Thomas Aquinas: Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives

415 Pages·2002·23.5 MB·English

by  Brian Davies (editor)

Thomas Aquinas
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THOMAS AQUINAS
Contemporary Philosophical
Perspectives
Edited by
Brian Davies
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OO2
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas Aquinas : contemporary philosophical perspectives / edited by Brian Davies.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-19-515300-6; ISBN 0-19-515301-4 (pbk.)
i. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 122^-12,74. I- Davies, Brian, 1951-
8765.T54 T37 2002
i89'.4—dc2i 2001055168
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Margaret Urban Walker
with gratitude and affection
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Credits
Chapter i originally appeared in James A. Weisheipl, Nature and Motion in
the Middle Ages (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Press, 1985), pp. 177-201. Used by permission of the publisher.
Chapter 2 originally appeared in Revue International de Philosophic 52 (1998).
Used by permission of the editor.
Chapter 3 originally appeared in S. Knuuttila and J. Hintikka (eds.), The
Logic of Being (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers,
1986), pp. 181-200. Reprinted with kind permission from Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Chapter 4 originally appeared in The New Scholasticism 59 (1985). Reprinted
by permission of the editors.
Chapter 5 originally appeared in Medieval Philosophy and Theology 4 (1994).
Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
Chapter 6 originally appeared in Journal of the History of Philosophy 22
(1984). Reprinted by permission of the editor.
Chapter 7 originally appeared in John F. Wippel, The Metaphysical Thought
of Thomas Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Press, 2000), pp. 442-500. Used by permission of the publisher.
Chaper 8 originally appeared in Revue International de Philosophic 52 (1998).
Reprinted by permission of the editor.
Chapter 9 originally appeared in Anthony Kenny, The Legacy of Wittgenstein
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), pp. 61-76. Reprinted by permission of the pub-
lisher.
Chapter 10 originally appeared in Timo Koistinen and Tommi Lehtonen
(eds.), Philosophical Studies in Religion, Metaphysics, and Ethics (Helsinki:
Luther Agricola Society). Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Chapter n originally appeared in The Monist 80, 4 (1997), pp. 576-597.
Copyright © The Monist, Peru, Illinois 64354. Reprinted by permission.
Chapter 12 is reprinted from "Being and Goodness," by Eleonore Stump
and Norman Kretzmann in Divine and Human Action: Essays in the Meta-
physics of Theism, Thomas V Morris (ed.). Copyright © 1988 by Cornell
University. Used by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press.
Chapter 13 originally appeared in Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump
(eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas (Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1993). Reprinted with the permission of Cam-
bridge University Press.
Chapter 14 is reprinted from "Aquinas on the Passions," by Peter King in
Aquinas's Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann , Scott Mac-
donald and Eleonore Stump (eds.). Copyright © 1999 by Cornell Univer-
sity. Used by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press.
viii Credits
Preface
The purpose of this book is twofold. Primarily, it aims to provide teachers
and students of Aquinas with a convenient selection of some of the best
philosophical essays on him published since Aquinas: A Collection of Critical
Essays, edited by Anthony Kenny, appeared in 1969. But it is also intended
to provide an introduction or guide to Aquinas's thinking in general—one
of use to those who know little or nothing about it. For this reason, the
essays included range across the main areas of Aquinas's philosophical inter-
ests. For this reason also, they come with a substantial introduction to his
life and thought, a chronological list of his most significant writings, and a
large bibliography.
No collection of essays can fully do justice to the enormous complexity
and comprehensiveness of Aquinas's thought. And an enormous number of
studies on Aquinas have appeared since the volume edited by Kenny. So
selecting the following essays has not been an easy task. In making my
selection I have aimed to include material which clearly explains aspects of
Aquinas's thinking on all the philosophical topics which chiefly concerned
him: logic, metaphysics, natural theology, the relationship between philoso-
phy and theology, anthropology, philosophy of mind and action, ethics, and
legal and political philosophy. I have also aimed to include philosophically
perspicuous essays which engage with that thinking at a critical level. Most
of the material that follows is therefore both expository and evaluative.
While intended for a wide audience, it combines historical scholarship with
rigorous philosophical discussion and thus should prove useful to profession-
als as well as to beginners.
For advice in the preparation of this book I am grateful to Gyula Klima,
Brian Leftow, Robert Pasnau, Sara Penella, Martin Stone, and Eleonore
Stump. For her editorial support, I am indebted to Cynthia Read of Oxford
University Press. For her excellent work of copyediting, I am grateful to
Pamela Bruton.