Summaries & Keywords

James K. Farge, “Why and How Gilson’s Institute of Mediaeval Studies Was Different from Other Medieval Programs,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 775–786, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100432:

SUMMARY: Etienne Gilson was convinced that a multidisciplinary core curriculum was essential to educate scholars properly about the Middle Ages. Having failed to interest universities on both sides of the Atlantic in his vision, he was elated in1927 to find that the priests at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto were eager to implement his approach. Although enrollment was hindered by both the Great Depression of the 1930s and the subsequent Second World War, Gilson’s Institute of Mediaeval Studies (“Pontifical” since 1939) produced a significant number of medievalists who had immersed themselves in the full Gilsonian curriculum: palaeography, sources of history, philosophy, theology, medieval science, law, art, and literature. For three decades PIMS was the only institution devoted exclusively to mediaeval studies. In the post-War era, however, a number of universities founded centres for medieval studies, but they reverted to the pre-Gilsonian concentration on specialization in one discipline. The sheer number of those programs, together with financial difficulties at PIMS, relegated Gilson’s dream of a multidisciplinary curriculum at PIMS to history. The Pontifical Institute has successfully implemented a smaller program of Manuscript Studies, and its library continues to attract scholars from both North America and Europe.

KEYWORDS: Étienne Gilson, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, PIMS, philosophical education, mediaeval studies.

 

Daniel Fitzpatrick, “St. Thomas and the Bard: On Beauty in the Tempest and the Limits of Aesthetic Experience,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 789–812, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100433:

SUMMARY: The paper addresses the matter of differences of aesthetic judgment by examining Shakespeare’s Tempest through the Thomistic understanding of substance and of beauty. It seeks principally to explore three elements of aesthetic inquiry: (1) what characterizes the subject who perceives beauty? (2) what characterizes the object of aesthetic experience? and (3) how do aesthetic judgments differ from sensual perceptions? The Tempest serves as particularly fruitful territory for such exploration in virtue of the persons of Miranda and Caliban, who by the limitations of their experience delineate the generic borders, the degrees of virtual quantum excellence, which characterize the beautiful object. Their education at the hand of Prospero likewise elucidates somewhat the process of aesthetic training.

KEYWORDS: Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, William Shakespeare, genus, aesthetics, virtual quantity, substance, beauty, perception, taste.

 

Natalia Gondek, “Specific Research Elements in Andrzej Maryniarczyk’s Realistic Metaphysics,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 813–828, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100434:

SUMMARY: The paper deals with the specific nature of research in realistic metaphysics by Andrzej Maryniarczyk. The first part presents the method of realistic metaphysics, i.e., metaphysical separation, which constitutes the basic method of forming the understanding of being. The second part focuses on the characteristics of the system of metaphysics as a cognitive response to the existence of reality. The third part concentrates on the metaphysical theory of creation ex nihilo, showing the essential aspects of this theory. All the presented issues constitute important complements, which integrate the metaphysics practiced by A. Maryniarczyk into a whole.

KEYWORDS: Andrzej Maryniarczyk, realistic metaphysics, system of metaphysics, separation, being, creation ex nihilo.

 

Arkadiusz Gudaniec, “The Existential Metaphysics of the Person. Part 2: Esse Personale and the Metaphysical Turn,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 829–846, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100435:

SUMMARY: Against the background of the model of the metaphysics of the person (presented in the article “The Existential Metaphysics of the Person. Part 1: The Classical Concept of the Person and the Metaphysical Theory of Esse,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 2) which was initiated by Thomas Aquinas and developed in the Lublin Philosophical School, this paper focuses on the attempt to show the philosophical breakthrough that the concept of personal existence can bring, and points out the most important theoretical consequences of adopting this theory in metaphysics. It outlines the elements of a new metaphysics of the person, based on the concept of personal existence, and hypothesizes about the metaphysical turn this concept could make. The investigations undertaken in the paper lead to the conclusion that not all inferences have yet been drawn from the concept of esse personale, and that the entire depth of the metaphysics of existence has not yet been explored.

KEYWORDS: Thomas Aquinas, Lublin Philosophical School, Karol Wojtyła, Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec, man, human being, person, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of man, metaphysics of the person, metaphysical personalism, existence, personal existence, esse personale, esse, esse ut actus essendi, realistic metaphysics, existential metaphysics.

 

Dennis F. Polis, “Metaphysics and Evolution: Response to Critics,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 847–891, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100436:

SUMMARY: I respond to Michał Chaberek’s and Robert A. Delfino’s criticisms of my argument that evolution is compatible with Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics. Biological species, as secondary substances, are beings of reason founded in the natures of their instances. They are traceable to God’s creative intent, but not to universal exemplars. Aquinas teaches that concepts are derived from sensible accidents. Thus, evolution’s directed variation of such accidents will eventually require new species concepts. This accords with projective realism, whichallows diverse, well-founded concepts based on the multiple perspectives and conceptual spaces of knowing subjects. Charges that this is nominalism, not moderate realism, are rebutted; however, it is relativism because knowledge is a subject-object relation. Other metaphysical issues are considered. Chaberek’s thesis that species cannot evolve naturally fails because he: (1) reifies the species concept, (2) misrepresents the motivation, structure and conclusions of evolution, (3) confuses Aristotle’s four causes and (4) limits God’s creative omnipotence. Finally, Chaberek is out of step with contemporary theology.

KEYWORDS: Aristotelianism, Thomism, evolution, substance-accident distinction, epistemology, moderate realism, projective realism, nominalism, relativism, intentional existence, teleology, laws of nature, species problem, intelligent design, problem of universals, abstraction, exemplar ideas, creationism.

 

Marcin Sieńkowski, “Filozoficzne, teologiczne i afektywne racje uzasadniające powołanie [Philosophical, Theological and Affective Reasons for Vocation],” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 893–913, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100437:

SUMMARY: The article deals with the problem of justifying a vocation. The arguments used to justify the existence of God were used for this. It has been shown that for the existence of a vocation one can present natural (philosophical), supernatural (theological) and affective (experimental) reasons. The supernatural reasons are necessary and sufficient for understanding the vocation; natural and affective reasons are helpful, but they do not ultimately determine the existence of a vocation.

KEYWORDS: vocation, reason, justification, philosophy, theology, faith, affective cognition.

 

Katarzyna Stępień, “Mieczysław A. Krąpiec’s Metaphysics of Law,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 915–941, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100438:

SUMMARY: The subject of interest of the philosophy (metaphysics) of law developed by Mieczysław A. Krąpiec is the existence of natural law, the ways in which the content of this law is formulated, the basis of established law and justice, the relationship between established law and natural law, and the conditions of law’s implementation in various communities. Krąpiec proposed, firstly, a realistic interpretation of law as a real and interpersonal relation; secondly, a concept of the analogical natural law; and thirdly, the interpretation of human rights as ways of realizing the personal nature of the human being—as the ways which are found in the social context and proclaimed particularly in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Concerning the philosophy of politics, Krąpiec considered the issue of the sovereignty of the human person in relation to sovereignty of society, nation, and the State, as well as the issue of politics understood as the realization of the common good in a prudent manner. Krąpiec also referred to the Polish tradition of defending the rights of nations, thus building the foundations of the philosophy of nation.

KEYWORDS: Mieczysław A. Krąpiec, philosophy of law, metaphysics of law, natural law, human rights, common good, sovereingty, justice, relations.

 

Brian Welter, “Science and the Christian Faith by Christopher C. Knight,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 945–951, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100439:

SUMMARY: This paper is a review of Christopher C. Knight’s book, Science and the Christian Faith. According to the author, Knight’s book sheds light on the wide differences between Orthodox and western theology and applies Orthodox-inspired perspectives to explaining many key aspects and terms, such as the fall and its ramifications, miracles, grace, the sacraments, the western distinction between the natural and the supernatural, and the link between the Logos and the logoi. The author concludes that Knight’s book is an attempt to show that the Orthodox vision of the universe is not in competition with science.

KEYWORDS: Christopher C. Knight, science, Christianity, Orthodox theology, western theology, the natural, the supernatural, Logos, logoi.

 

Pedro García Casas, “What Is the Gift?,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 955–973: DOI: 10.26385/SG.100440:

SUMMARY: This article discusses the problem of gift from the perspective of philosophical personalism. Since there are different doctrines of gift, it first provides an overview of anthropological, sociological, philosophical, ethical, and religious approaches to the nature of gift. Then, it delineates the essential notes of the gift and its structure, and relates the gift to duties of justice. Finally, it shows that the gift constitutes an anthropological transcendental that helps us to better understand man and his supernatural dimension.

KEYWORDS: Gift, donation, love, sacrifice, justice, anthropological transcendental.

 

Kien Thi Pham and Dung Xuan Bui, “Pragmatist Idea of Democracy in Education and Its Meaning for Educational Innovation in Vietnam Today,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 975–995, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100441:

SUMMARY: This paper uses the philosophical methods employed by Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey to formulate pragmatism’s basic ideas about education. The ideas proposed by the pragmatists are also used to compare and define their relationship between each other in order to create a new philosophy (theory) of democratic education. Based on the assumptions of pragmatism to show democracy in education, the paper explains the application of pragmatism to educational reform in Vietnam today. For pragmatism is to be what unites education.

KEYWORDS: Vietnam, democracy, education, philosophy, pragmatism.

 

Peter A. Redpath, “With a Diamond in His Shoe: Reflections on Jorge J. E. Gracia’s Quest for Self-Perfection,” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 4 (October–December 2021): 997–1029, DOI: 10.26385/SG.100442:

SUMMARY: Jorge J. E. Gracia, was born in Cuba in 1942. At age 19, he escaped Cuba and arrived in the United States. In 2019, 58 years later, in a nation which, prior to his arrival in North America, had no major Latino cultural presence in higher education and philosophy, Gracia rose to hold the Samuel P. Capen Chair and State University of New York at Buffalo Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature. In this position, he became the leading figure to institutionalize Latin American philosophy in the U.S. academy and an internationally-renowned scholar in medieval philosophy. Jorge J. E. Gracia died in the United States on July 13, 2021.
In this paper the author shows that what properly explains the philosophical and adult-personal life of Gracia is the Thomistic principle of virtual quantity. He contends that the only way to understand Gracia’s personal and philosophical life is to grasp this life as one of an organizational psychologist pursuing perfect self-realization in action and understanding: someone chiefly interested in intellectually grasping precisely how organizational wholes (including his own psyche) become united and divided, and operate when so united and divided.

KEYWORDS: Jorge J. E. Gracia, philosophy, comparative literature, Thomism, virtual quantity, self-perfection, tradition, identity, Catholicism, religious faith, organizational psychology, ragamuffin Thomist.