A rich examination of the influence of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas on James JoyceIn this book, Fran O'Rourke examines the influence of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas on James Joyce, arguing that both thinkers fundamentally shaped the philosophical outlook which pervades the author's oeuvre. O'Rourke demonstrates that Joyce was a philosophical writer who engaged creatively with questions of diversity and unity, identity, permanence and change, and the reliability of knowledge. Beginning with an introduction to each thinker, the book traces Joyce's discovery of their works and his concrete engagement with their thought. Aristotle and Aquinas equipped Joyce with fundamental principles regarding reality, knowledge, and the soul, which allowed him to shape his literary characters. Joyce appropriated Thomistic concepts to elaborate an original and personal aesthetic theory. O'Rourke provides an annotated commentary on quotations from Aristotle which Joyce entered into his famous Early Commonplace Book and outlines their crucial significance for his writings. He also provides an authoritative evaluation of Joyce's application of Aquinas's aesthetic principles. The first book to comprehensively illuminate the profound impact of both the ancient and medieval thinker on the modernist writer, Joyce, Aristotle, and Aquinas offers readers a rich understanding of the intellectual background and philosophical underpinnings of Joyce's work.

A rich examination of the influence of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas on James JoyceIn this book, Fran O'Rourke examines the influence of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas on James Joyce, arguing that both thinkers fundamentally shaped the philosophical outlook which pervades the author's oeuvre. O'Rourke demonstrates that Joyce was a philosophical writer who engaged creatively with questions of diversity and unity, identity, permanence and change, and the reliability of knowledge. Beginning with an introduction to each thinker, the book traces Joyce's discovery of their works and his concrete engagement with their thought. Aristotle and Aquinas equipped Joyce with fundamental principles regarding reality, knowledge, and the soul, which allowed him to shape his literary characters. Joyce appropriated Thomistic concepts to elaborate an original and personal aesthetic theory. O'Rourke provides an annotated commentary on quotations from Aristotle which Joyce entered into his famous Early Commonplace Book and outlines their crucial significance for his writings. He also provides an authoritative evaluation of Joyce's application of Aquinas's aesthetic principles. The first book to comprehensively illuminate the profound impact of both the ancient and medieval thinker on the modernist writer, Joyce, Aristotle, and Aquinas offers readers a rich understanding of the intellectual background and philosophical underpinnings of Joyce's work.

Although Pseudo-Dionysius was, after Aristotle, the author whom Thomas Aquinas quoted most frequently, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of this Neoplatonist thinker in the formation of Aquinas' philosophy. Fran O'Rourke's book is the only available work that investigates the pervasive influence of Pseudo-Dionysius on Aquinas, while at the same time examining the latter's profound originality. Central themes discussed by O'Rourke include knowledge of the absolute, existence as the first and most universal perfection, the diffusion of creation, the hierarchy of creatures, and their return to God as final end. O'Rourke devotes special attention to the Neoplatonist element in Aquinas' notion of "being" as intensity or degree of perfection. He also considers the relation of being and goodness in light of Aquinas' nuanced reversal of Dionysius' theory of the primacy of the good, and Aquinas' arguments for the transcendental nature of goodness.

Voices on Joyce gathers together interpretations of Joyce's work by scholars in a wide span of disciplines: music, history, literature, philosophy, sport, geography, modern languages, economics, theatre studies and law. The depth and range of James Joyce's relationship with key historical, intellectual and cultural issues in the early twentieth century are explored, including: the growth of Dublin as a city, the advance of Irish separatist nationalism, criminal trials in late nineteenth-century Ireland, the influence of Classical authors such as Aristotle and Ovid, the Irish Literary Revival, the value of operatic music, notions of the aesthetic and of a democratic readership, and the history and social import of Jewish communities and traditions. The twenty essays in this collection draw out the openness and pluralism of Joyce's writing and underscore the need for readings of his work from a large variety of diverging perspectives. The wide ranging voices in this collection are composed by present and former UCD academics, and constitute a unique reckoning with the legacy of Joyce by members of his alma mater.A portrait of Joyce emerges as a writer deeply embedded in Irish intellectual discourses and as a figure of vital on-going importance in the social and cultural debates of twenty-first century Ireland. Photos interleaving the essays by the modernist and photojournalist, Lee Miller, taken in Dublin in 1946, provide vivid images of Joycean locations and of their artistic reimagining.

What Happened in and to Moral Philosophy in the Twentieth Century? is a volume of essays originally presented at University College Dublin in 2009 to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Alasdair MacIntyre-a protagonist at the center of that very question. What marks this collection is the unusual range of approaches and perspectives, representing divergent and even contradictory positions. Such variety reflects MacIntyre's own intellectual trajectory, which led him to engage successively with various schools of thought: analytic, Marxist, Christian, atheist, Aristotelian, Augustinian, and Thomist. This collection presents a unique profile of twentieth-century moral philosophy and is itself an original contribution to ongoing debate. The volume begins with Alasdair MacIntyre's fascinating philosophical self-portrait, "On Having Survived the Academic Moral Philosophy of the Twentieth Century," which charts his own intellectual development. The first group of essays considers MacIntyre's revolutionary contribution to twentieth-century moral philosophy: its value in understanding and guiding human action, its latent philosophical anthropology, its impetus in the renewal of the Aristotelian tradition, and its application to contemporary interests. The next group of essays considers the complementary and competing traditions of emotivism, Marxism, Thomism, and phenomenology. A third set of essays presents thematic analyses of such topics as evolutionary ethics, accomplishment and just desert, relativism, evil, and the inescapability of ethics. MacIntyre responds with a final essay, "What Next?" which addresses questions raised by contributors to the volume.

From 1968 until his death in 2003, Gerald Hanratty was professor of philosophy at University College Dublin. In this volume dedicated to his memory, Fran O'Rourke has assembled twenty-six essays reflecting Hanratty's broad philosophical interests, dealing with central questions of human existence and the ultimate meaning of the universe. Whether engaged in historical investigations into Gnosticism or the Enlightenment, Hanratty was concerned with fundamental themes in the philosophy of religion and philosophical anthropology. Human Destinies brings together a wide range of approaches to these central questions. Included are historical studies of classical thinkers of the ancient and medieval periods (Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas) and studies of numerous modern authors (among them, Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, Marcel, Adorno, Derrida, Plantinga, Scruton, and many others). Contributors: Fran O'Rourke, Peter L. P. Simpson, Rowland Stout, Andrew Smith, Eoin G. Cassidy, Cyril O'Regan, Michael Nolan, Patrick Masterson, Tim Lynch, James R. O'Shea, Ciaran McGlynn, Maria Baghramian, Mark Dooley, Brendan Purcell, Brendan Sweetman, Ciaran Benson, Richard Kearney, Dermot Moran, Belinda McKeon, Brian Elliott, Eileen Brennan, Liberato Santoro-Brienza, Brian O'Connor, Timothy Mooney, David Walsh, and Gerard Casey.

Although Pseudo-Dionysius was, after Aristotle, the author whom Thomas Aquinas quoted most frequently, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of this Neoplatonist thinker in the formation of Aquinas' philosophy. Fran O'Rourke's book is the only available work that investigates the pervasive influence of Pseudo-Dionysius, yet the profound originality of Aquinas. Central themes discussed by O'Rourke include knowledge of the absolute, existence as the first and most universal perfection, the diffusion of creation, the hierarchy of creatures, and their return to God as final end. O'Rourke devotes special attention to the Neoplatonist element in Aquinas' notion of being as intensity or degree of perfection. He also considers the relation of being and goodness in light of Aquinas' nuanced reversal of Dionysius' theory of the primacy of the good; and Aquinas' arguments for the transcendental nature of goodness. The University of Notre Press is pleased to make this significant work available for the first time in paperback.