Papers presented at the International Seminar on Construction of Knowledge, held at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur during 16-18 April 2004.

The focus of this book is morals--how human beings should live their lives. For Dewan "morals" is "the journey of the rational creature toward God." While philosophical considerations are central here, Christian revelation and its truth constitute an enveloping context. These essays treat the history of philosophy as a development that proceeds by deepening appreciation of basic questions rather than the constant replacement of one worldview by another. Thus, the author finds forebears in Plato and Aristotle, in Augustine and (...) Boethius, and especially in Aquinas. Written over a period of more than thirty years, the essays collected here treat both perennial issues in philosophy and such current questions as suicide as a weapon of war, the death penalty, and lying. Above all, they present the wisdom, the sapiential vision, that makes morals possible. (shrink)

The meaning of consciousness, has interested thinkers throughout recorded time, and yet it is quite obvious that its understanding is still exceedingly remote. This is evident from the fact that even the presently used definitions give rise to contradictions. As implied by the title, the purpose of this paper is to remove some of the main difficulties concerned with this definition by using epistemological methods which have recently been developed. It is hoped that by clarifying the definition of consciousness, or, (...) more accurately, by clarifying the process leading to a scientifically rigorous definition of consciousness, some of the paradoxes surrounding the concept might be removed. (shrink)

Selon Thomas d'Aquin, il y a distinction réelle dans les choses causées, entre la forme de la chose et l'acte d'être. Le but de l'article est de montrer que la démonstration d'une telle distinction dépend de la nature de la hiérarchie causale. L'acte d'être de la chose causée est, dans cette chose elle-même, une participation à la nature propre à la cause efficiente en tant que telle. Et cette participation ne peut pas être identique à la nature de l'effet en (...) tant que tel. Le meilleur texte de s. Thomas sur le sujet se trouve dans le Quodlibet 12, dernier produit de son activité parisienne. (shrink)