HomeBack to all cards
Queen of Spades
the cosmological family

The First Way (from Motion)

St Thomas Aquinas — The Angelic Doctor
Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica)

The First Way (from Motion), card face
DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.
Argument form
Regress argument (essentially ordered series of changers cannot be infinite)
Concludes to
First cause (a first changer, itself unchanging)
Premise ground
Metaphysical (an essentially ordered series of changers cannot be infinite)
Modal strength
Actual
What it licenses
  • first
  • unchanging
Period
Medieval (1265–74)
Tradition
Thomist (Aristotelian)

Further reading

This formulation is ours, composed from the primary source and compressed to fit the card; the argument admits of other statements. Objections have been made to every argument in the deck; where one is linked above, it is chosen by us, not written by us.

ergocards.com/first-way

An Athens & Jerusalem product