Category: Scholasticism New and Old
-
What Exists Exists
A miserable tautology?
-
Evil as Privation and the Problem of Pain, Part Two (2021 Version)
Part One is here. Some pains, though bad in themselves, are instrumentally good. You go for broke on your mountain bike. At the top of a long upgrade your calves are burning from the lactic acid build-up. But it's a 'good' pain. It is instrumentally good despite its intrinsic badness. You are satisfied with having…
-
Evil as Privation and the Problem of Pain, Part One (2021 Version)
For Vito Caiati. This 2021 version of a November 2010 post corrects unclarities, infelicities of expression, and outright errors in the initial entry . And the font is more legible for ancient eyes. ……………………. When theists are confronted by atheists with the various arguments from evil, the former should not reject the premise that objective…
-
Existence as Completeness? Gilson on Scotus, Thomas, and the Real Distinction
I composed this entry with Lukáš Novák in mind. I hope to secure his comments. ……………………… Marco Santambrogio, "Meinongian Theories of Generality," Nous, December 1990, p. 662: . . . I take existence to mean just this: an entity, i, exists iff there is a determinate answer to every question concerning it or in other words,…
-
World + God = God? The Aporetics of the God-World ‘Relation’ (2020 Version)
This from a reader: I just started reading Philosophy for Understanding Theology by Diogenes Allen. The first chapter is devoted to the doctrine of creation. These two sentences jumped out at me: "The world plus God is not more than God alone. God less the world is not less than God alone." Do you agree? How would…
-
Frederick D. Wilhelmsen
I am presently re-reading The Paradoxical Structure of Existence (University of Dallas Press, 1970) in preparation for the existence chapter of my metaphilosophy book. Wilhelmsen's book is sloppy in the manner of the 20th century Thomists before the analytic bunch emerged, but rich, historically informed, and fascinating. Poking around on the 'Net for Wilhelmsen materials,…
-
Contingency and Composition
Joe, who describes himself as "a high school student with a passion for philosophy of religion and metaphysics," asked me a long series of difficult questions. Here is one of them: After reading [Edward] Feser's Five Proofs, I have had difficulties with the concept of sustaining causes. First, Feser argues that composites require a sustaining…
-
Thomas Merton’s Hostility to Scholastic Manualism and the Forgotten Fr. Hickey
As much of a flaky liberal as Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) is, both politically and theologically, I love the guy I meet in the pages of the seven volumes of The Journals of Thomas Merton. I am presently savoring Volume Six, 1966-1967. This morning I came upon the entry of May 21, 1967, Trinity…
-
Another Uncompelling Argument in Illustration of Our Pascalian Predicament
This relates to my earlier discussion with Dr. Novak. See articles referenced infra. A reader thinks the following syllogism establishes its conclusion: a) What doesn't have necessity from itself is caused; b) The contingent does not have necessity from itself; Ergo c) The contingent is caused. An argument establishes its conclusion just in case: (i)…
-
Is It Epistemically Certain that Whatever Begins to Exist is Caused?
I wrote that 1) Whatever begins to exist is caused is not epistemically certain. I don't deny that (1) is true; I deny that it can be known with certainty. (As I explained earlier, truth and certainty are different properties.) And then I wrote that If an argument is presented for (1), then I will…
-
John Peterson’s Thomist Analysis of Change
1. The Riddle of Change. Change is ubiquitous. It is perhaps the most pervasive feature of our experience and of the objects of our experience. But is it intelligible? Change could be a fact without being intelligible. But the mind seeks intelligibility; hence it seeks to render change intelligible to it. There is something…
-
Contingent Existence Without Cause? Not Possible Says Garrigou-Lagrange
A reader claims that "to affirm that there are contingent beings just is to affirm that they have that whereby they are, namely, a cause." This implies that one can straightaway infer 'x has a cause' from 'x is contingent.' My reader would agree with Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange who, taking the traditional Thomist position, maintains the…
-
Erich Przywara, Analogia Entis
The book has been recently translated. Unfortunately, I find myself in agreement with Josef Pieper as to the 'unreadibility' of the book: "The unfinished, and hardly readable book, Analogia Entis (1932), which he himself declares is the quintessence of his view, in fact gives no idea of the wealth of concrete material he spread…
-
Bare Particulars and Prime Matter: Similarities and Differences
This entry continues the discussion of prime matter begun here. That post is a prerequisite for this one. Similarities between Bare Particulars and Prime Matter S1. Bare particulars in themselves are property-less while prime matter in itself is formless. The bare particular in a thing is that which exemplifies the thing's properties. But in itself…
-
Substantial Change, Prime Matter, and Individuation
Eric Levy wants to talk about prime matter. I am 'primed' and my powder's dry: Nihil philosophicum a me alienum putamus. "I consider nothing philosophical to be foreign to me." Change, Accidental and Substantial There is no change without a substrate of change which, in respect of its existence and identity, does not change during…