Preparation for the 2 April 2019 Session

Highlights to help your reading of Pieper's Guide to Thomas Aquinas, IV-VI:

• St Thomas can't be identified as "Aristotelian" (or "Platonist" or "Augustinian" for that matter). He looked for the truth of relevant matters wherever (and from whomever) he could find it. 
• For St Thomas what Aristotle has to say is important not because Aristotle says it but inasmuch as it is true. St Thomas engaged with Aristotle's ideas, scrutinised them and made them relevant to philosophy in the Middle Ages and beyond. 
• He deepened on Aristotle because of the Greek philosopher's attention to concreteness, to the natural world, to things as they are in reality. 
• The discovery of Aristotle and his perspective coincides with a move in Christian thought away from a certain Augustinian contempt for the (natural) world and in favour of a symbolic interpretation of this world as a symbol of the sacred.
• This discovery could potentially lead to an extreme view away from the sacred (secularisation) and this was the reason Aristotle was seen with reserve by many.
• For St Thomas, a believer in Sacred Revelation as the highest expression of objective truth, Aristotle represents however an opportunity to revisit an implicit idea present in Christian thought from the beginning: the appreciation of Creation (including the natural world).  
• Though several universities flourish in the XIII century, some focus more in Law (eg Bologna) or Maths and Sciences (eg Salerno and Oxford), but one, Paris, focuses on the two disciplines that are universal by nature (about the whole of reality): theology and philosophy. Therefore the University of Paris becomes the most important academy of the Western world. 
• St Thomas arrives there as a student in 1242. He becomes the equivalent of a lecturer (after obtaining his licentia docendi or "permission to teach") in 1256. Due to the "Mendicant controversy" he is barred from membership to an equivalent of the university's teaching union (the universitas magistrorum) and his students are forbidden to attend his lectures. In the meantime he has just concluded De ente et essentia (the small work we are analysing during these weeks) and is composing other works.
• The matter is so serious that it is not solved till the Pope himself intervenes in 1257, so that Dominican St Thomas and Franciscan St Bonaventure be allowed to teach. During this time Thomas defends the way of life fostered by the Mendicant orders using the disputatio ("disputation").
• The disputatio was a disciplined form of debate, based on solid argumentation, but still remaining a dialogue with those holding the opposing view. It was a very common way to learn and teach in medieval universities. The second work of St Thomas we'll analyse this year (De veritate) is written in that format.   

Preparation for the 5 March 2019 Session

"Translation" of some of the terms to ordinary language, just as a first intuitive approach to the concepts (not a full academic explanation) of Aquinas's De ente et essentia, I-III 

• ​"being" = a verb, the act of being (essse); or = something that "is" in the sense of actively being (ente); 
• "essence" = that which something is (essentia); all things "are" (have being, esse), each is  a "being" (ente); but how do you distinguish between one and the other? By their "essence" or the what they are (a tree, a human person, etc.);
• "act" = the principle of "movement" ​​metaphysically understood (from possibility to reality, from capacity to actual perfection);
• "potency" = the principle of "limitation" or contention of act (possibility before it becomes real, capacity before it reaches perfection). 
• "substance" = a "proper" being (when "being" means "ente," see above);
• "accident" = a feature of a substance, something that can or cannot be in the substance without the substance losing what it is.
• "nature" = the principle of (metaphysical) movement of something, according to what it is.
• "genus" = a family of species.
• "species" = what something is, its "quiddity" or essence.
• "quiddity" = from the Latin interrogative "quid" or what (is)? Used as equivalent to nature, form or essence depending on the context.
• "form" = the principle of actuality making a being (ente) to have a specific nature. 
• "matter" = the principle of limitation that makes possible for material beings (entia) belonging to a species to be many. 

An example. A horse is a being (ente), because is something that has act of being (esse). Before we say anything about it, we take for granted that it is. Its essence (essentia) is to be an animal that eats oats and alfalfa, drinks water, neighs, runs, etc. A foal is a mature horse in potency (potentia), if you train it and care for it to develop to its full ​perfection (actus) or actuality, one day it will run as fast as an adult horse. It is of the substance (substantia) of the horse to have four legs, not one hundred, but whether ​​it's being brown is an accident (accidens): it could be white and still being a horse. It belongs to its nature (natura) to neigh and to run, but not to fly. "Horse" is a species of the genus "animals". The matter of a horse is this matter that makes this horse different from all the other horses. Its form is the nature of a horse that this particular horse shares with all the other horses members of the same species. The essence of a horse comprehends its form and matter. And for a horse to exist essence is not enough it needs the act of being (esse). 

It can be shown the possibility non material beings or "intelligences"; they can't be differentiate from one another by matter, so each of them is a species constituted of one individual. Still intelligences or non-material or spiritual beings are composed of essence and act of being (esse).

Some clarifications requested by group members:

The categories mentioned in the reading refer to what we can say about things, substance and the nine accidents. Substance has act of being in itself and therefore possesses some independence. The accidents are quantity, quality, relation, location, time, position, habit, action and passion and they don't have their own act of being but live in another. You can find a simple explanation here and a comprehensive one here.

To better understand paragraph number 18, St Thomas is saying that through the form something acquires not only the act of being, but the act of being in a certain, specific way. The form "whiteness" causes something concrete to be white. But the key to understand the paragraph is the conclusion: "It remains, therefore, that the word 'essence' in composed substances signifies that which is composed of matter and form". Not only act of being, but matter and form which make for instance a horse not just any creature or just any horse, but this concrete brown, 4 year old horse that I'm riding.   

Prime (undesignated) matter is the principle of material potentiality to become anything, but it's pure indetermination. Designated matter (materia quantitate signata) means the matter that has been actualised in a certain way, i.e. a matter that has received a form to become something (eg a horse). 

Finally, in paragraph 28 St Thomas is not saying that the human being has two natures (as we say of Christ assuming the human and the divine nature), or that he has two different essences in one (eg a frog and an eagle). The key to understand the paragraph is "perfection". So the essence of humans implies both the sensitive perfection (shared with animals) and the intellectual perfection (shared with spiritual beings). But he is speaking about human beings as being one essence only.

2019 Program

5 February: Josef Pieper, Guide to St Thomas Aquinas ("Guide"), chapters I to III.

5 March : Thomas Aquinas, Being and Essence ("De ente et essentia"), chapters 1-3.

2 April : Guide, IV-VI.

7 May: De ente et essentia, 4-6.

4 June : Guide, VII-VIII.

2 July: Thomas Aquinas, On Truth (De veritate), chapters 1 to 4.

6 August: Guide, IX-X.

3 September: De veritate, 5-8.

1 October: Guide, XI-XII.

5 November: De veritate, 9-12.

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Preparation for the 2nd October 2018 Session

Reading:"​​Veritatis Splendor (​regarding certain fundamental questions of the Church's moral teaching)," by St John Paul II. If you plan to read it electronically, you can access a very readable version ​​by clicking here. 

Date: Tuesday the 2nd of October 2018.

In last month's discussion ​on Blessed Paul VI's Humanae Vitae and ​​​Elizabeth Anscombe's ​​Contraception and Chastity, ​​we analysed the Pope's and Anscombe's assessment of what then was a new type of contraceptive (the pill), in the context of the Church's traditional teaching on marriage. 

The ideas in Humanae Vitae, which itself had followed Pius XI's Casti Conubii, would be further expounded in John Paul II's apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio. This is an example of what Blessed Cardinal Newman called an "organic development" of the Church's teaching--in this particular case on married life.

Twenty-five years on, however, the confusion existing in very specific fields of the moral teaching of the Church had spread to many others, often propounded by ​​theological analyses based in deficient philosophical reasoning. The "Philosopher-Pope" on request of many bishops undertook a fully-fledged and philosophically grounded update of Catholic moral teaching to respond to the challenge of moral relativism. Shortly after the publication of the current Catechism of the Catholic Church John Paul II released Veritatis Splendor in 1993. 

In addition to "Love and Responsibility," on Catholic sexual morality, which he wrote in 1960, Karol Wojtyla wrote extensively in moral and anthropological philosophy. His most important philosophical work is "Person and Act" published in 1969. He is also author of the encyclical that gives name to our group and whose 20th anniversary we celebrate this Friday 14 September: Fides et Ratio.

For purposes of your preparation for the next session, the whole of Veritatis Splendor is hugely important, however if you are pressed with time and have to choose, start with Chapter II "The Church and the Discernment of Certain Tendencies in present-day moral theology," and note how much philosophical reasoning is used in the analysis and assessment of those tendencies.

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Faith & Reason 2018 Program

20th of February - Josef Ratzinger

Introduction to Christianity [1968]

o   Chapter 1: ‘Belief in the World of Today’ (pp. 39-81).


27th of March - Etienne Gilson

The Christian Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas [1956]

o   Introduction (pp. 3-25).


24th of April - Dietrich von Hildebrand

Man, Woman, and the Meaning of Love [1966]

o   Chapter 7 ‘Friendship between man and woman’ (pp.98-120).


22nd of May - Edith Stein

Essays on Woman, Collected Works [1930]

o   Chapter 4 ‘Fundamental Principles of Women’s Education’ (pp. 1-11).


19th of June - Jacques Maritain

An Introduction to Philosophy [1930, orig. French 1920]

o   Chapter 4 ‘Plato and Aristotle’ (pp. 37-55).


24th of July - Josef Pieper

Guide to Thomas Aquinas [1986]

o   Chapter X (pp. 117-133).


28th of August - Elizabeth Anscombe

o   Anscombe, ‘Contraception and Chastity’[1972]

o   Paul VI, Humane Vitae [1968], New Translation (2018)


2nd of October - Saint Pope John Paul II

o   Veritatis Splendor [1993]


30th of October - Robert Spaemann

Love and the Dignity of Human Life: On Nature and Natural Law  [2012]

o   Chapter 2 ‘Human Dignity andHuman Nature’ (pp. 27-44).


20th of November - Cornelio Fabro

Selected Works. Volume 1: Selected Articles on Metaphysics [various]

o   Chapter 3 ‘The Intensive Hermeneutics of Thomistic Philosophy: The Notion of Participation’ (pp. 449-491).



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Faith & Reason 2017 Program

9th ofFebruary - Metaphysics andOntology

1.     ‘Metaphysics’ (Artigas, pp. 41-50).

2.     Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 (John Young).

9th of March - Philosophy of Nature

1.   ‘Philosophy of Nature’ (Artigas, pp. 51-58).

2.  Aristotle’s Concept of Nature: Traditional Interpretation and Results of Recent Studies (YouTube video and transcript)

3.  Aristotle's Natural Philosophy - Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Optional).

20th of April - Philosophy of Human Beings and living beings

1.     ‘Philosophy of Living Beings’ (Artigas, pp. 59-64).

2.     Suma of the Summa (Aquinas, ed. Kreeft pp. 243-266).

3.     Chapter 10 (John Young) (Optional), pp. 173-194.

11th of May - Moral Philosophy

1.     ‘Ethics' (Artigas, pp. 65-69).

2.     Chapter 3 'Are there any moral absolutes? Finding Blackand White in a World of Greys' (Kreeft, Making Choices, pp. 27-38).

3.     Chapter 5, ‘Twelve Little Boxes Morality Won’t Fit Into' (Kreeft, Making Choices, pp. 53-72).

                                                                                                            

8th of June - Philosophy of knowledge and Logic

1.     ‘Logic’ (Artigas, pp. 71-77).

2.     Chapter 6 ‘Knowledge in General’ (John Young), pp. 109-122.

  

13th of July - History Philosophy Part I – Ancient andMedieval Philosophy

1.     ‘History of Philosophy’ (Artigas, pp. 79-89).

2.     Chapter 1 (John Young), pp.  9-27.

3.     Chapter 2 (John Young), pp. 29-43.

10th of August - History Philosophy Part II – Modern andContemporary Philosophy

1.     Chapter 3 (John Young), pp. 45-68.

2.     Chapter 4 (John Young), pp. 73-92.

27th ofSeptember - Theology andPhilosophy

1.     ‘Theology as Science’ and ‘Philosophy and Theology’ (Artigas, pp. 93-110).

2.     ‘Faith, Philosophy and Theology’ (Ratzinger, pp. 13-29).

25th ofOctober - Christianity andPhilosophy

1.     ‘Philosophy and Christianity’ (Artigas, pp. 111-119).

2.     ‘The Crisis of Cultures’ (Ratzinger, Part 1 Crisis of Cultures, pp ).

22nd ofNovember - The Christian andPhilosophy

1.     ‘The Christian before philosophy’ (Artigas, pp 121-131).

2.     Chapter VII 'Current Requirements and Tasks' (pts. 80-99) and 'Conclusion' (pts. 100-122) Fides et Ratio (St Pope John Paul II).



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NICE, MUNICH AND WESTERN DEMOCRACY

First published in Online Opinion. Also available on Linkedin.

Attacks similar to those in Nice and Munich could happen in any other Western city in the near future. Discussion about the political culture that grounds liberal democracies should not be delayed.

Nice is a beautiful spot in Europe. Located between Cannes and Monaco at the shore of the Mediterranean over the French Riviera, this picturesque city has a long history going all the way back to its foundation by the Greeks in the IV century BC. It is also the fifth most populated city in France and hosts the third busiest airport in the country.

On 14 July—Bastille Day--Nice sadly became known worldwide as the stage of a bloody terrorist attack, joining a list that includes the European cities of Madrid (2004), London (2005), Liège (2011), Paris (January and November 2015), Brussels (2016) and Munich and other German cities just a few days ago.

A New Pattern of Fear?

Each of those attacks is in itself shocking and frightening. Shocking, due to the number of victims and the ensuing chaos caused to these cities. And frightening, as  Europeans stop wondering if another attack will take place, and instead wonder when and where. France has extended the state of emergency it had imposed after the November attacks in Paris. But neither France nor other European countries (such as Germany) can live on permanent alert.

To be sure, this phenomenon of violent attacks in the name of religion mixed with geopolitics and depression, and resulting in civilians casualties is not exclusive to Europe, or even the West. According to the Washington Post, terrorism has killed 700 people in Europe and the Americas since 2015, compared with over 3,000 each in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and more than 20,000 in the Middle East. But this cannot be the way to solve disagreements in liberal democracies.

Furthermore, the phenomenon is not a challenge to the existence of the countries affected. Like many other Western countries, France —which has suffered several attacks in the past months— has abundant and varied resources to chase the people responsible for these criminal acts, reinforce security, fight possible sites of radicalisation internally and abroad, and improve its capacity to prevent similar attacks in the future. Yet, this is not the point.

The danger is that, in an effort to fight this growing plague, liberal democracies may end up giving up their fundamental values: that they preserve themselves as states at the price of becoming less liberal and democratic.

Back to Basics: Democracy 1.0

Simplistic fixes, such as targeting a human group in society as the cause of the situation: “Islam” or “immigrants,” or “Syrians” will only make matters worse. Just in the past two centuries Jews, Christians, dark-skinned and Chinese people, among many others, have been blamed, discriminated against and often persecuted for problems affecting the societies where they lived.

The problem with this approach is that real people do not necessarily think or behave according to the label they have been given. Peace-loving Muslims, productive immigrants, and law-abiding Syrians are not difficult to come across and that fact renders stereotypes not only divisive, but also inaccurate and useless. Recurring to them cannot solve the profound crisis devastating not only European, but Western democracies in general.

The way forward is likely to be much more complex and difficult than that, but it’s feasible and should be tried. First, Western democracies must reflect on the political culture, the civil values present at their origin, articulate them and acknowledge themselves as “cultured” in that way—possessing a certain culture. This will not be easy, since many Western democracies (especially in Europe) had come to think of themselves as “culture-free,” and therefore with a “neutral” public sphere capable of tolerating and accepting local and immigrant groups with the most varied cultural backgrounds.

The second step is to define clearly which aspects of that political culture are indispensable for Western democracies to continue existing as such. Human rights, the rule of law, balance of powers, accountability, freedom of expression and peaceful deliberation are some elements that cannot be overlooked in a liberal democracy.

Lastly, those values must be spelt out to new residents, with a clear path to citizenship that passes through their adherence to the principles that hold their polity together. Liberal democracies can tolerate much, but there are limits —precisely in core values— which cannot be compromised.

Each Western democracy has particular features: Australia is not Belgium, Sweden is not the U.S. But they all are facing a similar test as they become more culturally diverse. Radicalisation and violence is a complex problem which will not disappear any time soon. Attacks similar to those in Nice  and Munich could happen in any other Western city in the near future. Discussion about the political culture that grounds liberal democracies should not be delayed.