Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Thomas Aquinas¹, with the help of an example borrowed from mathematics and in agreement with Plato and Aristotle, characterized the motive and the final expected result of all philosophical reflection in about the following terms. “Because philosophical search begins with wonder, it must end in the opposite of that, or at least progress in that direction. And in agreement with common parlance progress always occurs in the direction of the higher. Now what this opposite and higher is appears in the wonderful things mentioned above, for as soon as men know the reasons of these facts they cease to wonder about them. Thus the geometer is not astonished that the diagonal and the sides of a square are mutually irrational. He knows the reason for this .... Therefore, the goal of science to which we must advance must consist therein that, by knowing the reasons, we need no longer wonder about the consequences.”