Abstract

In an appreciative preface to the fiftieth volume of the philosophical publications of the Museum Lessianum Pére Dubarle notes the unmistakable fact that since Kant’s critique of speculative theism ‘on sait aussi combien les formes classiques de l’argumentation cherchant à fournir cette preuve sont devenues aujourd ‘hui intellectuellement inopérantes’. In courageous remedy Père Robert aims at developing an argument by rigorous reflection upon the metaphysical implications of the act of scientific knowledge - a contemporary reappraisal of St Augustine’s argument to God as the eternal ground of necessary truth. The very success of modern science poses for Einstein, as much as for Plato, the metaphysical postulate that the world is objectively intelligible. To avoid an immediate option for epistemological idealism or realism, the author reflects upon a second scientific postulate: truth is universal and, therefore, accessible in principle to all. The crucial problem of the possible ground of these successful postulates then arises