More than Spiritual: Proofs for the Existence of God | Prof. Joshua Hochschild

Feb 3, 2025

In this discussion, Professor Joshua Hochschild, a philosophy expert from Mount St. Mary’s University, dives deep into the existence of God. He contrasts Thomas Aquinas’s empirical reasoning with modern skepticism, tackling challenges posed by philosophers like David Hume. Hochschild unpacks Aquinas's five arguments for God's existence, emphasizing their philosophical significance and relevance today. He explores the concept of the unmoved mover, shedding light on the critical role of first causes in understanding change and existence.

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Intro

00:00 • 7min

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Exploring the Proof and Limitations of the Unmoved Mover

06:50 • 9min

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Aquinas's Proofs for the Existence of God and Their Philosophical Significance

15:44 • 29min

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Professor Joshua Hochschild argues that Aquinas' proofs for God's existence, specifically the first way, are simple, accessible, and not merely spiritual exercises, but rather starting points for a deeper understanding of God and the relationship between faith and reason.

This lecture was given on November 4th, 2024, at University of Texas at Austin.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speaker:

Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Keywords: Aristotelianism, Causality, David Hume, Empirical Fact, First Cause, Natural Theology, Proof of God's Existence, Reason, Skepticism, Unmoved Mover

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