ABSTRACT
Discussions of St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy of nature generally assume that St. Thomas believed that nature was created for the good of humans, and as a result, conclude that he thought that the rational human is the "point" of the universe, for which all else was arranged. The main arguments against St. Thomas's view of nature amount to charges of anthropocentrism. First, he says that nature was created "for the sake of" humans. Second, he says that humans have "dominion" over nature. Third, plants and animals do not share in the renewal of the world at the end of time. St. Thomas also holds that everything was created ultimately for the sake of God. He means that God is the final cause of everything—"the divine goodness is the end of all things." For St. Thomas, the diversity of the universe is required in order to adequately represent God's perfection.
