UNISA Philosophy seminar: A Thomist Critical Realist Reading of beauty as an argument for the existence of God

[Scott, Callum]

The UNISA Discipline of Philosophy is pleased to invite you to a research seminar offered by one of our recently completed doctoral students, Dr Matthew D'Antuono, who will speak on the following topic:

"A Thomistic Critical Realist reading of beauty in physics as an argument for the existence of God."

The seminar will take place on:

Wednesday, 15^th April 2026 at 12:00 noon (SAST) via Microsoft Teams.

The link to join follows: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/389048912167746?p=CTN1XvWyj7NxSxGETR.

Abstract:

In Thomist metaphysics, beauty is defined as unity, harmony and clarity. In a word, beauty is order. Philosophers have attempted to arrive at a definition of beauty on the basis of physicists’ descriptions of physics; however, physicists’ accounts are not always consistent. Thomist aesthetics, however, adequately accounts for the various understandings of beauty on which physicists insist. Such attributions of beauty to physics as well as the entire practice of physics find themselves in danger if physics is viewed through an instrumentalist lens. Critical realism is necessary in order for such statements about beauty in physics to mean what physicists intend them to mean. Also, if beauty is real and critical realism accounts correctly for beauty and physics, then it can be argued that God exists via the Fourth Way of Thomas Aquinas, which finds evidence for the existence of God in gradations in things. The gradation of perfections such as nobility, goodness and truth implies the existence of some maximum perfection, which is God. It is argued in this thesis that although not mentioned by Aquinas in his corpus, beauty is one of those perfections. This constitutes a new argument for the existence of God on the basis of beauty.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Sincerely,

Callum Scott

Callum David Scott, D.Phil. (Philosophy) (Pretoria) 

Professor & Discipline Leader: Discipline of Philosophy 

Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology 

School of Humanities 

College of Human Sciences 

Tel: +27 12 429 6207 

E-mail: sco...@unisa.ac.za   

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5203-4320 

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