Opinion, Doubt, Knowledge, and Belief (Aquinas 101)

On St. Thomas Aquinas’ account, belief is not simply a sentiment.
Rather, it involves coming into contact with a truth and having the truth come into our minds, even though we have not directly seen or verified the proof of the statement. This is quite common. Students rightly believe what scientists tell them about the experiments that have generated contemporary scientific conclusions. It would be unreasonable for a chemistry student to verify every experiment in his chemistry textbook before accepting them.

Opinion, Doubt, Knowledge, and Belief (Aquinas 101) - Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

❓ Questions you want answered? Make sure to put #AskAFriar in your comment!

— WHAT'S NEW —

— WHAT'S NEXT —

— SOCIAL MEDIA —

— SUPPORT —

— THE THOMISTIC INSTITUTE —

— AQUINAS 101 —

#ThomisticInstitute #ThomasAquinas #Catholic #Thomism

[SedContraApologia]

Go TI. I will keep praying and supporting this content and the provider! I hope to meet some of you guys when I’m up there in January ( DC ) that is! Bless you guys!

[aiantenor]

a-may-zinggg. Thank you Fr Brent. I was initially confused at first how come the reader becomes the book, but hit it home in the end! Thank you and God bless

[gabie]

Very rich in knowledge, thank you Thomist Institute 👏👏👏👏👏

[namapalsu]

Of all the videos from Thomistic Institute that I liked (which is way too much, hogging my "like videos" space), this is the one that should be presented to the modern men (secularist, atheist cartesian etc).

Oh, and Protestant too (since they think that "faith" is "trust" instead of "belief."

[allenbrady]

Just wanted to comment on the quality of the production of these videos. They are really good. Well done to the team!

[maryjohnstone]

Very interesting, clear too in delivery.thanks!

[kristindreko]

Thank you for this video!
May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you!

[jamespepe]

It would be great if you gave some textual references in Aquinas along with these videos!

[Enigmatic_philosopher]

Here is a philosophical critique of the video discussing opinion, doubt, knowledge, and belief according to Aquinas:

The video provides a helpful high-level overview of how Aquinas distinguishes between these different epistemic states. However, further philosophical analysis could strengthen the concepts presented.

For example, Aquinas' definition of opinion as involving assent without complete certainty could be compared and contrasted with more modern philosophical definitions of belief versus knowledge. Contemporary understandings of justified true belief could add nuance.

Additionally, the relationship between doubt and opinion requires further exploration. The video defines doubt as suspension of assent rather than dissent, but philosophically parsing the psychological experience of doubt versus tentative opinion would be useful.

The brevity of the video also necessitates glossing over complexities in Aquinas' epistemology. His notions of sense knowledge, intellectual knowledge, and scientia each have technical meanings that influence his theory of human understanding. More detail here would add philosophical depth.

Some reference to competing epistemological frameworks would also be helpful. Aquinas builds on an Aristotelian foundation, but comparing with empiricist, rationalist, and modern perspectives would situate his thought within the broader discourse while highlighting its enduring insights.

Overall, the video succeeds as a very concise introduction to Aquinas' epistemology. But a more robust philosophical exploration of belief formation, degrees of assent, and types of knowledge would substantially strengthen this overview. More critical analysis is needed to demonstrate true philosophical insight.

[adventureinallthings]

That was excellent, I was only pondering this very idea for months now, thank you for the clarity 👍

[tbone]

wow, greatest video on youtube. thank you so much!!

[scragsma]

Almost EVERYTHING we "know" is really only a belief, i.e., something we accept on the basis of trust in the source from which we received it. All history at which we were not present. All natural science that we haven't personally demonstrated, as laid out in the video. Geography. Reported news. Genealogy. Higher math.

[ashwith]

I noticed that what you cover in the audio lecture for a lesson is, atleast sometimes, the subject of a later video. Is this usually the case? I ask this because the audio lectures tend to be a bit difficult for me to understand (this is to do with me. You all are excellent teachers, period) but the video makes it easy, partly because I can see the face and therefore the visual communication that goes with it and more importantly thanks to the wonderful illustrations you use in the video.

[XHReligion]

Hello Aquinas 101. I am a Religious Studies Master in China and a Catholic Christian. I wanna add your Videos Chinese Sub, and share them to Chinese people. Can i do that? I mean there maybe some Copyright issues. If you think that is a meaningful thing, could you give me a email so i can contact you. Thank God.

[iqgustavo]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:00 🤔 Belief is often questioned as irrational, especially when we can't directly observe the truth of what we believe.
00:28 ❓ St. Thomas Aquinas outlines four ways to respond to a statement: opinion (likely true but with doubt), doubt (negation with doubt), certain knowledge (affirmation without doubt), and natural belief (acceptance based on trust).
02:15 👥 Natural belief involves believing another person's word without direct knowledge, and it's a rational act that we engage in regularly.
04:05 🤝 We believe many things based on trust in others, even when direct evidence is unavailable, making belief a reasonable and common aspect of human life.

Made with HARPA AI

[FriarTruck]

Believing something to be the case, doesn’t make it the case. Beliefs are not infallible. You can still be wrong. Your example also doesn’t address the problem of competing certainties.

Suppose, for example, you came into contact with a second zookeeper, working at the same zoo, who told you that the first zookeeper was mistaken and that what had escaped was not a lion, but a tiger. Which zookeeper would you believe and how would you determine they were right? Simply listening to them and making a decision based solely on their testimony is not a solution that would lead to a “truth”, but only to an opinion. You can believe one of them all you want. There’s still the possibility that the zookeeper you chose to believe is wrong.

Personally, I’d withhold judgment until more evidence was presented.

[nickballew]

I think you're pretty great padre!

[thomaslai]

I have a question though, the use of word “qualifications” seems confusing to me. Does it mean something like a warrant? A ground, a reason to base a belief? In the last example demonstrated, being told by a friend who is a zookeeper is described as “without qualification”, but this seems to me to have the same level of credibility as I assuming the press sending a reporter to investigate(the example of opinion). As you know the history of your friend and he has no record of lying to you. Is it not the same to assuming the reporter has done his investigation and not lie on the newspaper? Thank you for your hard work on these videos, I enjoyed them a lot and got interested in reading more about Aquinas, god bless.

[johnwright]

What would happen if you are in wrong place and different than your thought?

[genekelly]

It all boils down to failt vs. knowledge. If you cannot verify something via sense data, you can only rely on faith and conviction., unless you trust wha
t others have written. Hence the veracity of the Gospels-: they were clearly written by different people.