Over at Thomistica, Professor John F.X. Knasas has kindly responded to my rejoinder to his reply to my review of his book. Here is the sequence for those interested: My essay-length review of Knasas, Thomistic Existentialism & Cosmological Reasoning (July 2020) Knasas’s response to my review, “Aquinas’ Metaphysics and Aristotle’s Arguments for the Eternity of … Continue reading Debate with Knasas
The argument which follows is a recapitulation of a tradition of arguments found in Aristotle’s Physics (VII.1 and book VIII), as well as Aquinas’s “First Way” or proof from motion. Here is the argument in nuce, in its Aristotelian form. 1. Every mobile in motion is put in motion by another mover.2. Every mover (moving … Continue reading From Physics VII.1 to Free Energy
The following is the prepared copy of a paper I delivered on September 15, 2023, at “Aquinas After 750 Years: Still the Common Doctor?” a conference at the Dominican House of Studies. Despite the observation by Pope Leo XIII that “there is no conflict worthy of the name”[1] between scholastic philosophical principles and the modern … Continue reading St. Thomas Aquinas’s Sapiential Vision for the Philosophy of Nature
The following is an excerpt from a manuscript in drafts, Searching for the Cosmos. It is from a chapter concerned with whether history is an essential property of the cosmos as a whole. Comments, criticism, and questions are welcome! Does the cosmos have a beginning in time or is it temporally beginningless? Drawing on key … Continue reading Searching for the Beginning of Time
The following are notes from the first week of this semester’s seminar on the Summa contra Gentiles. The complexity of ScG (see here) suggests that we read the prooemium of the whole work in Book I alongside the prooemia specific to Books II–IV so as to get a sense of the whole. We will discuss … Continue reading The Polyvalent Hierarchy of Wisdoms
Over the next several months, based on rereading it for a reading group with fellow interested philosophers and scientists, I hope to post some reflections on Rob Koons’s new book, Is St. Thomas’s Aristotelian Philosophy of Nature Obsolete? The book is a summative presentation of an ongoing research project into hylomorphism and modern science which … Continue reading De Koninck’s “philosophical species”
This semester, I am teaching an upper division seminar in medieval philosophy. I hope to post weekly updates and reflections based upon that course, which I have titled “Creator, Creation, and the Common Doctor: The Sapiential Cosmology of St. Thomas Aquinas.” This introduction, then, serves as “syllabus day” for the blog series. The course studies … Continue reading The Sapiential Cosmology of St. Thomas Aquinas
Over at Thomistica, I review two books of interest to philosophers and Thomists. The first is Fr. Ezra Sullivan’s Habits and Holiness. The second is Resnick and Kitchell’s biography of St. Albert the Great.
From the ongoing drafts of Searching for the Cosmos. Let’s say that the universe or cosmos is the unity of order of all mobile beings according to place, duration, and causality. What is a “unity of order”? A “unity of order” is dependent upon a certain type of relation, in this case a certain relationship … Continue reading The universe as a whole
Updated: The following is based upon my remarks at the inaugural meeting of the Institute on the Catechism. I have been tasked with talking about the place of human nature and sexuality in the cosmos. To fulfill this task, I would like to sketch two competing paradigms for understanding that place. The first is older, … Continue reading The Harmony of Creation
John G. Brungardt 