The following lecture was prepared for the students of Hillsdale College, MI, with the kind support of the Hillsdale Catholic Society. * * * Common Sense, Science, and the Pursuit of Wisdom John G. Brungardt Lecture for the Hillsdale Catholic Society 5 December 2017 1. Introduction It is a commonplace to claim that science and … Continue reading Common Sense, Science, and the Pursuit of Wisdom
In his Cursus Philosophicus, John of St. Thomas considers the final six predicaments or categories in the second part of his Logic, and in q. 19, a. 3, he turns to ubi or “where,” the category that seems to add some being to locus or “place” as a type of quantity. The nub of the … Continue reading Two medieval thought experiments in a vacuum
The following is a modified-for-blog version of the presentation which I gave at the Segundas Jornadas Postdoctorales e Iniciación de Filosofía at the Institute of Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, June 22. Your comments, criticism, or thoughts are welcome. An Aristotelian and Modern Philosophy of Cosmology? A Sketch of Research and Some Fundamental Problems • … Continue reading An Aristotelian and Modern Philosophy of Cosmology? (Presentation of 22 June)
Cluny Media has recently reprinted the 1951 Sheed & Ward edition of John of St. Thomas' The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, translated by Fr. Walter Farrell, O.P., with a new introduction by Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., written especially for this reprint. The editor-in-chief, John Clarke, provided me with a copy of the book, and what follows … Continue reading Review of a new edition of a work by John of St. Thomas
For those who have better things to do than read the 22pp version of my De Koninck abstraction paper, what follows is a slightly edited version of the 15-minute version of the paper which I delivered at the recent III Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Tomista. St. Thomas and Modern Natural Science: Reconsidering Abstraction from Matter 1. … Continue reading Conference version of “Reconsidering Abstraction from Matter”
The effects of the Cartesian view of human nature permeate our scientific thinking to an impressive degree. This is all the more a paradox since "the isolation of the mind from the body entails an isolation of the mind from the world" and hence the isolation of the knower from what he wants to know. The resulting … Continue reading The Empty Brain
Descartes pines for the ultimate fresh start to human reasoning: Thus also, those ancient cities which, from being at first only villages, have become, in course of time, large towns, are usually but ill laid out compared with the regularity constructed towns which a professional architect has freely planned on an open plain; so that … Continue reading Unreal City
Roger Scruton's EPPC essay "Living with a Mind" is worth a thoughtful perusal. The heart of the essay concerns Scruton's understanding of leisure in the Aristotelian sense. The introduction of this human ideal occasions a three-sentence review of Parfit's massive On What Matters as an illustrative aside: Aristotle describes work as ascholia, the absence of leisure, … Continue reading Dealing with the Fact that We Live with Minds
John Locke complains: I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make use of it gladly: and where it fails them, they cry out, it is matter of faith, and above reason. And I do not see how they can argue, with any one, or ever convince a gainsayer who makes use … Continue reading The Shroud of Our Salvation
Jaki's Chesterton, A Seer of Science, is an enjoyable tour through the Englishman's common sense understanding of the deliverances of science—it could almost be called a statement outlining his philosophy of science if that term did not conjure up such stodgy material by comparison to the vigorous wit Jaki's lectures abstract from a variety of Chesterton's … Continue reading Chesterton’s anthropic principle
John G. Brungardt 