The Thomistic Institute How the Highest of the Inanimate Touches the Lowest of the Living: A Contemporary Thomistic Approach – Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.
Oct 16, 2025
Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P., a philosophy professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, dives into the philosophical boundaries between inanimate and living beings. He discusses Aquinas's views on spontaneous generation and the nuances of spiritual versus material causation. Davenport also critiques modern Thomistic interpretations and advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration in refining natural philosophy. He uses fascinating examples like diamonds, water, and colloids to illustrate concepts of structured homogeneity and the complexity of life's emergence.
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Edges Between Levels Are Often Fuzzy
- Aquinas treats the edges between levels of nature as often close and sometimes fuzzy rather than categorically separate.
- This principle motivates filling gaps between inanimate and animate without invoking miracle.
Imminent Causation As A Biogenesis Objection
- David Oderberg argues life equals imminent causation and that transient causation can't produce it diachronically.
- Davenport presents this as a contemporary Thomistic argument against abiogenesis to be examined, not accepted outright.
Life As Substantial Form And Self-Motion
- For Aquinas, life is tied to the soul as a substantial form that actualizes an organized body.
- He distinguishes living bodies by heterogeneous organs that allow one part to move another, enabling self-motion.
