Report #2: Evaluating Aquinas' Reasoning

Your second report to the class will involve a selection from Thomas Aquinas' Summa IV-VI and will be due when cover that material in class. After studying closely your assigned selection, you will want to do the following:
  1. An outline or summary of the selection;
  2. A list of the key terms
  3. A list of most important statements and propositions
  4. An assessment of his proof. You should ask yourself the following questions: 
  • Is the claim relevant? effective?
  • What evidence actually supports the claim?
  • Is this evidence sufficient? credible? accurate?  

    5.  As assessment of the success of his logic:

  •  Is the author uninformed or misinformed about the facts of the matter?  What has been left out, or is anything simply wrong?

  •  Is the argument unconvincing?  If so, what contradictions are present? Where does it break down? Is it deductively misguided? Is it inductively forced?

  • Is the argument incomplete in its analysis?  If so, what important steps are left out?  What causes, cases, or symptoms does the argument ignore? What else would be needed to actually make the claim that the author makes?

  • Are the claims based on authority unjustified?  If so, why?  Is the author mistaken about either the validity or nature of the authority in question?

You may also find that you need to look at secondary background sources. If you do, please remember to site them both in the body of the handout and in a Works Cited list.

The selections include:

Question 48 _____________________
Question 49 _____________________
Question 103 _____________________
Questions 75-76 _____________________
Question 79 _____________________
Questions 83, 85 _____________________

The total presentation should take no more than ten minutes, so you'll want to practice ahead of time and plan to be both concise in your findings and assured in your organization. I will evaluate you according to the following:

General Informative Discussion

General Evaluative Discussion

Variety and Depth of Observations
Complex Nature of Evaluations
Effective Answer for All Questions
Effective Use of Background (if applicable)
Addresses Each Area
Appears Prepared
 

"All manner of thing shall be well/ When the tongues of flame are in-folded/ Into the crowned knot of fire/ And the fire and the rose are one." -- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding