Download or read book The Ultimate Reducibility of Essence to Existence in Existential Metaphysics written by William E. Carlo and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is an exciting book - at least it should be to those who already know something about the Thomistic metaphysics of essence and existence and who are interested in the basic seminal ideas in philosophy." W. Norris Clark, editor of the 'International Philosophical Quarterly,' thus describes Professor Carlo's book in the Preface. He adds that this interpretation of existence would provide metaphysics with the most powerfully unified vision of the world in the whole of Western thought. Impressive in its research and breadth of vision, this study searches into controversies which have plagued the meaning and function of existence from the time of Parmenides. The author is both provocative and controversial, forcing the reader by cogency of argument alone to rethink much of what he already knows and to modify his basic understanding of the problem.Continuing and advancing the thought of Gilson and Maritain, Professor Carlo reduces essence to a model of existence, and matter itself - Merleau-Ponty's "weakness at the heart of being" and Heidegger's "horizon of being" - to a deficiency of being. In a brilliant exposition, touched with grace, skill, and scrupulous fairness, Professor Carlo breaks down the stubborn tradition of Scholasticism's disregard of Aquinas' revolutionary understanding of existence by disentangling fact from fiction and setting the record straight. The author states that the primacy of existence demands as a logical and natural corollary, the subordination of essence to existence, since not only the very existence of essence but all its perfection comes from existence, including that last cherished inheritance of which no one ever thought it could be dispossessed, the very knowability and intelligibility of essence itself. The role of essence as an Aristotelian reciprocal cause or as the extrinsic principle of limitation is revolutionized by the author. Instead, essence arises out of the flood of existence, as a 'mode of existence,' as the 'intrinsic limitation of existence.' Thus the doctrine of the primacy of existence, historically, has served as a "halfway house" to the doctrine of the 'ultimate reducibility of essence to existence."--From cover flaps.

Download or read book Creation and Metaphysics written by Herve J. Thibault and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last twenty-five years or so, studies in Thomistic existentialism have repeatedly indicated that the notion of creation played a decisive role in St. Thomas Aquinas' view of existence as an existential act or actus es sendi. The importance for metaphysics of this view of existence as act war rants an investigation of the relation between creation and actus essendi; for St. Thomas is the only one, in the history of philosophy, to have con sidered existence as an act-of-being. This study will be limited to the early works of St. Thomas. By the time of the Summa Contra Gentiles, he had reached the key positions of his metaphysics. And the first fifty-three chap ters of the Summa Contra Gentiles were written in Paris before June, 1259; 1 the rest was completed in Italy before 1265. The project was therefore con ceived by St. Thomas during the first period of his career. How the notion of creation enabled him to transform the Aristotelian metaphysics of essence into a metaphysics of esse can be seen from three sections of the Summa Contra Gentiles. Although primarily a theological treatise, the Contra Gentiles never theless accomplishes a radical metaphysical transformation of Aristotelian ism by shifting the whole perspective from esse in actu per formam to actus essendi. Seen from the perspective of existential act as the absolute perfec tion, metaphysics is raised to a strictly transcendental plane of consideration.

Download or read book The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas written by John F. Wippel and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by a highly respected scholar of Thomas Aquinas's writings, this volume offers a comprehensive presentation of Aquinas's metaphysical thought. It is based on a thorough examination of his texts organized according to the philosophical order as he himself describes it rather than according to the theological order. In the introduction and opening chapter, John F. Wippel examines Aquinas's view on the nature of metaphysics as a philosophical science and the relationship of its subject to divine being. Part One is devoted to his metaphysical analysis of finite being. It considers his views on the problem of the One and the Many in the order of being, and includes his debt to Parmenides in formulating this problem and his application of analogy to finite being. Subsequent chapters are devoted to participation in being, the composition of essence and esse in finite beings, and his appeal to a kind of relative nonbeing in resolving the problem of the One and the Many. Part Two concentrates on Aquinas's views on the essential structure of finite being, and treats substance-accident composition and related issues, including, among others, the relationship between the soul and its powers and unicity of substantial form. It then considers his understanding of matter-form composition of corporeal beings and their individuation. Part Three explores Aquinas's philosophical discussion of divine being, his denial that God's existence is self-evident, and his presentation of arguments for the existence of God, first in earlier writings and then in the "Five Ways" of his Summa theologiae. A separate chapter is devoted to his views on quidditative and analogical knowledge of God. The concluding chapter revisits certain issues concerning finite being under the assumption that God's existence has now been established. John F. Wippel, professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, was recently awarded the prestigious Aquinas Medal by the American Catholic Philosophical Association. In addition to numerous articles and papers, Wippel has coauthored or edited several other works, including Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas and The Metaphysical Thought of Godfrey of Fontaines, both published by CUA Press. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "The quality of Wippel's historical research and interpretation and the detail of his argumentation make this a work that will have to be taken account of in any further studies of this topic."- John Boler, International Studies in Philosophy "A carefully and solidly argued presentation of Aquinas's metaphysics by a scholar of medieval philosophy and a superb metaphysician. It should stand on the library shelf of every student of medieval philosophy, sharing the stage with Wippel's other dependable works."--Prof. Stephen F. Brown, Boston College "In Wippel we have a master of medieval metaphysics who is at the height of his powers and who can bring to bear on this work of interpretation years of study, not only of Aquinas but also of the whole context of medieval metaphysics in which Aquinas thought and wrote. The result is a monumental work which will quickly become the definitive work on Aquinas's metaphysics."--Prof. Eleonore Stump, St. Louis University "Wippel proposes to 'set forth Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical thought, based on his own texts, in accord with the philosophical order. . . .' This is a bold, even audacious proposal, but one that Wippel succeeds in realizing, thanks to his expansive and detailed knowledge of a field in which he has worked for more than twenty years. He has total command not only of the works of Thomas, of his sources, and of his earliest commentators, but also of the secondary literature of this century in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish."--Gregorianum A] positively magisterial account of its subject

Download or read book Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas II written by John F. Wippel and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2007-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains eleven articles and book chapters written by John Wippel since the publication of his Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas in 1984.

Download or read book The Concept and Reality of Existence written by Toshihiko Izutsu and published by The Other Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Existential Metaphysics written by Alvin Thalheimer and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Thematic Distinction Between Essence and Existence written by James Alabi and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: The terms essence and existence have dominated philosophical discussions for centuries, at least from the era of Plato up to the contemporary times. The central issue at the heart of this discourse in the preliminary stage had to do with the question of what actually makes an essence of an existing entity. For example, if you say God, philosophers will probe further to ask: what is the essence of God? In other words, ‘what are those characteristics that are truly exclusive to God? If, again, you say a Satsuma (a type of orange) exists, then one will be prompted to ask as to what features distinguish it from a tangerine. That is, what are those distinctive qualities - essentially immaterial - that will not make me call an existential Satsuma a tangerine? What the inquirer is demanding is simply something more than mere the Satsuma or any of the accidental features like colour, taste, etc. Questions have also been raised in terms of what actually exists as against what is believed to exist. The discourse quickly like wild fire moved from the level of mere conceptualizing the terms to the level of philosophers trying to find out which of essence and existence precedes each other. In other words, granted, at least, at level of assumption that both human and objects exist, philosophers are asking whether their essence precedes their existence. The battle to resolve this crisis of concepts pitted modern Christian philosophers like Bishop George Berkeley and Immanuel Kant against contemporary existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger. The former school, led by Berkeley in its submission had argued that essence precedes existence, while the latter, championed by extensively by Sartre disagrees, saying existence precedes essence. However, there are other variations to the discourse but it is sufficient for the scope of this paper to limit discussion to these two, with more emphasis on Sartre.

Download or read book A Metaphysics of Authentic Existentialism written by Leo Sweeney and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book At The Heart Of Existence written by Sean Broadstreet and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-19 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of original essays dealing with aspects of contemporary Existentialism from the viewpoint of an existential Thomism. In this book, the term "existential" takes on two distinct means. In the first, it concerns a Thomism centered on the primacy of the act of existence in the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas. Instead of a philosophy centered on essences or forms, St. Thomas saw by way of a far-reaching and original intuition that it was existence, itself, that should be at the heart of metaphysics. The second meaning of the term existential refers to a Thomism that vivified by this insight is alive to the real in its myriad of forms, willing to leave its intramural debates and look at pressing contemporary issues, and hopefully stimulated by these challenges, renew itself.

Download or read book Pseudo Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas written by O'Rourke and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Aquinas' encounter with Pseudo-Dionysius can be discovered an integral philosophy of reality — a comprehensive vision of existence, depicting the universe in its procession from and return to the Absolute, according to each grade of reality, including man, its place in the hierarchy of being. The point of divergence is the primacy attributed, in turn, by the authors to the Good or to Being as a universal principle. Against this background the present work investigates the influence of Dionysius with respect to the central themes of Aquinas' metaphysics: knowledge of the Absolute, and its nature as transcendent; Being as primary and universal perfection; the diffusion of creation; the hierarchy of creatures and return of all to God as the final end. This is one of the few studies to date which considers in a comprehensive way the relation between these remarkable thinkers. By concrete example and continual reference it illustrates both the pervasive influence of Pseudo-Dionysius and the profound originality of Aquinas.

Download or read book The Paradoxical Structure of Existence written by Frederick D. Wilhelmsen and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Metaphysical Thought of Godfrey of Fontaines written by John F. Wippel and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 1999-10 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Students of the final troubled decades of the thirteenth-century (following the censures of the 1270s) will be delighted to have this richly researched presentation of the metaphysics of Godfrey of Fontaines."--Modern Schoolman "Plainly the indispensable key to understanding and evaluating Godfrey's thought."--International Studies in Philosophy "A clearly written and substantial contribution to our understanding of this important period in medieval thought. . . ."--Choice "This excellent study makes accessible the central philosophical ideas of one of the three or four most important Parisian masters of theology between Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. Already the leading authority on his subject, Professor Wippel here draws together and greatly extends his previous work, providing a superbly documented view of the highest of high scholastic discussion as seen in the contributions of a subtle and spirited participant."--Speculum

Download or read book Heidegger and Aquinas written by John D. Caputo and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2024-10-22 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Available in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readers The purpose of the present study is to undertake a confrontation of the thought of Martin Heidegger and Thomas Aquinas on the question of Being and the problem of metaphysics. Now, a 'confrontation' which does no more than draw up a catalogue of common traits and points of difference is no more than a curiosity, an idle comparison which bears no fruit.

Download or read book The Irreducibility of the Human Person written by Mark K. Spencer and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2022-03-25 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book presents a philosophical portrait of human persons that depicts each way in which we are irreducible, with the goal of guiding the reader to perceive, wonder at, and love all the unique features of human persons. It builds this portrait by showing how claims from many strands of the Catholic tradition can be synthesized. These strands include Thomism, Scotism, phenomenology, personalism, nouvelle théologie, analytic philosophy, and Greek and Russian thought. The book focuses on how these traditions' claims are grounded in experience and on how they help us to perceive irreducible features of persons. This book also explores irreducible features of our subjectivity, senses, intellect, freedom, and affections, and of our souls, bodies, and activities"--

Download or read book Why there is Something rather than Nothing written by Bede Rundle and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2004-02-05 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why should there be anything at all? Why, in particular, should a material world exist? Bede Rundle advances clear, non-technical answers to these perplexing questions. If, as the theist maintains, God is a being who cannot but exist, his existence explains why there is something rather than nothing. However, this can also be explained on the basis of a weaker claim. Not that there is some particular being that has to be, but simply that there has to be something or other. Rundle proffers arguments for thinking that that is indeed how the question is to be put to rest. Traditionally, the existence of the physical universe is held to depend on God, but the theist faces a major difficulty in making clear how a being outside space and time, as God is customarily conceived to be, could stand in an intelligible relation to the world, whether as its creator or as the author of events within it. Rundle argues that a creator of physical reality is not required, since there is no alternative to its existence. There has to be something, and a physical universe is the only real possibility. He supports this claim by eliminating rival contenders; he dismisses the supernatural, and argues that, while other forms of being, notably the abstract and the mental, are not reducible to the physical, they presuppose its existence. The question whether ultimate explanations can ever be given is forever in the background, and the book concludes with an investigation of this issue and of the possibility that the universe could have existed for an infinite time. Other topics discussed include causality, space, verifiability, essence, existence, necessity, spirit, fine tuning, and laws of Nature. Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing offers an explanation of fundamental facts of existence in purely philosophical terms, without appeal either to theology or cosmology. It will provoke and intrigue anyone who wonders about these questions.

Download or read book Aquinas Proofs for God s Existence written by D. Bonnette and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this study is to investigate the legitimacy of the principle, "The per accidens necessarily implies the per se," as it is found in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Special emphasis will be placed upon the function of this principle in the proofs for God's existence. The relevance of the principle in this latter context can be seen at once when it is observed that it is the key to the solution of the well known "prob lem of infinite regress. " The investigation of the principle in question will be divided into two Parts. A preliminary examination of the function of the principle will be made in Part I: Domains Other Than That of Creature-God. The domains to be considered in this Part are those of accident-substance, change, and knowledge. Employing what is learned of the function of the principle in these areas of application, Part II: The Domain of Creature-God will analyze the role of the principle in the proofs for God's existence. This latter Part will constitute the greater portion of the book, since the domain of creatures in their relation to God is the most significant application of the principle in the writings of St. Thomas. In the course of this investigation, relevant analyses by St. Thomas' commentators - both classical and contemporary - will be considered. Finally, in light of the insights offered by St.

Download or read book Aquinas s Theory of Knowledge written by William E. Murnion, Ph.D., S.T.L. and published by Hillcrest Publishing Group. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great luminary of modern Thomistic studies was Bernard J. Lonergan, S.J. (1904-1984). One of his brightest disciples was William Murnion. Murnion was powerfully drawn to Lonergan's interpretations of the thought of Thomas Aquinas and began to deeply immerse himself in the work and the evolution of the thought of both. After five years of research and writing, Murnion had to interrupt his studies due to professional and personal demands. Several years later he successfully completed and defended a doctoral dissertation which was published only in part. This book is the complete, unrevised, original work. As Murnion observed in his preface, "only the title is modified...the betterto clarify the topic. I suppose I could have massaged the text to incorporate some of the things I have learned about Aquinas in the meantime. But just as it is, I believe it presents a clear and cogent argument for the claim I defended in it about Aquinas's explanation of the act of understanding."