Does Newton’s law of inertia undermine Aquinas’s First Way? The short answer is No. I gave a longer answer at pp. 76-79 of Aquinas. I give a much longer answer still in my paper “The Medieval Principle of Motion and the Modern Principle of Inertia,” which I presented last year at the American Catholic Philosophical Association meeting in St. Louis and which is now available online in Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics. Follow the link to read the paper, which is followed by a response from Michael Rota and my rejoinder to Mike.
Be sure to read also Gyula Klima's paper on causation, Mike's reply and Gyula's rejoinder, and the other papers in the Proceedings. And browse the SMLM archive while you're at it. Lots of good stuff there.
Be sure to read also Gyula Klima's paper on causation, Mike's reply and Gyula's rejoinder, and the other papers in the Proceedings. And browse the SMLM archive while you're at it. Lots of good stuff there.
