Aquinas 101 - Substance and Accidents

How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles

Course ContentHow to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles

Lesson 1: The Science of Theology

Lesson 2: The Principle of Non-Contradiction

Lesson 3: Argument and Dialectic

Lesson 4: Being and Metaphysics

Lesson 5: Act and Potency

Lesson 6: Form and Matter

Lesson 7: Essence and Existence

Lesson 8: The Real Distinction

Lesson 9: Universals and Particulars, Genus and Species

Lesson 10: Nature and Natures

Lesson 11: Substance and Accidents

Lesson 12: The Four Causes

Lesson 13: Teleology

Lesson 14: Intro to Primary and Secondary Causality

Lesson 15: Analogy

Lesson 16: The Three Acts of the Mind

Lesson 17: Opinion, Doubt, Knowledge, and Belief

Lesson 18: Moderate Realism

Lesson 19: Good and Evil

Lesson 20: Powers of the Soul: A First Look

Lesson 21: Habits: A First Look

Final Quiz

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How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles

Introduction

Substance and accident are two terms that we often hear in day-to-day language. Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas uses “substance” and “accident” very differently. They are important for understanding reality itself. In this lesson, you’ll learn about substance and accident.

Supplemental Listening

Supplemental Reading

Selection from Aristotle: Metaphysics, Book 7, cc. 1-2

Selection from Etienne Gilson: The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, pp. 29-30

About the instructor

Fr. James Dominic Brent, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. Born and raised in Michigan, he earned his doctorate in Philosophy from St. Louis University on the epistemic status of Christian beliefs according to Saint Thomas Aquinas. He has articles in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on “Natural Theology,” in the Oxford Handbook of Thomas Aquinas on “God’s Knowledge and Will”, and in the Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology on “Thomas Aquinas.” He has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, taught in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, and now teaches philosophy at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. He is the author of The Father's House: Discovering Our Home in the Trinity (December 2023 from Pauline Books and Media), frequently gives lectures for the Thomistic Institute, and is the host of Contemplata, a podcast for contemplative souls.

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