DOCSLIB.ORG

THE AUGUSTINIAN LINE 1. Transcendental Thomism And

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE AUGUSTINIAN LINE 1. Transcendental Thomism And CHAPTER SIX THE POSITIVE METHOD: THE AUGUSTINIAN LINE 1. Transcendental Th omism and Dialectical Th eology As it is shown earlier, this kind of Derridean double movement that aspires to transcend the dichotomies of rigid relativism and subjectiv- ism, on the one hand, and objectivism, on the other, seems to survive in the face of reductio ad absurdum critique of relativism. A second criticism of Derrida, also addressed earlier, is the political paralysis of deconstructionism; deconstructionism is in no position to give an account of reasonable persuasion for action. Th is criticism seems to be turning deconstructionism against itself in terms of its ability to pro- vide positive alternative global ethics. However, deconstructionism survives even here as the dismantling of any political alternative what- soever, albeit this is a defeat insofar as poststructuralism has political ambitions. Th e situation is slightly diff erent when it comes to Ricoeur’s and MacIntyre’s view of language and interpretation; both are seen as inevitably imperfect with regard to objectivity, but, as opposed to Derrida, still capable of approaching objectivity to some degree. Th is is a controversy that seems to be very diffi cult to resolve philosophically and is the reason why, on the one hand, the rational method should be taken seriously in the face of deconstructionist critique, but also con- versely: there is no clear way to persuade a deconstructionist to adopt the principles of rational dialectics and truth-aspiring narrativity given the former’s radical emphasis on the Heideggerian idea of the fi nitude of human inference and communication. Hence, it would seem better to counter the charge of deconstructionism through addressing the problem of fi nitude in a more radical way than within the framework of the inductive type of rational method. Some Heideggerian paths opened up by recent interpretations in the Th omist tradition seem to lead in directions not in line with the classi- cal Th omist version presented through MacIntyre. For instance, so- called transcendental Th omism, in line with Küng, acknowledges the dimension of unconditionality, as the ground of ethics more than does the MacIntyrean dialectical model indebted to Aristotle. Indeed, it is the positive method: the augustinian line 349 telling to juxtapose the idea of ‘basic trust’ in PWE with Bernard Lonergan’s and Karl Rahner’s Th omism, which, in signifi cant respects, is more akin to what I call the positive method as opposed to the ratio- nal method. Earlier I took up Küng’s focal concept ‘fundamental trust’ as echoing existentialism – both Kant’s existentialist elements and then more fully those of Bultmann. Within Catholic theology there has been a more general shift to Biblical themes, such as revelation and conversion. Within that paradigm, the corresponding conception related to Küng’s idea of ‘fundamental trust’ is a ‘fundamental option’. Th is is related to the general Th omist understanding that the ultimate end defi nes the choices and ideals an agent follows in the subordinate questions. Now, in transcendental Th omism the adoption of this ultimate and all- decisive end is seen, in light of the New Testament proclamation, as an all-or-nothing conversion to God, where God is viewed not as an object for the subject of the conversion, but rather as a horizon of meaningful reality and transcendental freedom. Of course, what these Heideg- gerian concepts, such as ‘conversion’, ‘revelation’, ‘horizon’, and ‘tran- scendental freedom’ amount to here is that human choice is ultimately not categorically free, but guided either by mundane nature or God as the realm of opening up transcendental freedom, much in the same way as Jaspers claims faith as an existential commitment to the guid- ance of ‘Being’ to be a necessary tool to subvert the Kantian antinomy of freedom.1 Th e added value of Karl Rahner to Heidegger is the former’s distinc- tion between God as infi nite being and Heidegger’s ‘Being’ as fi nite event; it is Rahner who gives a full explication of what all fi nite human horizons of meaning anticipate in divine revelation.2 Rahner’s inclusiv- istic rendering of the relationship between Christian revelation and fi nite revelation of ‘Being’ in natural theology heavily emphasizes the positive role of natural theology and thus has some affi nities with the inductive model of the rational method above, but the decisive diff er- ence is Heideggerian phenomenology set against Aristotelian dialec- tics: one cannot reason toward divine truth. It is also important that any inclusivistic rendering of Heidegger is necessarily strongly exclu- sivistic. Th is becomes evident when Rahner’s Protestant ally, Heinrich 1 Curran, 1986, 391. 2 Wilson 2007, 263–264..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards a Symposium
    One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards A Symposium Edited By Victor B. Brezik, C.S.B, CENTER FOR THOMISTIC STUDIES University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas 77006 ~ NIHIL OBSTAT: ReverendJamesK. Contents Farge, C.S.B. Censor Deputatus INTRODUCTION . 1 IMPRIMATUR: LOOKING AT THE PAST . 5 Most Reverend John L. Morkovsky, S.T.D. A Remembrance Of Pope Leo XIII: The Encyclical Aeterni Patris, Leonard E. Boyle,O.P. 7 Bishop of Galveston-Houston Commentary, James A. Weisheipl, O.P. ..23 January 6, 1981 The Legacy Of Etienne Gilson, Armand A. Maurer,C.S.B . .28 The Legacy Of Jacques Maritain, Christian Philosopher, First Printing: April 1981 Donald A. Gallagher. .45 LOOKING AT THE PRESENT. .61 Copyright©1981 by The Center For Thomistic Studies Reflections On Christian Philosophy, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or Ralph McInerny . .63 reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written Thomism And Today's Crisis In Moral Values, Michael permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in Bertram Crowe . .74 critical articles and reviews. For information, write to The Transcendental Thomism, A Critical Assessment, Center For Thomistic Studies, 3812 Montrose Boulevard, Robert J. Henle, S.J. 90 Houston, Texas 77006. LOOKING AT THE FUTURE. .117 Library of Congress catalog card number: 80-70377 Can St. Thomas Speak To The Modem World?, Leo Sweeney, S.J. .119 The Future Of Thomistic Metaphysics, ISBN 0-9605456-0-3 Joseph Owens, C.Ss.R. .142 EPILOGUE. .163 The New Center And The Intellectualism Of St. Thomas, Printed in the United States of America Vernon J.
    [Show full text]
  • |||GET||| Analytical Thomism 1St Edition
    ANALYTICAL THOMISM 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE Matthew S Pugh | 9781351958554 | | | | | Taking Aquinas Seriously Get A Copy. The Dominican order, to which Aquinas had belonged, defended his thought, and by a number of young teachers were among his strongest advocates. The extensive commentary on the Summa theologiae by Cardinal Cajetan remains unsurpassed for its detailed analysis. Through the influence of traditional Augustinian theologians, some theses of Aquinas were condemned in by the ecclesiastical authorities of Paris and Oxford the most important theological schools in the Middle Ages. Next Article. The rest of what you need we teach at VIU. In philosophy, Aquinas ' disputed questions and commentaries on Aristotle are perhaps his best-known Analytical Thomism 1st edition. Aristotle's De anima On the Soul divides the mind into three parts: sensationimagination and intellection. I also recommend that you read all of C. Consequently, God's causality is never in competition with the causality of creatures; rather, God even causes some things through the causality of creatures. It illuminates the Analytical Thomism 1st edition of Aquinas's work for contemporary problems by drawing on the resources of contemporary Anglo- Saxon analytical philosophy, the work of Frege, Wittgenstein, and Kripke proving particularly significant. See also: God. Mazdakism Mithraism Zoroastrianism Zurvanism. Lists with This Book. Get A Copy. The dominant theme was metaphysics Analytical Thomism 1st edition the study of being reality. But I am a knowing and moral being which is undeniable. The cover caught my attention. Repeated legislation of the General Chapters, beginning after the death of St. Aristotle categorized causality into four Analytical Thomism 1st edition in the Metaphysicswhich is an integral part of Thomism:.
    [Show full text]
  • MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES to MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences Of
    MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Matthew Glen Minix UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio December 2016 MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew G. APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Dissertation Director _____________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader. _____________________________________ Anthony Burke Smith, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ John A. Inglis, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ Jack J. Bauer, Ph.D. _____________________________________ Daniel Speed Thompson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Religious Studies ii © Copyright by Matthew Glen Minix All rights reserved 2016 iii ABSTRACT MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew Glen University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Sandra A. Yocum This dissertation considers a spectrum of five distinct approaches that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomist Catholic thinkers utilized when engaging with the tradition of modern scientific psychology: a critical approach, a reformulation approach, a synthetic approach, a particular [Jungian] approach, and a personalist approach. This work argues that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomists were essentially united in their concerns about the metaphysical principles of many modern psychologists as well as in their worries that these same modern psychologists had a tendency to overlook the transcendent dimension of human existence. This work shows that the first four neo-Thomist thinkers failed to bring the traditions of neo-Thomism and modern psychology together to the extent that they suggested purely theoretical ways of reconciling them.
    [Show full text]
  • Virtue Theory and the Present Evolution of Thorn Ism
    Virtue Theory and the Present Evolution of Thorn ism Romanus Cessario, O.P. Overthepastdecade,aquietrevolutionhasbeengatheringmomen­ tum in the fields of moral philosophy and Christian ethics. These disciplines are undergoing a decisive shift as duty, obligation, and decision yield their central role in the understanding of the moral life lo the long-neglected concepts of virtue, character, and action. 1 In the En­ glish-speaking world, Alasdair Macintyre remains the chief spokesman for the effort. It may interest some to learn that several years before he published After Virtue in 1981, the Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D. C., had decided to reinstate instruction in speculative moral theology, especially treating the matter of virtue theory. In the late 1960s, that is, shortly after the conciliar directive Optatam totius, No. 16, urged that the development of moral theology "should be nourished more thoroughly by scriptural teaching," such instruction had been dropped from the curriculum and replaced by courses such as the "Biblical Foundations of Morality." In some respects, we can credit British scholarship within the analytical tradition as providing the impetus toward a contemporary study of the virtues.2 Peter Geach, for instance, renders a complete account of classical virtue theory in his small book, The Virtues (Cam­ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).3 In this work, the author 1. In The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), I provide an overview of the nature of the moral virtues, their relation to the intellectual virtues, the centrality of prudence in the moral life, and the structures of the acquisition and development of virtues.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D
    Journal for Christian Theological Research Volume 5 Article 2 2000 Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney Marquette University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/jctr Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Dabney, D. Lyle (2000) "Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The rP oblematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology," Journal for Christian Theological Research: Vol. 5 , Article 2. Available at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/jctr/vol5/iss2000/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal for Christian Theological Research by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 12/18/2017 Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrie of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney, "Nature Dis­Graced and Grace De­Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology," Journal for Christian Theological Research [http://apu.edu/~CTRF/articles/2000_articles/dabney.html] 5:3 (2000). Nature Dis­Graced and Grace De­Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney Marquette University , Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1. "Contemporary theology" Kilian McDonnell writes, "has turned from a theology of the Word to a theology of the world".(1) That statement, it seems to me, neatly sums up the current situation in theology.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thomistic Critique of the Ethics of Alasdair Macintyre
    University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2014 A Thomistic Critique of the Ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre Marcus Otte University of Central Florida Part of the Philosophy Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Otte, Marcus, "A Thomistic Critique of the Ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 4581. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4581 A THOMISTIC CRITIQUE OF THE ETHICS OF ALASDAIR MACINTYRE by MARCUS SHANE OTTE B.A. University of Central Florida 2009 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2014 Major Professor: Donald Jones © Marcus Shane Otte 2014 ii ABSTRACT Alasdair MacIntyre argues in favor of a historicist Thomism in ethics and political philosophy. In his theory, sociological categories take up much of the space traditionally occupied by metaphysics. This peculiar feature of MacIntyre’s Thomism, and its merits and demerits, is already a subject that has been taken up by many critics. In this thesis, these criticisms are supplemented and unified by identifying what is perhaps the most fundamental difficulty with MacIntyre’s ethics: his version of Thomism is problematic because it treats epistemology as first philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • THOMISM and Postmodernism 251 Not Use It As Synonymous with Esse
    Thoritism and Postmodemism Joseph M. de Torre THE ORIGINAL SYNTHESIS OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS From the nominalism and voluntarism of William of Ockham ( 1300-1350), already adumbrated by the formalism of Duns Scotus (1266-1308), to the skepticism of Montaigne (1533-1592) and Francisco Sanchez (1522-1623), there was a logical development, aided by the so-called religious wars occasioned by Protestantism and, in the previous century, by the Hussite revolt in Bohemia as well as the lingering conflict with the Moslem Turks. The attention of philosophers was diverted to politics, economics and experimental sciences with the consequent weakening in metaphysical insights. For St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), God is lpsum Esse Subsistens, Subsistent To-Be Itself, while being (the object of metaphysics) is conceived as the subject or bearer of the act of being: all .created beings participate or partake of the act of being according to the capacity of their respective essence (conceived as potentiality of being as opposed to act of being). Therefore the being of creatures is determined by their manner of being: things are unified in their being (esse), and diversified by their respective essences. This variety of participations is the real basis for the logical attribution of the term-being­ to beings, which is an analogical attribution, i.e., partly in the same sense, partly in different senses. It is attributed primarily to God, who is the Fullness of Being, whose existence and creative activity explains the existence and productive activity of all other beings, which only participate being. The existence of many beings-by-participation implies the existence of One who is by essence (I AM WHO AM) and causes all other beings to be.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammatical Thomism
    This is a repository copy of Grammatical thomism. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/137464/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Hewitt, S orcid.org/0000-0003-2720-4428 (2019) Grammatical thomism. Religious Studies. ISSN 0034-4125 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412518000896 © 2019, Cambridge University Press. This article has been published in a revised form in Religious Studies [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412518000896]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ GRAMMATICAL THOMISM SIMON HEWITT SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS Grammar tells us what kind of object anything is. (Theology as grammar). Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 373 There is a growing feeling that something is amiss with the philosophy of religion [40].
    [Show full text]
  • Thomism the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas
    ETIENNE GILSON Thomism The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas Translated by †Laurence K. Shook and Armand Maurer Etienne Gilson published six editions of his book devoted to the philos- ophy of Thomas Aquinas. The appearance of these editions, the first in 19l7 and the last in 1965, covers much of the scholarly life of their author. As he says in his Preface, the book was his lifelong companion. The editions represent a sustained effort to set forth his developing views on the philosophy of the man who, in Gilson’s opinion, most profoundly sought out the heart of reality: being, understood as the act of existing (esse). Gilson presents his thoughts on this subject with new clarity and precision in his revised sixth and final edition, which is here put into English for the first time. While probing into Thomas’ philosophy, Gilson measures it against the views of his predecessors: notably Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and the Pseudo-Dionysius among the Greeks, and Avicenna and Averroes in the Islamic world. Among the Latins, he pays particular attention to the views of Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, and in his own century to those of Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure. Gilson sees Aquinas as retriev- ing much of the long tradition of philosophy in which he was schooled, but surpassing it with his original insights and developments. Most im- portant, in Gilson’s opinion, is that Thomas goes beyond the essentialist ontology bequeathed to the Middle Ages by Augustine, among others, and reaches a “new ontology” which is truly existential. With this leitmotif, in Part I Gilson explores Thomas’ notions of the existence and nature of God and our access to them.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchism, Virtue Ethics and the Question of Essentialism
    Anarchism, Virtue Ethics and the Question of Essentialism Matti Eskelinen Master’s Thesis University of Turku Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science Philosophy July 2019 The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. UNIVERSITY OF TURKU Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science ESKELINEN, MATTI: Anarchism, Virtue Ethics and the Question of Essentialism Master’s Thesis, 53 pp. Philosophy July 2019 In this thesis I examine anarchism and virtue ethics and their relationship with each other through the virtue ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre and virtue ethically informed practical anarchism of Benjamin Franks. MacIntyre’s now classic book of After Virtue where he presents his influential revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics serves as a route for Franks’ effort to explicitly combine the political theory of anarchism with virtue ethics. MacIntyre’s theory puts emphasis on practices as the most salient feature of virtue ethics in contrast to other characteristics of Aristotle’s virtue ethics and his overall philosophical theory, such as justification of slavery and systematic subordination of women, which are redolent of his metaphysical biology. Defining virtue ethics as practice-oriented and stressing the consistency between means and ends, i.e. prefiguration, of actions enables MacIntyre to offer virtue ethics as a suitable alternative to alleged moral confusion brought by Enlightenment inspired moral philosophies of utilitarianism and deontology. For Franks practice-oriented virtue ethics has considerable amount of resemblance with anarchism’s ethical commitment to prefiguration both historically, exemplified by anarchists’ disagreement with Marxists during the First International over the use of state apparatus during revolutionary struggle, and contemporarily, as in the anarchist- influenced Occupy Movement.
    [Show full text]
  • From Metaphysics to History, from Exodus to Neoplatonism, from Scholasticism to Pluralism
    From Metaphysics to History, from Exodus to Neoplatonism, from Scholasticism to Pluralism: the Fate of Gilsonian Thomism in English-speaking North America Dionysius, 16 (1998), 157-188. Gilson in North America Étienne Gilson deeply loved North America. His retirement from the Collège de France in 1951 for the sake of his work at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto is evidence enough. When, to the astonishment of his colleagues, he left behind that institution which is the very summit of the French university system, Gilson said that he “fled” to Canada.1 Though the circumstances of the 1951 flight indicate that North American attractions as well as European conflicts and disappointments drove him across the Atlantic, Henri de Lubac described him as “at home in Toronto ... where he was loved.”2 According to his official biographer, Lawrence Shook at the Toronto Institute, Professor Gilson preferred to have his life story written in North America because there he had “established viable institutions for the advancement of medieval studies.” These were the institutes founded at Toronto and Ottawa in 1929, and at Notre Dame, Indiana in 1946, where a Toronto colleague and brother in the philosophical cause of existential Thomism, Gerald Phelan, became the first president. In Toronto he realized what he conceived in France. His exposé de titres for his chair in the Collège de France may be viewed as “a commentary on the programme of medieval studies he was planning to establish in Toronto.” He chose Toronto over Harvard or Montreal “partly because of its willingness to comply with his plans.” His special requirements were that medieval thought be taught within “the whole range of medieval culture” and that the students “be able to read medieval texts.”3 Gilson, the historian, who opposed the texts of St.
    [Show full text]
  • THOMISTIC ARISTOTELIANISM OR ARISTOTELIAN THOMISM? Piergiorgio Della Pelle
    MACINTYRE: THOMISTIC ARISTOTELIANISM OR ARISTOTELIAN THOMISM? Piergiorgio Della Pelle The works and the studies by Alasdair MacIntyre introduce, often, a presentation and a relecture of Aristotelian themes and ideas, placing itself in the same way (but not in the same direction) of the new contemporary interpretations on Aristotelian thought rise up in the 19th century1. However, the Scottish philosopher’s personal reading on Aristotle seems to be influenced in a meaningful way by the St. Thomas reading of the Stagirite’s philosophy2. Unlike the Heidegger’s interpretation on Aristotle, MacIntyre doesn’t fix on the problem of the return to the original and authentic reading of the ancient 50 greek thought, cleaned by the medieval deposits, but he is concentrated on a sort of new (revised) Aristotelianism, that gives, especially in After Virtue (1981), to this old philosophy a new form and a new reading3. Insomuch as MacIntyre self- defines his thought a Thomistic aristotelianism. But, is this really his philosophical position? Or is it more an Aristotelian thomism? I. In After Virtue, reading the path of the virtue's idea from Homer, differentiating this last one from the Aristotelian, MacIntyre writes that: on Aristotles’account […] it is the telos of man as a species which determines what human qualities are virtues. We need to remember however that although Aristotle treats the acquisition and exercise of the virtues as means to an end, the relationship of means to end is internal and not external. I call a means internal to a given end when the end cannot be adequately characterized independently of a characterization of the means.
    [Show full text]