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Course Topic: Selected Philosophical Issues in the Summa Contra Gentiles by Thomas Aquinas
Désiré-Joseph Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926) in the garden of the KUL Institute of Philosophy
Professors Andrea Robiglio KUL and Richard C. Taylor KUL & MU
“Aquinas in Context” Thursdays 16h-19h. Location TBA
This course will focus on eight (8) key topics in the first three of the four books of what is Thomas Aquinas’s most philosophical major personal work, his Summa Contra Gentiles: (i) the existence and nature of God; (ii) knowing and naming God; (iii) Divine Goodness; (iv) God’s own knowledge; (v) Creation; (vi) the Human Soul as Intellectual Substance; (vii) Happiness; (viii) Prophecy. For each of these topics special attention will be given to his use and engagement with sources from the philosophical traditions in the lands of Islam. This is a new methodological approach to the study of Aquinas that has proven valuable for uncovering the key sources and reasoning of the Dominican friar. While not altogether novel to scholars and students, it has come to have the name, source based contextualism.
This video and these two sets of lectures on Aquinas and his Arabic sources in Latin translation are recommended for all students:
(1) Illustrating the Importance of the Arabic Philosophical Tradition for Aquinas: video link
(2) Introductory lectures on Ibn Sīnā / Avicenna: http://richardctaylor.info/introductory-lectures-on-the-metaphysics-of-avicenna/.
(3) Five Lectures on Aquinas and the Arabic Tradition: http://richardctaylor.info/5-lectures-on-aquinas-and-the-arabic-tradition-2020/.
Note: For the benefit of all students, one full class will be devoted to explaining and demonstrating how to prepare professional philosophy articles and papers. See the class schedule below for 7 Nov.
Instructors Office Hours
Professor Robiglio: (forthcoming)
Professor Taylor: available via TEAMS by appointment Mondays 19h-21h CET .
Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able on their own to understand, interpret, and comment on Aquinas’s philosophical writing, as well as orient themselves in the technical terminology and grasp the meaning and structure of the debated issues, some cases in the context of the Arabic philosophical tradition important to the development of the thought of Aquinas. This includes the development of these skills:
- identifying, summarizing, ‘reconstructing’ the arguments;
- engaging with sophisticated interpretations of problematic textual passages, making use of the primary and secondary sources and interpretive categories implied in them and looking for further conceptual paradigms to uncover the hidden assumptions of the reasoning;
- arguing analytically and historically for or against explanations of the debated issues as they have been presented in the literature;
- conceiving their own argumentative reflection and organizing it according to a concrete and intellectually insightful structure, expressing such an outline in a well-written and possibly elegant paper.
Course Grading and Work Expectations; Due Dates (forthcoming)
Bibliographical Guide (link forthcoming)
Notable Secondary Literature (Link forthcoming)
Chronology of the Works of Thomas Aquinas
A Chronology of the Works of Albertus Magnus
Procedures: Student Class Presentations Starting 10 October : Assignments for Presenters and Other Students
Student Presenter teams of 2-3 students will be assigned to prepare presentations on texts and topics assigned by the instructors. Presentations will be made at class weekly followed by discussion and questions for an hour or a bit more.
(1) Instructions for Student Presenter teams:
From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources and each topic team of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. There will be two team presentations for each class 10 October – 5 December, with the exception of 7 November.
(2) Instructions for Other Class Students: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
Format For Thursday Student Presentations: 9-9:15 (15 min) Profs Robiglio & Taylor Framing Topics; 9:15-10:10 (A) Presentation & Discussion; 10:10-10:20 Break; 10:20-11:15 (B) Presentation & Discussion; 11:15-11:40 Broader or Extended Discussion; then finally Preview for Next Class.
Course Meetings (revisions may be made to the plan below depending the number of students formally enrolled in the course)
(1) 26 Sept: Introduction to the course: (i) Contextualizing the Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) among the works of Aquinas; (ii) key sources: (a) the Latin Christian Tradition and Aristotle; (b) translated sources from the Arabic Peripatetic Philosophical Tradition; (iii) the pedagogical structures of the course: student team presentations, development of course papers, et al.
(2) 3 Oct: (i) Key teachings and sources of the first major work of Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard: (a) the existence and nature of God; (b) knowing and naming God; (c) Divine Goodness; (d) God’s own knowledge; (e) Creation; (f) the Human Soul as Intellectual Substance; (g) Happiness; (h) Prophecy. We recommend that students view the videos in the link Five Lectures on Aquinas and the Arabic Tradition given above; (ii) An introduction to the SCG: An explication of SCG I, cc.1-12. All students are assigned to read this text carefully in preparation for class discussion.
(3) 10 Oct: SCG Bk 1: The nature and existence of God (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(4) 17 Oct: SCG Bk 1: Knowing and Naming God (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. . NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(5) 24 Oct: SCG Bk 1: Divine Goodness (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(6) 31 Oct: SCG Bk 1: God’s Own Knowledge (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(7) 7 Nov: Students are assigned to read carefully the papers of Prof. Taylor and Prof. Robiglio before class.
(i) How to do professional philosophy papers Link;
(ii) Dr. Tracy Wietecha video (22 min.) Link;
(iii) Prof. Taylor sample paper: TBD
Break 10:00-10:10;
(iv) Prof. Robiglio sample paper: TBD
(v) Student questions and discussion.
(8) 14 Nov: SCG Bk 2: Creation (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. . NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(9) 21 Nov: SCG Bk 2: Human Soul as Intellectual Substance (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(10) 28 Nov: SCG BK 3: Happiness (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations.
(11) 5 Dec: SCG Bk 3: Divine Providence (precise texts forthcoming). Team 1: TBD; Team 2: TBD. From their research on the assigned texts & other relevant sources, each of the two topic teams of presenters is to provide by the Tuesday before class a handout of no more than 6 single spaced pages plus a 2 page bibliography. This is to be sent to the instructors via email and posted on Toledo before 23h59 on Tuesday. On Thursday the student presenter team will make a summary oral presentation of 10-12 minutes (no more) which will be followed by comments by the instructors and then general discussion by the class. NOTE: All students are expected to study the selected primary texts and the handout provided by the presenters. Those students not presenting in the class are expected to read carefully key selections of the texts indicated by the Instructors and to come to class with two or more written questions on the texts, topics and Student team presentations. Prof. Taylor in Leuven for this class meeting.
(12) 12 Dec: KUL student short course paper presentations
(13) 19 Dec: KUL student short course paper presentations