Aquinas

Reviews the historical origins and principal elements of Karl Rahner's critique of Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan. Argues that Rahner's critique fails to come to terms with the basic problematic of Trinitarian theology, and misunderstands the significance of Thomas Aquinas's achievement.

Aristotle, Aquinas, and Khajeh Nasir al-Din Tusi are representatives of the three periods and the worlds of thought, and all of them have played an important role in establishing or consolidating their ethical attitudes. In this essay, it was attempted to identify and analyze the highest virtues and the worst ethical vices from the perspective of each of these three wise and expert philosophers. For Aristotle, the highest virtue is justice and greed and the worst vice is oppression to friends. For Aquinas considers Caritas as the highest virtue of and the worst vice is the disappointment. Khajeh Naseer regards grace as the supreme ethical attribute and stinging as the worst, although envy and anger can also be considered as the worst vice in a rather vague interpretation. Comparing the results of the work, firstly, suggests that the views of Khajeh Nasir and Aquinas are close to each other, and secondly, Aristotle's has more sophisticated view to ethics and ethical virtues than two other thinkers.

In this paper, I will present Thomas Aquinas’ notion of participation as applied to the redemption brought by Christ. St Thomas makes use of the notion of participation in order to explain our participation in the sin of Adam. As we know from the Scriptures, it is by reason of that first sin that it was fitting that Christ became man in order to redeem all men by suffering in his nature all of the consequences of sin.  Out of love for us, Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the dead in order to destroy forever both, sin and death, which are the cause (sin) and the first effect (death) of all moral evils in the world. St. Thomas also teaches that it is by our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus that we attain redemption, through sanctifying grace while in this life, completed at the end of time through the participation in the resurrection of Christ, when those who were obedient to Him while on earth will rise to eternal life.  As we were all one in Adam, it is through obedience that we are one in Christ, the new Adam.

This article examines how St. Thomas Aquinas developed rich theological insights to be used ultimately in his preaching ministry as a thirteenth century magister in sacra pagina. His exegetical approach deploys a careful divisio textus to arrive at the
literal meaning and doctrinal sense of the scriptural passage. The ambiguities of difficult passages are examined dialectically by short logical disputations that uncover the riches of the text. The fruits of these labors were then brought together in the master’s university sermon for the conversion and perfection of souls. Thus, the three duties of the medieval master codified in the statutes of the University of Paris – namely, to teach, to dispute, and to preach – contextualize the task of the medieval theologian, rooting him in the revealed Word of God and requiring him to care for the souls of his students and colleagues in his preaching by announcing and explaining the sense and practical import of sacra doctrina. This article also examines the proximate historical source for these three duties as the practice of lectio divina was brought out of the monasteries and into the public sphere of the academies in the great cities of medieval Europe. There is much we could learn today from recovering this robustly ecclesial and pastoral way of pursuing biblical theology.

Artykuł analizuje, w jaki sposób bogaty dorobek teologiczny św. Tomasza
z Akwinu jest wykorzystywany w jego praktyce kaznodziejskiej jako XIII-wiecznego
“magister in sacra pagina”. Jego egzegetyczne podejście wyraża się w ostrożnym “divisio textus”, aby dotrzeć do dosłownego i doktrynalnego sensu danego tekstu biblijnego.  Ambiwalentne interpretacje trudnych tekstów są dialektycznie analizowane za pomocą krótkich, logicznych dysput odkrywających bogactwo tekstu. Owoce tej pracy były niejako zbierane w kazaniu średniowiecznego mistrza ukierunkowanym na nawrócenie i doskonalenie dusz. Trzy obowiązki średniowiecznego mistrza wyrażone w statutach Uniwersytetu Paryskiego – nauczanie, prowadzenie dysput oraz kaznodziejstwo – wskazują na zadania średniowiecznego teologa, zakorzeniając go w objawionym Słowie Boga i wymagając od niego troski o dusze swoich studentów i kolegów wyrażane w głoszenie sensu i praktycznych implikacji sacra doctrina. W artykule przeanalizowano także zródła historyczne dotyczące wspomnianych trzech obowiązków takie jak “lectio divina” przeprowadzana poza klasztorami, w publicznej sferze akademii w największych miastach Europy. Ten model eklezjalnej i pastoralnie ukierunkowanej teologii biblijnej może stanowić również wzór dla współczesnej jej kontynuatorki.

This paper looks at the revival of Aristotle in the Middle Ages, paying close attention to the distinction between ascending and descending themes of power and government. In the process it is shown how the recovery of Aristotle was a powerful stimulus to civic urbanism and democratic politics. Aquinas is shown to develop a powerful synthesis that managed to combine Christian supernaturalism and Aristotelian naturalism. Whilst this could buttress existing hierarchies in the short run, the implications for a more populist representation of power in the long run are developed.

In the second half of the twentieth century there has been an ongoing fascination with the “unreasonable effectiveness” of mathematics in natural science.  In the predominant contemporary metaphysical accounts of mathematical beings, that effectiveness is indeed condemned to remain a mystery.  While the Thomist account, in which mathematical objects are abstractions from the real category of quantity, does a great deal to explain the effectiveness of mathematics in describing the physical world, it was broadly rejected due to seeming incompatibilities with nineteenth and twentieth century developments in the logical foundations of mathematics.  The most historically important claims of incompatibility, however, are apparent rather than real, and reflect limitations in the claimants understanding of both Aquinas’s views and the implicit metaphysics of mathematical formulae.  I show this by first situating the Thomist position within contemporary debates in philosophy of mathematics, second illustrating the need for quantity in motivating accounts of number rich enough for analysis, and third showing that Thomism is not incompatible with the mathematical analyst’s need for infinite sets.

This MRP explores the concept of the will in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, and explains how his theory of the will influenced his ethical thought concerning nonhuman animals. Part one considers four theories of the will prior to Schopenhauer: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. This review enables the reader to understand the dramatic shift in the interpretation of the will and the role it plays in Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and ethics. Part two focuses on Schopenhauer’s interpretation of the will, which led to a dramatically enlightened animal ethic when compared to his predecessors. The final section of the MRP explores the question of why Schopenhauer’s thought has lacked receptivity, and posits further questions to be pursued regarding this topic.

Among the European “mirrors of the princes,” the work of Thomas Aquinas, On Kingship; or, On the Government of Princes, has a special place. Thanks to the author’s reputation, this text has become one of the most famous and influential in both European Late-Medieval Philosophy and Modern Political Philosophy. Among other things, this treatise has become a model for two famous works, both titled On the Government of Princes, and written by Ptolemy of Lucca, and Egidio Colonna. St. Thomas’ thought on tyranny, along with Bartolo’s concept presented in On the Tyrant, underlies the Modern European theory of tyranny. Within the frames of this article, the first book of Aquinas’ work is published in Russian for the first time. This book, which researchers often name The Theory of the Monarchy, contains the description of the good king and the tyrant, and both are part of a Thomistic analysis of a monarchy’s advantages. Chapters 7–9, where Aquinas discusses the worthy king’s reward for ruling in a true manner, occupies a special place in this book. The translation is accompanied by an extensive commentary which contains an explanation of the primary categories of Thomist political and social philosophy, such as the Multitude, Community, Kingship, Rulership, the City, etc.

It is commonly assumed that for Thomas Aquinas, intentionality (the characteristic of mental states such that they are “about” an object) has to do merely with mental representation (the characteristic of a mental state such that it is “like” an object). I contend, however, that this account ignores the role of attention, in the everyday sense of actively focusing on or taking interest in something.  In order to uncover Aquinas's view of how attention factors into intentionality, this chapter focuses on Aquinas treatment of the problem of mind-reading in "De Malo" 16.8.  There, under the heading of “whether the demons cognize our thoughts," he raises a version of what I will call the “mind-reading question”: namely, if Person A could directly observe the inner workings of Person B’s mind, would A be able to see what B is thinking about, i.e., read B’s mind?  His answer reveals the role of attention in determining the intentional direction of a thought.  This text also offers an interesting approach to navigating contemporary questions about “reading minds” through neuroimaging, and shows that he distinguishes between cognition as a certain metaphysical reality in a cognitive power that is observable "from the outside", vs. as a psychological phenomenon with a subjective perspective that can only be experienced "from the inside."

Autor(en): Molnar, Peter Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie = Revue philosophique et théologique de Fribourg = Rivista filosofica e teologica di Friburgo = Review of philosophy and theology of Fribourg Band (Jahr): 46 (1999) Heft 1-2 Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-761217 PDF erstellt am: 06.02.2020 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. Das Veröffentlichen von Bildern in Print-und Online-Publikationen ist nur mit vorheriger Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber erlaubt. Die systematische Speicherung von Teilen des elektronischen Angebots auf anderen Servern bedarf ebenfalls des schriftlichen Einverständnisses der Rechteinhaber. Haftungsausschluss Alle Angaben erfolgen ohne Gewähr für Vollständigkeit oder Richtigkeit. Es wird keine Haftung übernommen für Schäden durch die Verwendung von Informationen aus diesem Online-Angebot oder durch das Fehlen von Informationen. Dies gilt auch für Inhalte Dritter, die über dieses Angebot zugänglich sind. Ein Dienst der ETH-Bibliothek ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Schweiz, www.library.ethz.ch http://www.e-periodica.ch

This research seminar focuses on Aquinas’ treatise on human acts (Summa theologiae I-II.6-21), which represents one of the finest and most complex and sophisticated discussions of the principles of ethics in medieval philosophy. After briefly examining the psychological presuppositions to the treatise, which Aquinas lays out in Summa theologiae I.80-83, the course moves on to the treatise of human acts itself, starting with a detailed study of voluntariness in general (qq. 6-7) and a survey of the different aspects of the movement of the will (qq. 9-10), then passing on to a survey of the different psychological acts involved in a moral act (qq. 11-17), and ending with a study of the moral evaluation of human acts (qq. 18-21). Special attention will be given to both Aquinas’ commentators and to recent scholarship on the field. The course will involve significant research contribution on the part of the students, including the development of a student presentation and the submission of a research paper.

I am planning a history of the notion of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up.  Charles Pigden has argued that the notion goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant (on some interpretations) and pragmatists such as William James, as well as numerous Twentieth-Century philosophers make use of it.  In this ‘paper’ I put forward for general discussion such questions as whether Hobbes was the first 'nonsensicalist', whether Kant was a 'nonsensicalist' at all, which philosophers if any have considered contradictions to be meaningless and whether Wittgenstein thought that his concept of criterion could legitimately be used verificationistically.  I shall continue to add further questions as they occur to me.

Por ocasião das festas centenárias da morte de São Tomás, houve uma restauração e um rejuvenescimento do tomismo, de que todos participamos e aplaudimos, graças ao gigantesco impulso do grande Leão XIII, continuado por seus sucessores no Trono Pontifício e apoiado pela docilidade e pelos esforços dos católicos de boa vontade. Será estéril o centenário da sua canonização? Se isso fosse verdade, dever-se-ia dizer que a vida e a glória devem ser buscadas no sepulcro, e não nos altares. É dever dos católicos, e de modo singular dos da nossa Espanha, tornar fecundo este centenário com uma fecundidade maior do que passada, uma vez que-conforme disse belamente Leão XIII-são os espanhóis "que amam com fervor a memória do Doutor Angélico e entre os quais encontram-se, em todos os tempos, discípulos geniais e instruídos na filosofia tomista". 2 E como a fecundidade é uma propriedade da vida perfeita, e a vida não existe em abstrato, mas sim num sujeito vivo, é necessário concluir que a fecundidade do tomismo deve brotar da vida tomista perfeita existente nos tomistas perfeitos. Além disso, o tomismo não é algo animal ou vegetativo, mas essencialmente intelectual, o que significa que ele é reflexivo, consciente, íntimo, e que a vida intelectual é tanto mais perfeita quanto mais íntima e imanente, e, portanto, menos mecânica e rotineira. Daí que, à medida que cresce o conhecimento do verdadeiro espírito tomista, até possuir uma consciência plena do que é-conforme uma frase muito atual-, forçosamente também irá aumentar e se aperfeiçoar a vida tomista, até chegar à sua plenitude.

Throughout his writings, Thomas Aquinas exhibited a remarkable stability of thought. However, in some areas such as his theology of grace, his thought underwent titanic developments. In this book, Justin M. Anderson traces both those developments in grace and their causes. After introducing the various meanings of virtue Aquinas utilized, including'virtue in its fullest sense'and various forms of'qualified virtue', he explores the historical context that conditioned that account. Through a close analysis of his writings, Anderson unearths Aquinas's own discoveries and analyses that would propel his understanding of human experience, divine action, and supernatural grace in new directions. In the end, we discover an account of virtue that is inextricably linked to his developed understanding of sin, grace and divine action in human life. As such, Anderson challenges the received understanding of Aquinas's account of virtue, as well as his relationship to contemporary virtue ethics.

The author analyzes how Medieval culture and civilization in Europe was able to manage cultural, social and religious plurality and diversity without posing a threat to solidarity, openness, dynamism and the actual functioning of society using selected phenomena. The monograph explores questions connected with Medieval anthropology and the  concept of the relationship between the Church and society. Additional  chapters are dedicated to the Medieval Inquisition and the influence of Christianity on the social and economic arrangement of society and all of this from a transcultural perspective.

Thomas Aquinas holds that acquired and infused moral virtues are compatible. They can be had and used together by a Christian. More than that, they should be. For Thomas, Christians ought to pursue and use the acquired virtues. To fail to do so is a failure of discipleship. It is a failure of love. This view has recently come under attack. This article seeks to resolve that debate by defending and elucidating the compatibility of acquired and infused virtue and answering key objections raised by critics of this interpretation. I especially hope to show how the compatibilist interpretation actually honors many of the very commitments that motivate these critics. As it turns out, their best reasons for endorsing incompatibilism are really reasons to embrace the compatibilist interpretation. Moreover, the textual and theological case against incompatibilism seems compelling. I move in three steps: first, elucidating the grammar of habit specification; then filling out my argument and addressing objections; and finally, illustrating Thomas's vision and explaining why he would think Christians should pursue acquired virtue.

This study argues that Aquinas’ account of tyranny grants citizens a surprisingly wide ambit for resistance to tyrants but that such actions demand a tall order for even the most virtuous citizens: knowledge of the hierarchy of ends in politics and the prudence to apply it under the pressure of a tyrannical government. We consider sections of the Summa Theologiae and De Regno, Aquinas’ most sustained discussion of tyranny, to demonstrate the theoretical illumination that the former provides of the latter. De Regno, we argue, presents a negative teaching of the best regime and citizen, one in which citizens are shown the need for their own virtue in discerning the roots of tyranny and their remedy. With the Summa, we show how such prudential decisions fit within the orders of charity and piety: the citizen must come to see love of country as intrinsically ordered to love of family and God. Ultimately, Aquinas’ resistance theory rests on a hierarchy of ends for civil government that orders both ruler and citizen to God.

Recorrido histórico-filosófico de la filosofía de inspiración católica. Un libro dónde uno puede hacerse cargo de las raíces y el desarrollo de esta tradición. Se dedica especial atención a: Agustín de Hipona, Anselmo de Canterbury y Tomás de Aquino. Y se tienen en cuenta las aportaciones del Magisterio de la Iglesia. ¿Qué queda hoy de esa tradición? ¿Cómo puede contribuir a la formación de la cultura contemporánea?

Este curso examina el culto divino desde una perspectíva filosófica, basándose en los textos de Tomás de Aquino.  El curso tiene dos partes.  En la primera parte del curso se estudia el trasfondo doctrinal del tratado de la religión de la Suma Teológica (II-II.81-100).  Esto se logra en tres secciones.  Primero (1.1) se estudia el contexto histórico (que acabamos de esbozar arriba) a profundidad, donde el enfoque es la naturaleza filosófica del tema del culto divino.  Luego se analiza el contexto doctrinal de la síntesis tomista sobre el tema, especialmente (1.2) el tratado de los actos humanos (ST I-II.6-21), donde se explican los tres determinantes morales de un acto humano (objeto, fin, y circunstancias), tratado que muchos consideran la parte más esencial y original de la doctrina ética de Santo Tomás de Aquino.  Y finalmente (1.3) se estudia la doctrina tomista sobre las virtudes, con especial enfoce en las partes potenciales de (o ‘virtudes anexas a’) la virtud de la justicia.  En la segunda mitad del curso, se examinará primero (2.1) la doctrina del Santo sobre la virtud de la religión en sí misma, pasando principalmente a través del tratado de la virtud de la religión (ST II-II.81) aunque, para entender dicho texto a una profundidad adecuada, se examinarán otros textos dentro  y fuera de la ST  relacionados al tema.  Luego se estudian los actos particulares de la religión (ST II-II.82-89).  Y finalmente el curso cierra con una cuestión disputada: la finalidad de la religión.

Anuario Filosófico 48 (2015), 79-102.

In his Commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate 3.1, Aquinas cites Maimonides as giving five reasons for the need for faith. Yet when one turns to The Guide for the Perplexed 1.33-34, one immediately sees that Maimonides is actually giving five reasons for why the study of metaphysics, which he considers to be the ultimate path to human perfection, must be restricted to the learned and must be hidden from the unlearned masses. Interpreters tend to see Aquinas as therefore misappropriating Maimonides’ thought, or in the words of one scholar, as “standing Maimonides on his head”: his use of Maimonides is seen as a reversal (albeit a “benign reversal”) of Maimonides’ own thought. In this paper, however, the author places Maimonides’ text on these five reasons for concealing metaphysics within the context of his rational mysticism and compares it to Aquinas’ own Christian mystical thought in an attempt to show that in his own mind Aquinas is not misquoting, reversing, or doing violence to Maimonides’ text; rather, Aquinas is completing Maimonides’ natural, rational mysticism with what he understands to be the supernatural perfection of the theological virtue of faith.

This paper examines the methodology employed by Thomas Aquinas in his two derivations of the categories, or sufficientiae. In these accounts, he shows the distinctiveness of the ten Aristotelian categories as modes of being (modi essendi) through an analysis of modes of predication (modi praedicandi).  The paper considers why Aquinas sees this logical method of predication (via praedicationis) to be an appropriate tool for the metaphysician.  Similarities between Aquinas’s and Albert’s sufficientiae are shown to clarify Aquinas’s methodology. In particular, the paper examines how both thinkers employ modes of denominative predication and modes of opposition to derive the categories.  The paper not only reveals Aquinas’s full methodology in his sufficientiae, but it also provides further insight into how he uses logical methods in general in his metaphysical investigations.

Thomistic Hylomorphists claim that we human persons have rational or intellective souls which can continue to exist separately from our bodies after we die.  Much of the recent scholarly discussion of Thomistic Hylomorphism has centered on this thesis and the question of whether human persons can survive death along with their souls or whether only their souls can survive in this separated, disembodied, post-mortem state.  As a result, two rival versions of Thomistic Hyomorphism have been formulated: Survivalism and Corruptionism.  This chapter makes a new contribution to the debate between Survivalists and Corruptionists by identifying a heretofore undiscussed problem for Corruptionist Thomistic Hylomorphism.  In particular, it is argued that if Corruptionists were right that human persons cannot survive their deaths along with their souls, this would undermine the grounds on which all Thomistic Hylomorphists, including Corruptionists, rely to justify their belief that our souls can continue to exist after our deaths.  Given this, it is argued that Thomistic Hylomorphists have grounds for thinking that our souls can continue to exist after our deaths only if they allow, as Survivalists do and Corruptionists do not, that we human persons can continue to exist after our deaths, with souls but no bodies.