
ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s Physics: A revised text with introduction and commentary by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936.
ARISTOTLE. De Anima. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by C. Shields. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2016.
ARISTOTLE. De Partibus Animalium I and De Generatione Animalium I (with passages from II. 1-3). Translated with notes by D. M. Balme. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
ARISTOTLE. Metaphysics: Book Λ. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by L. Judson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2019.
ARISTOTLE. On the Parts of Animals I-IV. Translation and Commentary by J. Lennox. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001a.
ARISTOTLE. Physics: Books I and II. Translated with Introduction, Commentary, Note on Recent Work and Revised Bibliography by W. Charlton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
BALME, D. M. Teleology and Necessity. In: GOTTHELF, A.; LENNOX, J. G. (Eds.). Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. p. 275-286.
BERTI, E. A causalidade do motor imóvel segundo Aristóteles. In: BERTI. E. Novos Estudos Aristotélicos II: Física, antropologia e metafísica. Tradução de Silvana Cobucci Leite, Cecília Camargo Bartalotti e Élcio de Gusmão Verçosa Filho. São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 2011a. p. 537-556.
BERTI, E. O debate contemporâneo sobre a assim chamada “teologia” de Aristóteles. In: BERTI, E. Novos Estudos Aristotélicos II: Física, antropologia e metafísica. Tradução de Silvana Cobucci Leite, Cecília Camargo Bartalotti e Élcio de Gusmão Verçosa Filho. São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 2011b. p. 579-593.
BODNÁR, I. Teleology Across Natures. Rhizai: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science, Bowling Green, vol. II, n. 1, p. 9-29, 2005. Disponível em: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=214725". Acesso em: 08 jul. 2025.
CHARLES, D. Teleological Causation. In: SHIELDS, C. (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 227-266.
CODE, A. The Priority of Final Causes over Efficient Causes in Aristotle’s PA. In: KULLMANN, W.; FOLLINGER, S. (Eds.). Aristotelische Biologie: Intentionen, Methoden, Ergebnisse. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1997. p. 127-43.
COOPER, J. M. Aristotle on Natural Teleology. In: SCHOFIELD, M.; NUSSBAUM, M. C. (Eds.). Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. p. 197-222.
DAVIES, B. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae: A guide and commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
FESER, E. Between Aristotle and William Paley: Aquinas’s Fifth Way. Nova et Vetera, v. 11, n. 3, p. 707-749, 2013. Disponível em: https://archive.stpaulcenter.com/08-nv-11-3-feser/. Acesso em: 20 abr. 2025.
FURLEY, D. J. The Rainfall Example in Physics II 8. In: GOTTHELF, A. (Ed.). Aristotle on Nature and Living Things. Pittsburgh: Mathesis Publications Inc., 1985. p. 177-182.
GOTTHELF, A. Aristotle’s Conception of Final Causality. In: GOTTHELF, A.; LENNOX, J. G. (Eds.). Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. p. 204-242.
GOTTHELF, A. Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
HENRY, D. Aristotle on the cosmological significance of biological generation. In: EBREY, D. (Ed.). Theory and Practice in Aristotle’s Natural Science. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. p. 100-118.
HORN, C. The Unity of the World-order According to Metaphysics Λ 10. In: HORN, C. (Ed.). Arsitotle’s Metaphysics Lambda: New Essays. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. p. 269-293.
JOHNSON, J. Nature does nothing in vain: Reexamining Aquinas’s Fifth Way. The Thomist, v. 87, n. 1, p. 43-86, 2023. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2023.0001. Acesso em: 10 jun. 2025.
JOHNSON, M. R. Aristotle on Teleology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
JUDSON, L. Aristotelian Teleology. In: SEDLEY, D. (Ed.). Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 341-366. v. XXIX.
KEER, G. Design arguments and Aquinas’s Fifth Way. The Thomist, v. 82, n. 3, p. 447-471, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2018.0026. Acesso em: 14 jun. 2025.
LAKS, A. Metaphysics Λ 7. In: FREDE, M.; CHARLES, D. (Eds.). Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda: Symposium Aristotelicum. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. p. 207-243.
LENNOX. J. Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001b.
LEUNISSEN, M. Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle’s Science of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
OLIVER, S. Aquinas and Aristotle’s Teleology. Nova et Vetera, v. 11, n. 3, p. 849-870, 2013. Disponível em: https://archive.stpaulcenter.com/13-nv-11-3-oliver/. Acesso em: 02 abr. 2025.
OWENS, J. Aquinas and the Five Ways. The Monist, v. 58, n. 1, p. 16-35, 1974. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.5840/monist19745815. Acesso em: 06 abr. 2025.
RIBEIRO, R. M. S. A quinta via de Tomás de Aquino. 2017. 106f. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2017.
ROSS, A. The Causality of the Prime Mover in Metaphysics Λ. In: Horn, C. (Ed.). Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda – New Essays. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. p. 207-227.
SALIS, R. La causalidad del motor inmóvil según Pseudo-Alejandro. Estudios de Filosofía, n. 40, p. 199-221, 2009. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.11622. Acesso em: 16 jun. 2025.
SCHARLE, M. Elemental Teleology in Aristotle’s Physics 2. 8. In: SEDLEY, D. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. p. 147-183. v. XXXIV.
SEDLEY, D. Is Aristotle’s Teleology Anthropocentric? Phronesis, Vol. 36, No. 2, p. 179-196, 1991. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852891321052778. Acesso em: 03 mar. 2025.
SEDLEY, D. Metaphysics Λ 10. In: FREDE, M.; CHARLES, D. (Eds.). Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda: Symposium Aristotelicum. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. p. 327-350.
STEENBERGHEN, F. Le problème de l’existence de Dieu dans les écrits de S. Thomas d’Aquin. Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, 1980.
STORCK, A. C. “Deus autem et natura nihil frustra faciunt”. Notas sobre a Teleologia nos Comentários de Tomás de Aquino a Aristóteles. Cadernos de História e Filosofia da Ciência, Campinas, Série 3, v. 16, n. 1, p. 59-83, 2006.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Renan Eduardo Stoll (Autor)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
