He never asked himself whether life were worth living. He was utterly estranged from that Asiatic philosophy which declares existence an evil, and the continuance of conscious life a punishment for past sin. To the declaration of the first sort we must proceed by demonstrative reasons that are likely to convince the adversary. But because such reasons are not forthcoming for truth of the second sort, our aim ought not to be to convince the adversary by reasons, but to refute his reasonings against the truth, which we may hope to do, since natural reason cannot be contrary to the truth of faith. Modern philosophy is the philosophy of change, of phenomena, of perpetual flux.
Scholasticism is the philosophy of permanent substantial being.
Not that the Schoolmen ignored change, but by preference they rested upon complete existences and achieved results, e.g. a perfect morality and a full-grown society, not the development of either. One word on Evolution. The Schoolman, with Aristotle, believed in abiogenesis , the development of maggots and reptiles and fish out of mud and decaying matter. Therefore in the generation of animal and man, these having the most perfect form, there occur many intermediate forms and generations, and consequently destructions, because the generation of one is the destruction of another. St. Thomas here teaches what is called ontogenetic evolution , the evolution of the individual perfect animal from a lower form.