Thomas Aquinas is a philosopher that can be placed in the later medieval tradition. He attended the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, where he was educated religiously. In the late medieval philosophy, a seven-piece liberal arts program formed the main course of the philosophical education. The trivium was mainly about grammar and dialectics, while the quadrivium focused on the mathematical parts of philosophy. In the nineteenth century, Aquinas was acknowledged by the biblical communities as the ideal Christian philosopher.
Aquinas observed different sciences and concluded that different types of knowledge came from those sciences. This was also applicable to philosophy and theology, and so he found a way to bring those two together. Philosophy for instance starts with knowledge of the world, says Aquinas, while theology starts with what God reveals about himself, thus the knowledge we have of God. An important question that came from this conclusion is why christians would investigate philosophical matters into religion, when the truth within religion is God-revealed. I think this is a very interesting matter, for I think that Aquinas does make a good point about different sciences and how truth within these sciences is found. I do think it is an idea that is quite revolutionary for Aquinas’ time, if I get his point right, because I have seen that a lot of philosophers in medieval times put their religion central and built all the other beliefs around the existence of God. I think pulling the different sciences apart is a very wise decision, because it allows you to put things in different perspectives.
