What is subsistence and does it constitute an individual substance which is distinct from its individual nature? Relying upon Thomas, and to a lesser extent, his successors, this dissertation presents a probable solution. This is a thematically organized study, with much textual analysis and a strong attendant interest in the problems of explicating authentically the meaning and systematic coherence of Thomas's doctrine of subsistence. Arguing from authority and reason, this dissertation tries to present the reality and ratio of the supposit (...) and subsistence in three contexts. ;Chapter One examines Thomas's metaphysics of being and how the supposit relates to a being's reality, principles, and modes. The notions of a being , its transcendentals, existence , nature, and substance are examined, and then the supposit and its proper determinations are situated within the context of these constitutive factors and aspects. ;Chapter Two shows how some of these principles are manifested in Thomas's account of the hierarchy of subsistents. Are nature and supposit distinct in certain substances? If distinct, what principles bring about such a distinction? Is esse an act in regard to a supposit or to a nature? What is the act of existence and must it be distinguished from other existential realities? Is a supposit composed of a substantial thing and esse? Or does it compose with esse? ;Chapter Three examines the doctrine of subsistence which arises from Thomas's studies of the Trinity and the Incarnation. In these contexts, the supposit as a subsistent distinct from its individual nature is explicitly presented. By the end of this chapter, the exposition of subsistence according to the mind of Thomas should be more manifest. ;The conclusion presents a summary, recalling the major evidences for the most reasonable and authentically Thomist notion of subsistence: a substantial term. (shrink)

This is a useful little work, the first comprehensive analysis of Thomas' Expositio to be based on the modern critical edition of the Latin text. Decently organized and frequently insightful, it should appeal to a wide range of Thomist philosophers and scholars and serve to reacquaint us with the rich and multithematic character of this early work of the saint. The core of Hall's study involves an integration of three central thematics in twentieth-century Thomistic studies. The human agent intellect is (...) a participation in Intellect Itself. Because of this participation all knowledge of God is analogical. Because the agent intellect is a participation in Intellect Itself and the human subject is made in the image of God, the natural dynamic of the mind, by reason of its depth and created status, is to tend toward the Pure and Infinite esse as toward the creating exemplar Cause. (shrink)

Noted Suarez scholar John P. Doyle has provided us here with another fine translation and annotation, the seventh Suarez volume in Marquette’s Medieval Philosophical Texts in Translation. It should be noted that this is not a commentary in the sense of a paraphrase or an exposition “by way of comment,” but an exposition “by way of question”. In this mode, the examination of a text gives rise to relevant philosophical questions, which are systematically asked, arranged, and answered. Commentary on the (...) text itself is therefore kept to a minimum. Moreover, in this particular work, Suarez will often simply refer to the relevant sections of his more famous Metaphysical Disputations rather than present maximally complete answers to the questions raised. Even so, the reader will enjoy Suarez’s succinct and satisfactory expositions of the Aristotelian text and, most especially, his teaching concerning certain philosophical and logical issues raised by the text. (shrink)

This collection contains some of Gadamer’s best essays, including: “Kant and the Question of God” ; “On the Possibility of a Philosophical Ethics” ; “On the Divine in Early Greek Thought” ; “The Ontological Problem of Value” ; “Thinking as Redemption: Plotinus between Plato and Augustine” ; “Myth in the Age of Science” ; “The Ethics of Value and Practical Philosophy” ; “Reflections on the Relation of Religion and Science” ; “Friendship and Self-Knowledge: Reflections on the Role of Friendship in (...) Greek Ethics” ; and “Aristotle and Imperative Ethics”. Rather than describe each essay, this review will content itself with presenting the predominant ethical and theological doctrines found in this compilation. (shrink)

With this work, the second of the Catholic Thought from Lublin series, the Polish Thomist Albert Krapiec has written a veritable classic, a work destined to be ranked with the famous scholastic books of this century. And although broadly speaking, this is a work in the worthy tradition of Garrigou-Lagrange and Gredt, it is distinguished by its lucidity, simplicity, depth, and precision of insight, as also by its obvious assimilation and analysis of recent controversies and doctrines. The net result is (...) first rate: a full-blooded "existentialist" metaphysics in which the classic Thomistic theses are nicely grounded in a thorough examination of the primordial encounter with being, of the proper object of metaphysics, and of its characteristic procedure. (shrink)

This is a significant and original book, the first half of which expounds the following problem. Humans seek to live good lives, trusting in habit and custom as primary guides. However, certain facts arise which disrupt the attempt to realize such lives. These facts might be anything from wars and revolutions to the invention of the pill. When these arise, and custom and habit prove insufficient to deal with them, humans look to trans-habitual “modes of reflection” to provide satisfactory ways (...) of interpreting the facts and continuing to live good lives. Examples of these modes of reflections are the religious, aesthetic, moral, scientific, subjective, and historical. The chief difficulty, however, is this: different modes attribute different significance to the same facts. The result is a conflict which causes meta-questions—philosophical problems—to arise. Such philosophical problems include, for example, the possibility of free action, the place of morality in good lives, and the nature of human self-understanding. Coping with such conflict normally involves one of two approaches. (shrink)