The Fall of Thomism

Two recent essays by D.Q. McInerny on the fall of Thomism, here and here.

Here's one from a while back, on attacks on Thomism. Happy reading.

Sullivan Review of Feser Published

My co-blogger Michael has published a review of Feser's Scholastic Metaphysics in the newest issue of Studia NeoAristotelica. Enjoy!


from the publisher:

STUDIA NEOARISTOTELICA 2015 published

The first 2015 issue of Studia Neoaristotelica offers two papers and two reviews. Vlastimil Vohánka (Olomouc, Czech Rep.) in "Necessary Laws? Seifert vs. Oderberg" addresses the thesis that no laws of nature are (metaphysically) necessary: i.e. true in every possible world. In particular Vohanka focuses on arguments for this thesis by Josef Seifert, a realist phenomenologian, and David Oderberg, an analytical neo-Aristotelian and argues that, as they stand, they are not convincing. He admits, however, that given God and his ability to do miracles, the idea of "meaningful" but non-necessary connection between essences is a better essentialist explanation of persistent regularities. This explanation implies that no law is necessary, be it weakly or strongly. Miroslav Hanke (Praha) in "Analysis of Self-Reference in Martin Le Maistre's Tractatus Consequentiarum" presents a formal reconstruction of an analysis of self-reference of Le Maistre, a a fifteenth century master. His approach is based upon the principle that sentential meaning is closed under entailment, which leads to a semantics compatible with the principle of bivalence and classical rules of inference. The issue is concluded with a review by Michael Sullivan of Edward Feser's Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction (Heusenstamm bei Frankfurt, 2014) and by Peter Forrest of James Franklin's An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics Mathematics as the Science of Quantity and Structure (New York, 2014)

New Petrus Thomae Edition

An edition of Petrus Thomae's Quaestiones de esse intelligibili has just been published, judging from the publisher's website (Leuven University Press, distributed in the USA by Cornell). It is a Scotist work on various issues associated with human and divine knowledge, causality, the ontological status of essences, and various interpretive problems in Scotus. It can be yours for only 75 euros!

It is volume I of a new series for the works of Petrus Thomae, the Scotist who taught at Barcelona in the 1320's.

Here is the publisher's information:

Description:

First critical edition of Petrus Thomae’s theory of non-causal dependence 

This work of Scotist metaphysics is an investigation into the ultimate constitution of things. In the course of this treatise, Petrus Thomae examines whether the essences of things ultimately depend on being thought of by God for their very intelligibility or whether they have it of themselves. Defending in detail the second option, Peter argues that creatures exist independently of the divine intellect in the divine essence. They enjoy real, eternal being in the divine essence and objective being in the divine mind. Aware that these views conflicted with his belief in the Christian doctrine of creation, Peter laboured to alleviate the conflict with a theory of non-causal dependence, according to which even if God did not cause creatures to be in the divine essence, nevertheless they are necessary correlatives of the divine essence.

Table of contents:

Preface

Introduction 

I. Life 

II. Works

III. Themes of the Quaestiones de esse intelligibili 

IV. The Edition

A. Description of Manuscripts

B. Prior Editions

C. Isolated Accidents

D. Common Accidents 

E. The alia littera of MS S

F. Stemma codicum 

G. Editorial Principles 

H. Authenticity and Title 

I. Dating 

J. Sources 

K. Influence 

Abbreviations

QUAESTIONES DE ESSE INTELLIGIBILI

Q. 1 Utrum intellectus creatus producat rem intellectam in esse intelligibili

Q. 2 Utrum intellectus divinus producat quidditates creabilium in esse intelligibili 

Q. 3 Utrum illud esse intelligibile quod habuit quidditas creabilis ab aeterno sit esse causatum 

Q. 4 Utrum esse intelligibile creabilium sit prius aliquo modo esse subsistentiae productae in divinis 

Q. 5 Utrum quidditas creaturae in esse intelligibili posita sit formaliter idea

Q. 6 Utrum esse quidditatis in esse intelligibili positae sit totaliter respectivum 

Q. 7 Utrum teneat ista consequentia: ‘aliquid non habet esse subiective, ergo non habet esse’ 

Q. 8 Utrum creatura ab aeterno habuit aliquod verum esse reale distinctum aliquo modo ab esse divino 

Q. 9 Utrum ponens creaturam habuisse aliquod verum esse reale ab aeterno possit salvare creationem 

Appendix

IOANNI S CANONICI Quaestiones super libros Physicorum II q. 3 a. 2 

MATTHIAS DOERING

Lectura I d. 35 

Lectura I d. 46 

Bibliography 

Primary Sources 

Secundary Sources 

Indices