This lively and highly accessible introduction to the thought of Thomas Aquinas focuses on his philosophy while making clear its openness to theology as reflection on Revelation. Introduces students this great philosopher of the middle ages in one short book. Brings together alternative approaches to Aquinas’ thought. Uses key texts to describe the trajectory of Aquinas’ philosophy and the legacy it left behind. This is the first title in a new Polity series, Classic Thinkers.

In this study of the relationship between Boethius and Thomas Aquinas,.

This little book, which grew out of lectures given by the author in Tunis, is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author seeks a meaning for the phrase ‘contemporary philosophy’ which can serve him as a guide in the task he has set himself. His efforts to assign a meaning to the term ‘philosophy’ as if he had just set foot on the planet with an unexplained competence in earthly languages is, if obviously forced, not wholly lacking (...) in interest. However, this initial try at an utterly presuppositionless approach is later a cause of unease in the reader. For example, although Breton finds that contemporary philosophy divides into Marxism, Existentialism and Scientific philosophy, the last named is all but ignored in the sequel. The first part concludes with a ‘problematique de la philosophie contemporaine’. The second part is devoted to Marxism, the third to existentialism. Breton’s method is that of the phenomenologist and thus the seeking of the ‘essence’ of Marxism and existentialism takes on ponderous overtones: more or less arbitrary selection of points becomes somewhat dogmatically a revelation of essence. Breton’s reputation does not depend upon this book which, though informative is unavoidably superficial. Breton promises a critical volume on the same points raised here. (shrink)

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF ANALOGY "Let lu start with a review of the theories of other thinkers; for the proofs of a theory are difficulties for the contrary ...

Thomism is solidly based on the assumption that we know the world first through our senses and then through concepts formed on the basis of our sense experience. In this informally discursive introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny shows how this basic assumption contrasts with dominant modern alternative views and is developed by Thomas into a coherent view of ourselves, of knowledge, and of God. McInerny first places Thomism in context within philosophical inquiry, discussing the relationship between philosophy and (...) theology, and between modern and classical views of philosophy. He then describes the challenges Thomas faced with the introduction of Aristotle’s works into the Christian West. The reader is subsequently guided through such key concepts as art, nature, causes, and motion and shown how Thomas used these concepts to resolve the problems presented by Aristotle. Each chapter is tied to a specific Thomistic text, providing a sample froma number of Thomas’s works. In addition to articles from both _Summas_, there are sections from the Disputed Questions and the Commentaries, among others. McInerny also provides an annotated list of the writings of Thomas available in English. Bibliographical notes provivded by the author, grouped by subject and following his general chapter divisions, will be particularly helpful for further reading. (shrink)

Like any other product of human thought, a philosophical system is conditioned by the contingent circumstances of its origins, and especially by sense experience, the origin of all human cognition. Catholic philosophy, moreover, is conditioned by the doctrine of the Church. Because both sense experience and the Catholic faith are true to their respective objects, and because truth for one is truth for all, the conditioning of Catholic philosophy by its contingent origins does not entail a lack of universal validity. (...) Such validity is in fact possessed by St. Thomas’s system, which is faithful both to Catholic doctrine and to the concrete facts of everyday experience. (shrink)

Contrario a lo que algunos lectores opinan, el autor sostiene que El Punto de Vista es un texto tan importante y autoritario como todos los demás escritos de Kierkegaard y que es de especial interés analizar la llave interpretativa que ahí se ofrece para los textos seudónimos cara a los Discursos de 1843. Se analiza aquí la sensualidad, lo estético y lo poético como posible modo de existencia descartado por el cristianismo para concluir con la postura kierkegaardiana de que la (...) vida poética o estética es una vida no sólo de desesperación, sino imposible. El genio erótico-sensual, representado por Don Juan, aparece como una figura que sólo puede expresarse en la música, como hizo Mozart, y esto no puede existir realmente. Se analizan las posturas griegas de lo sensual frente a la felicidad en Aristóteles, con el argumento del érgon, y en Platón, leyendo el Protágoras con su visión jerárquica de las capacidades y actividades humanas, para culminar con el argumento de Kierkegaard: la vida estética es imposible porque es el esfuerzo por llevar conscientemente una vida inconsciente, es forzar la mente a ser a-mente. (shrink)

WHEN IN BOOK 3 of Aristotle's Metaphysics we come upon the phrase that supplies my title, epizëtoumenën epistëmen, it does not yet have a haunting tone. Clearly Aristotle is engaged in an exceptionally long windup, but those who imagine that the methodology of the Posterior Analytics can be exemplified only in Euclidean discourse, and who thus have trouble with all the treatises, will already have thrown up their hands. Indeed, after the prolonged aporetic discussions of book 3 comes the firm (...) statement at the opening of book 4: There is a science of being as being and of that which pertains to it per se. (shrink)

The context is the first part of the Summa theologiae, and it is question 13 of that part which takes up the topic of the names of God. Since God has been the subject of discussion throughout the preceding twelve questions, we might think that the concerns of question 13 are tardily introduced. Should not problems associated with talking about God preface the Summa? Does not my subtitle, by suggesting that we are concerned with matters on the threshold of philosophy (...) of religion, implicitly criticize the order of the Summa? Surely to establish, if it can be done, that God can indeed be spoken of by us, is to issue a charter for a discipline rather than to accomplish one of its internal and subsequent tasks. (shrink)