Thomistic existentialism & cosmological reasoning /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Knasas, John F. X., author.
Imprint:	Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, [2019]
Description:	xi, 327 pages ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Thomas, -- Aquinas, Saint, -- 1225?-1274. Thomas, -- Aquinas, Saint, -- 1225?-1274. -- De ente et essentia. Thomas, -- Aquinas, Saint, -- 1225?-1274. De ente et essentia (Thomas, Aquinas, Saint) Existentialism. Metaphysics. God -- Proof, Cosmological. Existentialism. God -- Proof, Cosmological. Metaphysics.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11940381

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780813231853 081323185X
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	Cosmological reasoning is an important facet of classical arguments for the existence of God, but these arguments have been subject to may criticisms. The thesis of this book is that Thomas Aquinas can dodge many of the classic objections brought against cosmological reasoning. These objections criticize cosmological reasoning for its use of the Principle of Sufficient Reason; its notion of existence as a predicate; its use of ontological reasoning; its reliance on sense realism; its ignoring of the problem of evil; and its susceptibility to the critique of ontotheology as famously put forward by Heidegger. All of these objections receive a reply, showing that Aquinas's De Ente et Essentia reasoning for God as esse tantum employs a more nuanced understanding of a thing's existence than is found in Leibniz's classic cosmological arguments. Secondly, the book proposes that the kind of reasoning found in Aquinas's De Ente can be formulated in a more robust version. Prompted by Aquinas's admissions that philosophical knowledge of God is the prerogative of metaphysics, the second main portion of the book extensively illustrates how the more robust version of the De Ente is the interpretive key for Aquinas's many arguments for God. Finally, the deep purpose of the book is to reawaken interest in Thomistic Existentialism, an interpretation of Aquinas that flourished in the 1950's in the works of Etienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain, and Joseph Owens. In this interpretation, a particular thing's existence is the actuality of the thing in the sense of a distinctive actus not translatable into something else, for example, the fact of the thing or the thing having form.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1. Aquinas's De Ente Reasoning and the Cosmological Argument
1. Thomistic Reflections on Leibniz's a posteriori Reasonings
2. Existence and a Proof for God in Aquinas
3. Neo-Thomist Discussion of the De Ente Reasoning
4. Actus essendi and Analytic Thomism
5. The De Ente Reasoning and Objections to Cosmological Reasoning
Part 2. The De Ente Reasoning and Aquinas's Proofs for God
6. Aquinas's Metaphysics and Our Knowledge of God's Existence
7. A More Robust Version of the De Ente Reasoning
8. Viae for God; Summa contra Gentiles
9. The viae of the Summa Theologiae and the Compendium Theologiae
10. Other Possible viae
11. Questions and Replies
Conclusion: Does Aquinas Contribute to Cosmological Reasoning?
Selected Bibliography
Index

Thomistic existentialism & cosmological reasoning /

Similar Items