McInerny revisits the basics of Thomas's teachings and offers a brief, intelligible, and persuasive summary.

A patient and faithful working of primary Thomistic texts, this volume.

In this book, renowned philosopher Ralph McInerny sets out to review what Thomas meant by the phrase and to defend a robust understanding of Thomas's teaching on the subject.

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

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 ...

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.

Peter Abelard (1079–1142 ce) was the most wide‐ranging philosopher of the twelfth century. He quickly established himself as a leading teacher of logic in and near Paris shortly after 1100. After his affair with Heloise, and his subsequent castration, Abelard became a monk, but he returned to teaching in the Paris schools until 1140, when his work was condemned by a Church Council at Sens. His logical writings were based around discussion of the “Old Logic”: Porphyry's Isagoge, aristotle'S Categories and (...) On Interpretation and boethius'S textbook on topical inference. They comprise a freestanding Dialectica (“Logic”; probably c.1116), a set of commentaries (known as the Logica [Ingredientibus], c. 1119) and a later (c. 1125) commentary on the Isagoge (Logica Nostrorum Petititoni Sociorum or Glossulae). In a work Abelard called his Theologia, issued in three main versions (between 1120 and c.1134), he attempted a logical analysis of trinitarian relations and explored the philosophical problems surrounding God's claims to omnipotence and omniscience. The Collationes (“Debates,” also known as “Dialogue between a Christian, a Philosopher and a Jew”; probably c.1130) present a rational investigation into the nature of the highest good, in which the Christian and the Philosopher (who seems to be modeled on a philosopher of pagan antiquity) are remarkably in agreement. The unfinished Scito teipsum (“Know thyself,” also known as the “Ethics”; c.1138) analyses moral action. (shrink)

While many 20th-century fads in philosophy and theology have come and gone, McInerny's faith in Aristotelian-Thomism was boldly prophetic. His defenses of natural theology and law helped to create dialogue between theists and non-theists, and to provide a philosophical basis for Catholic theology.

_Distinguer pour unir, ou Les degrés du savoir_ was first published in 1932 by Jacques Maritain. In this new translation of _The Degrees of Knowledge_, Ralph McInerny attempts a more careful expression of Maritain's original masterpiece than previous translations. Maritain proposes a hierarchy of the forms of knowledge by discussing the degrees of rational and suprarational understanding. Nine appendices, some longer than the chapters of the book, advance Maritain's thought, often by taking on criticism of earlier editions of the work. (...) Rightly called Maritain's cardinal work, _The Degrees of Knowledge_ is a magnificent and sagacious achievement. Jacques Maritain's masterpiece proposes a hierarchy of forms of knowledge that culminate in mystical experience and wisdom, which is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Maritain argues that the intellectual life is meant to be complemented by the spiritual life and should culminate in sanctity. (shrink)

In the mid-1260s in Paris, a dispute raged that concerned the relationship between faith and the Augustinian theological tradition on the one side and secular leaning as represented by the arrival in Latin of Aristotle and various Islamic and Jewish interpreters of Aristotle on the other. Masters of the arts faculty in Paris represented the latter tradition, indicated by the phrase "double truth theory." In 1269, Thomas Aquinas wrote the polemical work On There Being Only One Intellect, Against the Averroists (...) (De unitate intellectus contra averroistas). Thomas is intent on countering two views: first, that intellect is not a faculty of the soul that animates our body, and second, that there is a single intellect existing separately that suffices for all people. Brief as it is, this work puts into play all the significant strands of Thomas's teaching on man - historical doctrinal, philosophical, and theological. It is a valuable source for discussing Thomas's views on the relationship between Aristotle and Christianity and puts to rest the misleading claim that Thomas baptized Aristotle." The introduction places the work historically and sketches the controversy to which it was a contribution. Part 2 includes the Latin Leonine text and McInerny's translation. Part 3 analyzes the basic arguments of Thomas's work and provides a series of interpretive essays meant to make Thomas accessible to today's readers. (shrink)

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)

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)

v. 1. Beginnings to Plotinus.--v. 2. Philosophy from St. Augustine to Ockham.--v. 3. Renaissance to the Romantic Age.--v. 4. Philosophy from the Romantic Age to the Age of Positivism.--v. 5. Philosophy from the Age of Positivism to the Age of Analysis.

The ISI Guides to the Major Disciplines are reader-friendly introductions to the most important fields of knowledge in the liberal arts. Written by leading scholars for both students and the general public, they will be appreciated by anyone desiring a reliable and informative tour of important subject matter. Each title offers an historical overview of a particular discipline, explains the central ideas of each subject, and evaluates the works of thinkers whose ideas have shaped our world. They will aid students (...) seeking to make better decisions about their course of study as well as general readers who wish to supplement their education. All who treasure the world of ideas and liberal learning will be motivated by these original and stimulating. (shrink)

Published in 1913 as _La Philosophie Bergsonienne_, this incisive critique of the thought of Henri Bergson was Jacques Maritain's first book. In it he shows himself already to have an authoritative grasp of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and an uncanny ability to demonstrate its relevance to alternative philosophical systems such as that of Henri Bergson. Volume 1 in the series _The Collected Works of Jacques Maritain_, this edition faithfully reproduces the 1955 translation published by the Philosophical Library. It (...) would be difficult to overestimate Bergson’s role in extricating French philosophy from the deadening materialism that dominated the Sorbonne. It was that cultural milieu that brought Maritain and his wife Raïssa to the brink of suicide. They drew back for two major reasons. First were the lectures of Henri Bergson at the Collège de France, in which the Maritains found a defense of metaphysics, of the transcendent beyond the material, within which they could find meaning in life. The second reason was their conversion to Catholicism, a move they and many of their contemporaries made after being introduced to Bergson’s work. Soon after his conversion, Jacques Maritain immersed himself in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and was struck by the comparative weaknesses of Bergson. This book is Maritain’s relentless criticism of the philosophy of the man whose lectures had meant so much to him. Its ferocity marks it as a young man’s book, written in part to exorcize the defects of Bergson’s philosophy as they were understood by one now schooled in Thomism. Twenty-five years later, Maritain, while not retracting his criticisms, regretted their intemperance and, as a result, moderated his assessment of Bergson in a long preface to the second edition. In it, we find a philosopher who mastered his craft and a critic of rare perception and refinement. (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)

Is the conviction that there is a God the default position of the human mind? This is the suggestion of Vatican II’s _Gaudium et spes_, as well as Cardinal Newman and even St. Thomas Aquinas. But however natural it is for human beings to acknowledge their maker, it seems almost as natural to throw up obstacles between man and God. _Characters in Search of Their Author, _the Gifford Lectures delivered by Ralph McInerny in Glasgow in 1999–2000, is devoted to clearing (...) away some of these impediments, mainly those fashioned by philosophers. The first series of lectures traces the progressive dismissal of natural theology by modern and contemporary philosophers. Are all intellectual difficulties intellectual in origin? McInerny invites his reader to consider the ordinary acknowledgment or denial of God as analogous to falling into or out of love. The upshot may be a simple judgment, but the way to it is through the emotions and types of discourse that seldom appear in logic books. The recovery of natural theology is the theme of the second series of lectures. Making critical use of philosophers from Kierkegaard and Newman to Thomas Aquinas, McInerny brings us to the point where the age-old task can once more begin. (shrink)

__Dante and the Blessed Virgin __is distinguished philosopher Ralph McInerny's eloquent reading of one of western literature's most famous works by a Catholic writer. The book provides Catholic readers new to Dante's _The Divine Comedy _ with a concise companion volume. McInerny argues that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante. She is behind the scenes at the very beginning of the _Commedia_, and she is found at the end in the magnificent closing cantos of the _Paradiso_. McInerny (...) also discusses Dante's _Vita Nuova_, where Mary is present as the object of the young Beatrice's devotion. McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and George Santayana, among others. It is St. Thomas, however, to whom McInerny most often turns, and this book also provides an accessible introduction to Thomistic moral philosophy focusing on the appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders, the classification of capital vices and virtues, and the nature of the theological virtues. This engagingly written book will serve as a source of inspiration and devotion for anyone approaching Dante's work for the first time as well as those who value the work of Ralph McInerny. "Dante was a literary genius with a profound understanding of St. Thomas Aquinas and the _philosophia perennis_ that structured and permeated the _Divina Commedia_. Who better to help us get beyond the surface to the depths of Dante than the most literarily genial of Thomas' twentieth century disciples, the indefatigable Ralph McInerny? Dante needed guides, from Vergil to Beatrice, to reach the summit of _Paradiso_. Fortunately, we have Ralph McInerny to accompany us on the same journey." --_Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press_ "Weaving together poetry, philosophy and theology, Ralph McInerny shows that 'the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante.' Starting with the _Vita Nuova _and the beginning of the _Divine Comedy_, this becomes ever more explicit throughout the great poem, till the magnificent closing cantos of the _Paradiso_. The book is beautifully written, making sense of every step, however complex at times, of the great journey to the gate of heaven described by Dante in the _Commedia_, drawing on Scripture, on Aquinas, on philosophers like Aristotle, on a medley of modern and contemporary writers, with immense learning, always worn lightly and made easily accessible. Dominant are themes that concern everyone, such as love or happiness, are treated with freshness and clarity so the reader is made to feel he or she is discovering them anew. The total effect is joy induced by the incredible wealth of content of this little book and by the light it sheds on so many vital issues." --_Thomas De Koninck, Laval University_. (shrink)

n this article the author analyzes the different ways in which one can speak of an end of philosophy. He (she) shows the way in which the key to the continuation of philosophy in our days is only attainable through the overcoming of sophistry and skepticism.