Written and edited by leading scholars in the field, this collection explores Aquinas' continuing relevance to contemporary theology and his ability to enlighten inter- and intra-faith dialogue.
Explores Aquinas' continuing relevance to contemporary theology.
Looks at how Aquinas illuminates dialogue both among Christians and between Christians and non-Christians today.
Written by both scholars of Aquinas and those who are actively involved in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.
Topics range from Aquinas and Eastern Orthodoxy to Aquinas and atheism.
Helps us to think rigorously about what is required to speak truthfully to people with different beliefs.

This book studies the various definitions of animal nature proposed by nineteenth-century currents of thought in France. It is based on an examination of a number of key thinkers and writers, some well known (for example, Michelet and Lamartine), others largely forgotten (for example, Gleizes and Reynaud). At the centre of the book lies the idea that knowledge of animals is often knowledge of something else, that the primary referentiality is overlaid with additional levels of meaning. In nineteenth-century France thinking about animals (their future and their past) became a way of thinking about power relations in society, for example about the status of women and the problem of the labouring classes. This book analyses how animals as symbols externalize and mythologize human fears and wishes, but it also demonstrates that animals have an existence in and for themselves and are not simply useful counters functioning within discourse.

This volume is a collection of essays on a special theme in Aristotelian philosophy of mind: the internal senses. The first part of the volume is devoted to the central question of whether or not any internal senses exist in Aristotle's philosophy of mind and, if so, how many and how they are individuated. The provocative claim of chapter one is that Aristotle recognizes no such internal sense. His medieval Latin interpreters, on the other hand, very much thought that Aristotle did introduce a number of internal senses as shown in the second chapter. The second part of the volume contains a number of case studies demonstrating the philosophical background of some of the most influential topics covered by the internal senses in the Aristotelian tradition and in contemporary philosophy of mind. The focus of the case studies is on memory, imagination and estimation. Chapters introduce the underlying mechanisms of memory and recollection taking its cue from Aristotle but reaching into early modern philosophy as well as studying composite imagination in Avicenna's philosophy of mind. Further topics include the Latin reception of Avicenna's estimative faculty and the development of the internal senses as well as offering an account of the logic of objects of imagination.

Were the most serious philosophers of the millennium 200 A.D. to 1200 A.D. just confused mystics? This book shows otherwise. John Martin rehabilitates Neoplatonism, founded by Plotinus and brought into Christianity by St. Augustine. The Neoplatonists devise ranking predicates like good, excellent, perfect to divide the Chain of Being, and use the predicate intensifier hyper so that it becomes a valid logical argument to reason from God is not (merely) good to God is hyper-good. In this way the relational facts underlying reality find expression in Aristotle's subject-predicate statements, and the Platonic tradition proves able to subsume Aristotle's logic while at the same time rejecting his metaphysics. In the Middle Ages when Aristotle's larger philosophy was recovered and joined again to the Neoplatonic tradition which was never lost, Neoplatonic logic lived along side Aristotle's metaphysics in a sometime confusing and unsettled way. Showing Neoplatonism to be significantly richer in its logical and philosophical ideas than it is usually given credit for, this book will be of interest not just to historians of logic, but to philosophers, logicians, linguists, and theologians.

Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas III is Msgr. John Wippel's third volume dedicated to the metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. After an introduction, this volume of collected essays begins with Wippel's interpretation of the discovery of the subject of metaphysics by a special kind of judgment ("separation"). In subsequent chapters, Wippel turns to the relationship between faith and reason, exploring what are known as the preambles of faith. This is followed by two chapters on the important contributions by Cornelio Fabro on Aquinas's distinction between essence and esse and on participation. The volume continues with articles on Aquinas's view of creation as a preamble of faith, Aquinas's much-disputed defense of unicity of substantial form in creatures, his account of the separated soul's natural knowledge, and Aquinas's understanding of evil in his De Malo 1. The volume concludes with an article comparing Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Godfrey of Fontaines on the metaphysical composition of angelic beings. Most of these issues were disputed during Aquinas's time by some of his contemporaries, and the proper understanding of each continues to be debated by various students of his thought today. Wippel's purpose, therefore, is to help clarify our understanding of Aquinas's thought on each of these topics, a task that requires the careful analysis of primary sources and of secondary literature and attention to the relative chronology of his writing.

In this volume leading contemporary philosophical historians of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods examine the works of important figures of the fifteenth through the eighteenth century. While "Midwest Studies in Philosophy" has produced other volumes devoted to historical periods in philosophy, this is the first to offer such extensive and focused original materials on specific crucial figures as this volume. Original papers by twenty contemporary philosophers writing about the works of the major philosophers of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth centuriesThis historically and philosophically broad collection extends from such fifteenth century figures as Ficino, Machiavelli, and Pompanazzi to the work of Montesquieu in the eighteenth century

Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher as well as theologian, bishop and saint. He aimed to practice philosophy not simply as an academic discipline but as a love for divine wisdom pervading everything in his life and work. To inquire into Augustine and philosophy is thus to get to the heart of his concerns as a Christian writer and uncover some of the reasons for his vast influence on Western thought. This volume, containing essays by leading Augustine scholars, includes a variety of inquiries into Augustine's philosophy in theory and practice, as well as his relation to philosophers before and after him. It opens up a variety of perspectives into the heart of Augustine's thought. He frequently reminds his readers, "philosophy" means love of wisdom, and in that sense he expects that every worthy impulse in human life will have something philosophical about it, something directed toward the attainment of wisdom. In Augustine's own writing we find this expectation put into practice in a stunning variety of ways, as keys themes of Western philosophy and intricate forms of philosophical argument turn up everywhere. The collection of essays in this book examines just a few aspects of the relation of Augustine and philosophy, both in Augustine's own practice as a philosopher and in his interaction with others. The result is not one picture of the relation of Augustine and philosophy but many, as the authors of these essays ask many different questions about Augustine and his influence, and bring a large diversity of interests and expertise to their task. Thus the collection shows that Augustine's philosophy remains an influence and a provocation in a wide variety of settings today.

William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347) is known to be one of the major figures of the late Middle Ages. The scope and significance of his doctrine of human thought, however, has been a controversial issue among scholars in the last decade, and this book presents a full discussion of recent developments. Claude Panaccio proposes a richly documented and entirely original reinterpretation of Ockham's theory of concepts as a coherent blend of representationalism, conceptual atomism, and non reductionist nominalism, stressing in the process its special interest for current discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences.

This book explores how Iban al-'Arabi (1165-1240) used the concept of barzakh (the Limit) to deal with the philosophical problem of the relationship between God and the world, a major concept disputed in ancient and medieval Islamic thought. The term barzakh indicates the activity or actor that differentiates between things and that, paradoxically, then provides the context of their unity. Author Salman H. Bashier looks at early thinkers and shows how the synthetic solutions they developed provided the groundwork for Ibn al-'Arabi's unique concept of barzakh. Bashier discusses Ibn al-'Arabi's development of the concept of barzakh ontologically through the notion of the Third Thing and epistemologically through the notion of the Perfect Man, and compares Ibn al-'Arabi's vision with Plato's.

A conversational text that addresses many philosophical concepts as well as Western religion by questioning good versus evil and the unnecessary suffering of innocent people. Anicius Boethius draws from his own experiences to illustrate these spiritual and ethical struggles. In The Consolation of Philosophy the author engages in a figurative discussion with Lady Philosophy, a type of teacher. Through their exchange, he poses serious questions regarding the existence of God and human nature. He also acknowledges his own dire circumstances, contemplating the hardships and trauma. Many counterpoints are tied to ideals such as the Wheel of Fortune, highlighting inconsistent and often unfair outcomes. He also focuses on the importance of intangible gifts such as love and intelligence. The Consolation of Philosophy is an honest analysis of the nature of happiness. It forces the reader to face hard truths about their wants versus needs. It's a sobering examination of the unpredictable structure of life. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Consolation of Philosophy is both modern and readable.

Ockham Explained is an important and much-needed resource on William of Ockham, one of the most important philosophers of the Middle Ages. His eventful and controversial life was marked by sharp career moves and academic and ecclesiastical battles. At 28, Ockham was a conservative English theologian focused obsessively on the nature of language, but by 40, he had transformed into a fugitive friar, accused of heresy, and finally protected by the German emperor as he composed incendiary treatises calling for strong limits on papal authority. This book provides a thorough grounding in Ockham's life and his many contributions to philosophy. It begins with an overview of the philosopher's youth and the Aristotelian philosophy he studied as a boy. Subsequent chapters cover his ideas on language and logic; his metaphysics and vaunted "razor," as well as his opponents' "anti-razor" theories; his invention of the church-state separation; and much more. The concluding chapter sums up Ockham's compelling philosophical personality and explains his modern appeal.

In the second decade of the twentieth century the cultural life of Germany was transformed by the emergence of Expressionism, a series of vigorous, youthful artistic movements which were to exert a lasting influence on modern culture. In the same decade a young Swiss pastor called Karl Barth began a theological revolution, laying the foundations for probably the most influential body of Christian theology in the modern age. Some relationship between these two revolutions has long been assumed by scholars; yet it has never been examined in detail. The first part of this study addresses this omission, offering the most detailed analysis to date of the important relationship between Barth and Expressionism. The second part of the book takes a broader look at both Barth's theology and Expressionist culture, considering the relevance of the Enlightenment as a context for both. The key to this is a detailed discussion of Barth's own analysis of the Enlightenment in his neglected book Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century. Barth's view is also compared with Alasdair MacIntyre's treatment of the Enlightenment in After Virtue. The examination of these two contexts, German Expressionism and the Enlightenment, yields valuable insights into Barth's entire theological project.

This comprehensive reference volume features essays by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field. This volume is organized into two sections. In the first, essays cover the historical context within which philosophy in the Middle Ages developed. Topics include the ancient philosophical legacy, the patristic background, the School of Chartres, religious orders, scholasticism, and the condemnation of various views in Paris in the thirteenth century. Within these clear, jargon-free expositions, the authors make the latest scholarship available while also presenting their own distinctive perspectives. The second section is composed of alphabetically arranged entries on 138 philosophically significant authors - European, Jewish, and Arabic - living between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. These essays contain biographical information, summaries of significant philosophical arguments and viewpoints, and conclude with bibliographies of both primary and secondary sources. "A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages" is extensively cross-referenced and indexed, constituting a complete source of information for students and professionals alike.

A milestone in the study of value in human life and thought, written by one of the world's preeminent living philosophers The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature is a philosophical investigation of the moral potentialities and sensibilities of human beings, of the meaning of human life, and of the place of death in life. It is an essay in philosophical anthropology: the study of the conceptual framework in terms of which we think about, speak about, and investigate homo sapiens as a social and cultural animal. This volume examines the diversity of values in human life and the place of moral value within the varieties of values. Its subject is the nature of good and evil and our propensity to virtue and vice. Acting as the culmination of five decades of reflection on the philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and human nature, this volume: Concludes Hacker's acclaimed Human Nature tetralogy: Human Nature: The Categorial Framework, The Intellectual Powers: A Study of Human Nature, and The Passions: A Study of Human Nature Discusses traditional ideas about ethical value and addresses misconceptions held by philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive neuroscientists The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature is required reading philosophers of mind, ethicists, psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and any general reader wanting to understand the nature of value and the place of ethics in human lives.

This book examines the studies of Aristotle's Poetics and related texts in which three Medieval philosophers proposed a conception of poetic validity (beauty), and a just relation between subjects in a community (goodness).

This is the second of the three volumes comprising "Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe." Focusing on the period from c.1090 to 1212, the volume explores the lives, resources and contributions of a wide sample of scholars and others who either took part in the creation of the scholastic system of thought or gave practical effect to it in public life.

At the beginning of the twelfth century a group of scholars, mostly centred on Paris and Bologna began an enterprise of unprecedented scope. Their intention was to produce a once-and-for-all body of knowledge that would be as perfect as humanity's fallen state permits, and which would provide a view of God, nature, and human conduct, promoting order in this world and blessedness in the next. "Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe" reconsiders this enterprise, and its long-term effects on European history.

The first of the three volumes examines the origins of the intellectual enterprise from around 1060 AD. This second volume focuses on the period during which scholars developed the fully-fledged method of absorbing, elaborating, Christianizing and systematizing the whole intellectual deposit of the Greco-Roman past to produce a complete body of doctrine about both the natural and supernatural worlds which would be not only rationally unassailable and doctrinally coherent, but also capable of being given practical application in organizing and governing the whole of western Christendom.

The book discusses the contributions of individual masters involved in the intellectual project, tracing the progress of the enterprise from its scholastic origins under Anselm of Laon, to the main masters in the schools ofParis during the 1090s to c.1160, including men such as Peter Lombard, Peter Abelard, John of Salisbury and the two Peters of Blois. These scholars created a crucial bond between the schools and organized life of European society. The men educated in the great schools during this time brought their scholastic learning to governmental aims and activities, extending the influence of the schools and their intellectual project to the wider world.

Elegantly written, enlivened with wit and vivid anecdote, "Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe" will be a work of seminal importance for the understanding of the civilization of the Middle Ages, and of the evolution of modern European societies.

Contents:
Chapters:
1. Boethius: from antiquity to the Middle Ages
2. From the beginnings to Avicenna
3. Averroes
4. Jewish philosophy
5. Philosophy and its background in the early medieval West
6. John Scottus Eriugena and Anselm of Canterbury
7. The twelfth century
8. The intellectual context of later medieval philosophy: universities, Aristotle, arts, theology
9. Metaphysics and science in the thirteenth century: William of Auvergne, Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon
10. Bonaventure, the German Dominicans and the new translations
11. Thomas Aquinas
12. The Paris arts faculty: Siger of Brabant, Boethius of Facia, Radulphus Brito
13. Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus
14. Ockham's World and future
15. Walter Burley, Peter Aureoli and Gregory of Rimini
16. Paris and Oxford between Aureoli and Rimini
17. Late medieval logic
18. Late medieval philosophy, 1350-1500
19. Suárez (and later scholasticism)

The medieval philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) was one of the great thinkers of Western intellectual culture, exerting a considerable influence over many centuries. He had a genius for original and subtle philosophical analysis, with the motive behind his philosophical method being his faith. His texts are famous not only for their complexity, but also for their brilliance, their systematic precision, and the profound faith revealed. The texts presented in this new commentary show that Scotus' thought is not moved by a love for the abstract or technical, but that a high level of abstraction and technicality was needed for his precise conceptual analysis of Christian faith. Presenting a selection of nine fundamental theological texts of Duns Scotus, some translated into English for the first time, this book provides detailed commentary on each text to reveal Scotus' conception of divine goodness and the nature of the human response to that goodness. Following an introduction which includes an overview of Scotus' life and works, the editors highlight Scotus' theological insights, many of which are explored here for the first time, and shed new light on topics which were, and still are, hotly discussed. Scotus is seen to be the first theologian in the history of Christian thought who succeeds in developing a consistent conceptual framework for the conviction that both God and human beings are essentially free. Offering unique insights into Scotus' theological writings and faith, and a particular contribution to contemporary debate on Scotus' ethics, this book contributes to a clearer understanding of the whole of Scotus' thought.

Contents:
1. The philosophy of the Italian Renaissance
2. Renaissance philosophy outside Italy
3. Science and mathematics from the Renaissance to Descartes
4. Francis Bacon and man's two-faced kingdom
5. Descartes: methodology
6. Descartes: metaphysics and philosophy of mind
7. Seventeenth-century materialism: Gassendi and Hobbes
8. Spinoza: metaphysics and knowledge
9. The moral and political philosophy of Spinoza
10. Occasionalism
11. Leibniz: truth, knowledge and metaphysics

Originally published in 1992 The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy is an annotated bibliography looking at the scholarship generated by the translations of the works of Boethius. The book looks at translations which were produced in medieval England, France, and Germany and addresses the influence exercised by Boethius, which extended into almost every area of medieval intellectual and artistic life. The book acts in two ways, as a whole the book acts as a bibliography and study of the European tradition of Consolatio translations, but viewed on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it is a collection of independent bibliographies on the individual vernacular traditions. The book contains separate chapters looking at the Consolatio traditions of medieval France and Germany.

With the publication of Arthur Farndell's "Gardens of Philosophy" (Shepheard-Walwyn 2006), there remained only four of Ficino's commentaries on Plato's dialogues which had not yet been translated into English. Farndell's translation of the commentaries on "The Republic and the Laws" will comprise the third volume under the title "When Philosophers Rule" and the fourth, "All Things Natural", will contain the "Timaeus". As Carol Kaske of Cornell University wrote when reviewing "Gardens of Philosophy" in "Renaissance Quarterly", these translations fill 'A need. Even those Anglophone scholars who know Latin still need a translation in order to read quickly through a large body of material'. The central message of 'Parmenides', that everything depends on the One, resonates with the growing awareness around the world of the inter-relatedness of all things, be it in the biosphere, the intellectual or spiritual realms. Philosophers in ancient Greece appreciated this unity and employed reason and dialectic to draw the mind away from its preoccupation with the material world and attract it towards contemplation of the soul, and ultimately of that Oneness which embraces, but is distinct from, the multifarious forms of creation. Thus Parmenides carefully instructed the young Socrates, and Plato recorded their dialogue in this work which he named after the elderly philosopher. Nearly 2000 years later, Marsilio Ficino made 'Parmenides' available to the West by translating it into Latin, the language of scholars in his time. Ficino added a lengthy commentary to this translation, a commentary which "Evermore Shall Be So" puts into English for the first time, more than 500 years after its original composition. Ficino's crucial influence upon the unfolding of the Renaissance and his presentation of Plato's understanding of the One and the so-called Platonic Ideas or Forms make "Evermore Shall Be So" an important work in the history of thought. Though it will be an essential buy for renaissance scholars and historians, its freshness of thought and wisdom are as relevant today as they ever were to inspire a new generation seeking spiritual and philosophical direction in their lives.

The whole work will be in three volumes . This first volume explores the social, intellectual, and political conditions behind the establishment of the new system in the great schools of learning in France and Italy, and the rewards that attracted experts who could both administer the system and make it known and acceptable to the generality of people whose lives were affected by it.

In the 20th century theorists of mind were almost exclusively concerned with various versions of the materialist thesis, but prior to current debates accounts of soul and mind reveal an extraordinary richness and complexity which bear careful and impartial investigation. This book is the first single-authored, comprehensive work to examine the historical, linguistic and conceptual issues involved in exploring the basic features of the human mind - from its most remote origins to the beginning of the modern period. MacDonald traces the development of an armature of psychical concepts from the Old Testament and Homer's works to the 18th century advocacy of an empirical science of the mind. Along the way, detailed attention is paid to the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicurus, before turning to look at the New Testament, Neoplatonism, Augustine, Medieval Islam, Aquinas and Dante. Treatment of Renaissance theories is followed by an unusual (perhaps unique) chapter on the words "soul" and "mind" in English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare; the story then rejoins the mainstream with analyses of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Chapter-focused bibliographies.

Leading figures at the dawn of the sixteenth-century Reformation commonly faced the charge of "judaizing": 72 In His Name concerns the changing views of four such men starting with their kabbalistic treatment of the 72 divine names of angels. Johann Reuchlin, the first of the four men featured in this book, survived the charge; Martin Luther's increasingly anti-semitic stance is contrasted with the opposite movement of the French Franciscan Jean Thenaud whose kabbalistic manuscripts were devoted to Francis I; Philipp Wolff, the fourth, had been born into a Jewish family but his recorded views were decidedly anti-semitic. 72 In His Name also includes evidence that kabbalistic beliefs and practices, such as the service for exorcism recorded by Thenaud, were unwittingly recorded by Christians. Although the book concerns early modern Europe, the religious interactions, the shifting spiritual attitudes, and the shadows cast linger on.