Simple Index Page: click HERE
Terence Irwin, Aristotle’s First Principles (Oxford: OUP, 1990), pp. 3 & 487:
“When Aristotle explains in general terms what he tries to do in his philosophical works, he says he is looking for ‘first principles’ (or ‘origins’; archai):
In every systematic inquiry (methodos) where there are first principles, or causes, or elements, knowledge and science result from acquiring knowledge of these; for we think we know something just in case we acquire knowledge of the primary causes, the primary first principles, all the way to the elements. It is clear, then, that in the science of nature as elsewhere, we should try first to determine questions about the first principles. The naturally proper direction of our road is from things better known and clearer to us, to things that are clearer and better known by nature; for the things known to us are not the same as the things known unconditionally (haplôs). Hence it is necessary for us to progress, following this procedure, from the things that are less clear by nature, but clearer to us, towards things that are clearer and better known by nature. (Phys. 184a10–21)1
“The connexion between knowledge and first principles is expressed in Aristotle’s account of a first principle (in one sense) as ‘the first basis from which a thing is known’ (Met. 1013a14–15). The search for first principles is not peculiar to philosophy; philosophy shares this aim with biological, meteorological, and historical inquiries, among others. But Aristotle’s references to first principles in this opening passage of the Physics and at the start of other philosophical inquiries imply that it is a primary task of philosophy.”2
1. See also EN 1098b3–8, Top. 105a16, 141b4, APr 68b35, Phys. 188b32, 189a5, 193a5, EE 1220a15. Gnôrima haplôs: see EN 1095b2–3, Phys. 184a18, APo 72a3, Top. 141b25; cf. holôs gnôsta, Met. 1029b11. Gnôrima phusei: Phys. 184a17, APo 72a1, Met. 1029b8; cf. 993b11, ta tê(i) phusei phanerôtata, DA 413a11–12. See Zeller [1897] i 284–9, Grote [1872], i 196, 239, 332.
2. See DA 402a3–10, Met. 982a1–3, 1029b3–13, EN 1095a30–b4, EE 1216b26–39.
Syllabus (update 25 August 2020)
Some Sources
CAP: Classical Arabic Philosophy: an Anthology of Sources, J. McGinnis & D. Reisman, eds. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007) The MU library has four (4) copies of this. Click HERE.
CCA = The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, Kretzmann and Stump, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) Available online via Marqcat.
CCAP: Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, P. Adamson & R. Taylor, eds. (Cambridge: CUP. 2005). Available online via Marqcat.
CHMP = The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, R. Pasnau, ed. (New York & Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010) Available online via Marqcat.
EMP = Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy 500 -1500, H. Lagerlund, ed. (Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer, 2011) Available online via Marqcat.
OHA= Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Davies & Stump, eds. Oxford; New York, OUP 2012. Available online on Marqcat.
OHIP = Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, eds. Khaled El-Rouayheb & Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: OUP, 2017). Available online on Marqcat.
OHMP = Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy, John Marenbon, ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2012) Available online on Marqcat.
PIW: Peter Adamson, Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, vol. 3 (OUP 2016), is a light but valuable and entertaining introduction to this field. It is available online via the Marquette University Library at https://libus.csd.mu.edu/record=b3518036~S1.
PIWH: Philosophy in the Islamic World. Handbook of Oriental Studies = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section One, The Near and Middle East. Vol. 115/1. Ulrich Rudolph, Rotraud Hansburger, and Peter Adamson, eds. English tr. by Rautraud Hansburger. Available in the Marquette University Library.
RCIP: Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, R. Taylor & L. López-Farjeat, eds. (Routledge, 2015). Available online via Marqcat.
SEP: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online http://plato.stanford.edu)
Some other works of value for our studies are the following all of which are available at the MU library.
Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes, on Intellect. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Herbert A. Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, Creation and The Existence of God in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leo J. Elders, Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors. The Philosophers and the Church Fathers in His Works. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 1988.
Pasquale Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016. This is available online or for download at the Marquette Library.
J.-P. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, v. 1, The Person and His Work. Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1996.
James A. Weisheipl, Thomas D’Aquino. Washington, D.C.: CUA Press 1974.
For a list of very recent books on medieval philosophy, see the lists for 2018 & 2019 provided by Robert Pasnau at https://inmediasphil.wordpress.com/category/publications/ and https://inmediasphil.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/2018-books/
For a particularly insightful recent article providing an overview of sources motivating the development of the thought of Aquinas, see Wayne Hankey, “The Concord of Aristotle, Proclus, the Liber de Causis and Blessed Dionysius in Thomas Aquinas, Student of Albertus Magnus,” Dionysius 34 (2016). This is now available for download via Marqcat.
I also recommend Hankey’s article made available on Academia.edu, “Dionysius in Albertus Magnus and his student Thomas Aquinas.” This article is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook to Dionysius the Areopagite.
Online sources for texts and translation of Aquinas: (i) Corpus Thomisticum: http://www.corpusthomisticum.org; (ii) Aquinas Institute: https://aquinas.institute/operaomnia/ (iii) ISADORE: Website collection of texts and translations of Aquinas. Click HERE.
Office hours on TEAMS: Prof. Taylor, Tuesdays 9 am – 12 noon Milwaukee / 16h-19h Leuven. (Office hours 9 am – 11 am are normally for individual meetings.) Optional Weekly Tea Time Class Discussion Session Open For All : Tuesdays 11 am – 12 noon Milwaukee / 18h-19h Leuven. Also available by appointment.
Office hours: Prof. Robiglio for MU students Wednesdays 9-11 pm CET / 2-4 pm US Central; for KUL students 9-11 am CET / 2-4 am US Central.
Introductory video lecture: “Illustrating the Importance of the Arabic Philosophical Tradition to the Thought of Thomas Aquinas. Four Striking Examples” by Richard C. Taylor. Click HERE.
Selection of MU Student Teams: This was initially done randomly using pickerwheel.com. Team 1: 4 & 5; Team 2: 8 & 10, Team 3: 7 & 2, Team 4: 1 & 11; Team 5: 6, 9, 3.
Assigned readings to prepare for our first class meeting:
(i) Students unfamiliar with Greek philosophy and its importance for medieval thought, study this handout: Greek Background.
(ii) Chapters 1 & 2 of Pasquale Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016. This is available online or for download at the Marquette Library. Click HERE for the link to it in Marqcat.
(iii) View this video presentation from a conference: “Illustrating the Importance of the Arabic Philosophical Tradition to the Thought of Thomas Aquinas. Four Striking Examples” by Richard C. Taylor. Click HERE. This was prepared while I was teaching in Istanbul for presentation at a conference in Rome in June 2016.
(iv) Note the link to notes for my 27 August lecture. Click HERE. View these materials and prepare some questions for our first class meeting. I will review this with you and respond to questions at class on 27 August. Prepare two questions to be raised at class.
Phase 1: Marquette University only
(Class 1) 27 August 2020
Taylor: Monday On TEAMS, Office Hours 2-4 -pm; Group discussion 4-5 pm
Part 1: A very brief introduction to the course and its structures
Part 2: the natural epistemology of Aquinas:
2.1. Sources in the Greek and Arabic Traditions
2.2. Aquinas and his teacher, Albertus Magnus
For texts, videos and lecture notes, see the webpage Lecture (1) HERE. These contain links to translations and to video lectures.
Optional recommended podcasts for fun: Peter Adamson, Aristotle’s Epistemology: https://historyofphilosophy.net/aristotle-epistemology Avicenna on the soul: https://historyofphilosophy.net/avicenna-soul
Aquinas on Soul and Knowledge: https://historyofphilosophy.net/aquinas-soul-knowledge
Thomas Aquinas https://historyofphilosophy.net/aquinas
(Class 2) 3 September: the nature of the human soul
Taylor: Monday On TEAMS, Office Hours 2-4 -pm; Group discussion 4-5 pm
Part 1: Sources in the Greek and Arabic Traditions
Part 2: Aquinas
For texts, videos and lecture notes, see the webpage Lecture (2) or click HERE. These contain links to translations and to video lectures.
Readings: (i) Chapter 3, Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile.
Two-page single spaced exercise due to be emailed to me by noon Wednesday 2 September. These materials will be shared with the entire class. Team 1: Aquinas on the soul since 1999 in the International Philosophical Bibliography; Team 2: Avicenna on the soul in the bibliography of Th.-A. Druart: see HERE and HERE; Team 3: same topic in the Index Islamicus HERE; Team 4: same topic in the Philosophers Index HERE; Team 5: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Leo J. Elders, Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors. The Philosophers and the Church Fathers in His Works. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
Optional recommended podcasts for fun: Peter Adamson, Averroes on Intellect https://historyofphilosophy.net/averroes-intellect Avicenna on Existence https://historyofphilosophy.net/avicenna-metaphysics Avicenna on God https://historyofphilosophy.net/avicenna-god
(Class 3) 10 September: God and the metaphysics of being and creation
Taylor: Monday On TEAMS, Office Hours 2-4 -pm; Group discussion 4-5 pm
Part 1: Sources in the Greek and Arabic Traditions
Part 2: Aquinas
Lecture 3 of 5 (6 September 2020): click HERE.
Readings: (i) Chapter 4, Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile; (ii) Lecture (2) click HERE.
Two-page single spaced exercise due to be emailed to me by noon Wednesday 9 September. These materials will be shared with the entire class. Team 1: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Elders, Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors, chapter 15 Averroes; Team 2: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Elders, Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors, chapter 12 The Metaphysics of the Liber de causis; Team 3: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Elders, Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors, chapter 11 The Platonism of Pseudo-Dionysius; Team 4: Pseudo-Dionysius since 1999 in the International Philosophical Bibliography; Team 5: same topic in the Philosophers Index HERE.
Optional recommended podcasts for fun: Peter Adamson, al-Farabi on Religion and Politics https://historyofphilosophy.net/al-farabi-political Taylor on Averroes https://historyofphilosophy.net/averroes-taylor Stroumsa on Maimonides https://historyofphilosophy.net/maimonides-stroumsa
(Class 4) 17 September : philosophy and religion
Taylor: Monday On TEAMS, Office Hours 2-4 -pm; Group discussion 4-5 pm
Part 1: Sources in the Greek and Arabic Traditions
Part 2: Aquinas
For texts, videos and lecture notes, see the webpage Lecture (4) or click HERE. These contain links to translations and to video lectures.
Readings: (i) Chapter 5, Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile; (ii) Lecture (4) click HERE.
Two-page single spaced exercise due to be emailed to me by noon Wednesday 16 September. These materials will be shared with the entire class. Team 1: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Taylor, “Averroes: religious dialectic and Aristotelian philosophy,” CCAP; Team 2: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Frank Griffel, “Philosophy and Prophecy,” RCIP; Team 3: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Nadja Germann, “Natural and Revealed Religion” in RCIP; Team 4: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Steven Harvey, “Law and Society.” in RCIP; Team 5: Study and prepare a two-page single spaced précis of Philippe Vallat, “Principles of the Philosophy of State,” RCIP.
Optional recommended podcasts for fun: Peter Adamson, Maimonides Controversy https://historyofphilosophy.net/maimonides-controversy
For optional (not required) lectures on Happiness in the Arabic tradition and Aquinas, see http://richardctaylor.info/lecture-5a-of-5-2020/ and http://richardctaylor.info/lecture-5b-of-5-2020/.
(Class 5) 24 September 2020:
Taylor: Monday On TEAMS, Office Hours 2-4 -pm; Group discussion 4-5 pm
Part 1: (9-9:50 am): MU only: proofs of God in Aquinas & his sources
View video lectures:
(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YnNhhCL7t0&feature=youtu.be
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HXJBzhDnUg&feature=youtu.be
Readings: (i) Chapter 6, Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile; (ii) Summa theologiae, prima pars, Q. 2.; English translation available at http://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa-translation/Part%201/st1-ques02.pdf
Recommended readings: OHA: Wippel, “Being”; OHA: Pawl “The Five Ways”; T. Wietecha, “On Method in Reading the DE ENTE ET ESSENTIA,” International Philosophical Quarterly 56.2 (June 2016) 155-170. This article is available via Marqcat HERE; OHMP: G. Oppy, “Arguments for the Existence of God,” pp. 687-704.
Phase 2: KULeuven and Marquette together
Marquette class time: 9-11:40 am / 16h-18h40
KULeuven class time: 16h-19h
MU Students note this : Starting 7 October, for each class at which you are not presenting, post 2 questions on TEAMS by 11:59 pm Wednesday.
Part 2 : MU & KULeuven: connection with Prof. Robiglio & the ‘Aquinas in Context’ course at KUL: introductions and new course structures and procedures.
(Class 6) 1 October: Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book 4.
Taylor: Every Tuesday on TEAMS, Office Hours 9 am – 12 noon / 16h-19h with Group discussion 11 am – 12 noon / 18h-19h.
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Part 1 : Aristotle, Metaphysics Book 4, led by Prof. Robiglio
Assigned readings : (i) Aristotle, Metaphysics Book 4. The Loeb translation and text by Tredennick is available online at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.185284 though some marginal notes are cut off. For Marquette students the full version with readable marginal notes is available though Marqcat at https://0-www-loebclassics-com.libus.csd.mu.edu/view/aristotle-metaphysics/1933/pb_LCL271.3.xml?result=10&rskey=32FQUn For the beginning of Book 4, navigate to 146-147; (ii) The corresponding commentary of Aquinas in Latin and English is available at https://isidore.co/aquinas/Metaphysics4.htm.
• Part 2 : Avicenna and the starting point of metaphysics.
Assigned readings : Avicenna, The Metaphysics of the Healing, 1.5-6, tr. Marmura 2005.
After some remarks on Avicenna, we will present in class two of my video lectures on Avicenna, the first on the starting points (first principles) of his metaphysics in Metaphysics 1.5-1.7 and the second on his initial account in Metaphysics 6 of creation by the Necessary Being (First Principle). Below I provide you with the links to these lectures and, for those interested in more, two other lectures on creation and the Necessary Being in Avicenna’s Metaphysics Books 8 & 9.
Avicenna, Metaphysics, four video lectures. Again, the first two will be presented in class. The second two are optional in case you would like to learn more about the teachings of Ibn Sīnā /Avicenna.
Video on Metaphysics 1.5-1.7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpSKSqfNGc&feature=youtu.be (Start this video at 2:19.)
Video on Metaphysics 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKxC5af6qZQ
Video on Metaphysics 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STIE3azAJfQ
Video on Metaphysics 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmboo2o1ck
Recommended: R. E. Houser, 2007, “The Real Distinction and the Principles of Metaphysics: Avicenna and Aquinas;” Gutas 2013 “Avicenna’s Philosophical Project”; Adamson 2013, “From the Necessary Existent to God”.
(Class 7) 8 October: ‘Risky Business’: Philosophy and Religion
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Part 1 : Philosophy and Religion in the Islamic Classical Rationalist Tradition
MU-1 : Melady Elifritz & Seth Kreeger. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Assignments : Video lecture by Richard Taylor Al-Farabi, The Attainment of Happiness.
Readings: Primary Texts
al-Farabi 2001, The Attainment of Happiness. Extract from al-Farabi Philosophy of Plato & Aristotle. Mahdi tr 1962 rev ed 2001
Readings: Secondary Texts
L. X. López-Farjeat, al-Farabi’s Philosophy of Society and Religion, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Recommended: Video lecture by Prof. Nadja Germann. Al-Farabi & the Emergence of Philosophy of Language & Islamic Thought
Readings:
Farabi 2001 Book of Religion Butterworth tr.
al-Farabi 2007, Directing Attention to the Way to Happiness
Th.-A. Druart, al-Farabi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Galston 2019 The Origin of Primary Principles. The Role of Nature and Experience (al-Farabi)
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Part 2 : Aquinas on Presuppositions and the Praeambula Fidei / Preambles of Faith
Ralph McInerny, Praeambula fidei: Thomism and the God of the Philosophers (Washington, D.C.L Catholic University of America, 2006), preface, p.9: “The locus of the praeambula fidei is in metaphysics as Thomas learned that culminating science from Aristotle. It is only when that metaphysics is correctly understood that the praeambula fidei can be correctly understood. Thomas added much to our understanding of these matters, but what he added to is what is found in Book Lambda of the Metaphysics and the presuppositions on which it depends.”
MU-2 : Josh Hinchie & Andrew Krema. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Assigned readings: (i) McInerny, Praeambula fidei, Ch. 1 pp.3-33, Prologue to Part 3 (pp.159-169), and Ch. 8, 303-306; (ii) David Twetten 2019, “How Save Aquinas’ ‘Intellectus essentiae’ Argument for the Real Distinction between Essence and Esse,” Roczniki Filozoficzne (Annals of Philosophy) 57.4, p.129-43 corrected; (iii) Aquinas’s use of Avicenna in I Sent d.8, q.1, a.1 sol (see the last text at http://richardctaylor.info/aquinas-selections-from-his-commentary-on-the-sentences/
Recommended: McInerny, Praeambula fidei, Chapters 7, 8, 13; M. Dougherty, “Aquinas on the Self-Evidence of the Articles of Faith,” Heythrop Journal 46 (2005) 167-180; “Thomas Aquinas on the Manifold Senses of Self-Evidence,” Review of Metaphysics 59 (2006) 601-630.
http://richardctaylor.info/aquinas-selections-from-his-commentary-on-the-sentences/
Final item in the list of translations.
In 1 Sent. d. 8, q. 1, a. 1 Whether being (esse) is properly said of God.
Solution. I respond that it should be said that of all the other names “He who is” is the name of God proper in the highest degree. The reason for this can be fourfold: the first is taken from the text of the words of Jerome regarding the perfection of Divine being. For the perfect is that which has nothing outside it. Our being, however, has something of itself outside itself, for it lacks something which has already passed by for it and something which is yet to come. But in Divine being nothing has passed by nor is there anything to come. For this reason His whole being is perfect and on account of this being properly befits Him with reference to all other things. The second reason is taken from the words of the Damascene [lib. I Fid. orth., cap. IX] who says that “He who is” signifies indeterminate being and not what He is. [This is] because in this life we know of Him only that He is and not what He is, except through negation and we are able to name [something] only insofar as we know [it]. For this reason He is most properly named by us “He who is.” The third reason is taken from the words of Dionysius who says that among all the other divine participations of goodness such as to live, to understand and the like, it is first and [is] as a principle for all the others having in itself all the others mentioned united in a certain way. In this way God is also the Divine principle and all things are one in Him. The fourth reason can be taken from the words of Avicenna [tract. 8 Metaphysics, cap. 1] in the sense that, since in everything which is there can be considered its quiddity through which it subsists in a determinate nature and its being in virtue of which it is said of it that it is in act, then this name “thing” is imposed on the thing from its quiddity, [and] according to Avicenna [tract II Metaphysics, cap. 1] this name “who is” or “being” is imposed from its act of being. Since, however, it is the case that in any created being its essence differs from its being, that thing is properly denominated by its quiddity and not by the act of being, as human being by humanity. However, in God His very being is His quiddity. And for this reason the name taken from being names Him properly and is His proper name, just as the proper name of a human being which is taken from its quiddity.
(Class 8) 15 October: The Subject of Metaphysics 1 of 2
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Part 1 : Neoplatonism and the beginning of the Arabic Tradition: The One and Creator
MU-3 : Cameron Roman, Nathan Wiley & Domonique Turnipseed. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required:
Video lectures: (a) Plotiniana Arabica (41 min.) (b) Arabic Liber de causis (26 min.)
Assigned readings: al-Kindi First Agent Stern; al-Kindi Metaphysics 3 selections; Selections from the Arabic Liber de causis; Selections from the Plotiniana Arabica.
Recommended: Gerson, “Plotinus,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy sections 1, 2, 6; Adamson, “The Theology of Aristotle,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ; Adamson, “Al-Kindi,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; D’Ancona 2002 “Proclus, Denys, le Liber de Causis et la science divine” in Le Comtemplateur et les Ideas; D’Ancona 2010 “The Origins of Islamic Philosophy,” Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity , L. Gerson (ed) 2010. v. . 869-893, 1171-1178; D’Ancona, “The Liber De Causis” in Interpreting Proclus, S. Gersh (ed.); Steel, “Proclus” in The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, 630-653.
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Part 2 : Theoretical Philosophy and Practical Religion: al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā / Avicenna on Philosophy and Religion and the Subject of Metaphysics.
MU-4 : Jeremiah Noonan & Karolyn Burns. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required:
Video: al-Farabi (49 min.)
Assigned readings: al-Farabi, “Intentions of Aristotle’s Metaphysics” tr. Gutas; A. Bertolacci, “Establishing the Science of Metaphysics,” in The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, Taylor & López-Farjeat, eds. (2015); Avicenna, The Metaphysics of the Healing, 9.7, 10.1-3, 10.5, tr. Marmura.
Recommended: Druart, “Al-Farabi,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Bertolacci, “Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Taylor 2018 Averroes and the Philosophical Account of Prophecy SGA 8; Avicenna, On the Proof of Prophecies and the Interpretation of the Prophets’ Symbols and Metaphors, tr. Marmura 1963.
(Class 9) 22 October: The Subject of Metaphysics 2 of 2
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Required reading for all students assigned for 22 & 29 October: J. Wippel 2006, “Metaphysics,” Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, pp.85-127.
Part 1 : Aquinas on the subject of metaphysics 1 of 2
MU-5 Colman Okechukwu Nwokoro & Christian Boyd: handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time / midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Assigned readings : Aquinas, Super Boethium De Trinitate, Questions 5-6; J. Wippel 1978, “Metaphysics and Separatio According to Thomas Aquinas,” Review of Metaphysics 31: 431-470.
Recommended: (i) Oliva 2012, “Philosophy in the Teaching of Theology by Thomas Aquinas,” The Thomist 76; (ii) Bertolacci 2007, “Avicenna & Averroes on the Proof of God’s Existence & the Subject-Matter of Metaphysics,” Medioevo 32
Part 2 : Aquinas on the subject of metaphysics 2 of 2
KUL-1 : Sarah Thomas and Ryan Foster: handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Assigned readings: (i) Aquinas, De Principiis Naturae, “On the Principles of Nature”, in J. Bobik, Aquinas on Matter and Form in the Elements. A Translation and Interpretation of the De Principiis Naturae and the De Mixtione Elementorum of St. Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, IN: UND Press 1998, rpt 2006. Alternate translation: De Principiis Naturae (ii) Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the ‘De Hebdomadibus’, tr. P. King 2004
Recommended: (i) Wippel 2005 “Thomas Aquinas and Siger of Brabant on Being and the Science of Being as Being,” The Modern Schoolman 82, 143-167; (ii) Joseph Owens, The “Analytics” and Thomistic Metaphysical Procedure, Medieval Studies 26 (1964) p. 83-108; (iii) Andrea A. Robiglio “Breaking the Great Chain of Being. A note on the Paris condemnations of 1277, Thomas Aquinas and the proper subject of metaphysics”, Verbum: Analecta Neolatina, 6 (2004), p. 51 – 59.
Another article. In 2012 R. E. Houser demonstrated that Aquinas’s De Principiis Naturae relies heavily on the work of Avicenna. This is particularly interesting since the editors of the critical edition of the text said the opposite explicitly! R. E. Houser, “Avicenna and Aquiinas’s De Principiis Naturae, CC. 1-3,” The Thomist 76 (2012) 577-610.
** Note change of clocks: Europe 25 October; US 1 November.
(Class 10) 29 October: Writing Philosophical Papers & Articles
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Required reading for all students assigned for 22 & 29 October: J. Wippel 2006, “Metaphysics,” Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, pp.85-127.
Assigned Readings: (i) How to do argumentative philosophy papers; (ii) Prof. Taylor, “Contextualizing the Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khair / Liber de causis” article published last week; (iii) “Breaking the Great Chain of Being. A Note on the Paris Condemnations of 1277, Thomas Aquinas and the Proper Subject of Metaphysics,” Verbum VI (2004); (iv) Dr Wietcha, “On Method in Reading the De ente et essentia,” International Philosophical Quarterly 56.2 (2016), pp. 155-170.
Time change: Central Europe moved to 6 hours difference, not 7. The US will change and return to 7 hours difference on 1 November 2020.
Part 1: MU only: 9-10 am Milwaukee (=15h-16h Leuven). Prof. Taylor, (i) Review of “How to do argumentative philosophy essays”; (ii) “Contextualizing the Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khair / Liber de causis” article published last week.
Part 2: MU & KUL: 10-11 am Milwaukee = 16h-17h Leuven: Guest presentation by LMU doctoral candidate Tracy Wietecha, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Assigned reading: T. Wietecha, “On Method in Reading the De ente et essentia,” International Philosophical Quarterly 56.2 (2016), pp. 155-170.
Part 3 : KUL & MU 11-11:40 am Milwaukee / 17h-18h Leuven: (i) Prof. Robiglio, “Breaking the Great Chain of Being. A Note on the Paris Condemnations of 1277, Thomas Aquinas and the Proper Subject of Metaphysics,” Verbum VI (2004).
Part 4 : KUL only 18h-19h: Prof. Taylor, (i) Review of “How to do argumentative philosophy essays”; (ii) “Contextualizing the Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khair / Liber de causis” article published last week.
(Class 11) 5 November: Language and Reality 1 of 2: Divine Names
Text Link and Alternate Text Link
Required of all students for both Part 1 and Part 2: (ps.)Dionysius, On Divine Names, ch. 5 on the name Being, in Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology, tr. C. E. Rolt, 1920, pp.68-74. Better: see the translation of Luibheid in Pseudo-Dionyius. The Complete Works (1987). pp.96-103. Recommended: Dionysius the Areopagite, by Corrigan and Harrington, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Also recommended: William Dunaway, “The Epistemology of Theological Predication,” 20 October 2020, in The Christian West and the Islamic East Lecture Series.
Part 1 : Divine Names and Knowing God in Maimonides
KUL-2 : Nele Vanmechelen & Yutong Li. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required : (i) Maimonides, GUIDE of THE PERPLEXED, part 1 tr Pines 1963 (1974 rpt) 1.51-64; (ii) Adamson 2013, “From the Necessary Existent to God”; (iii) Taylor 2019, “Maimonides and Aquinas on Divine Attributes.The Importance of Avicenna”.
Recommended: (i) Maimonides, by Seeskin (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) 2008; (ii) Zonta 2005, “Maimonides’ Knowledge of Avicenna. Some Tentative Conclusions About a Debated Question”, THE TRIAS OF MAIMONIDES ed Tammer; (iii) Alexander Broadie, “Maimonides and Aquinas on the Names of God,” Religious Studies 23(1987), pp. 157–170
Part 2 : Divine Names and Knowing God in Aquinas
KUL-3 : Simon Derudder & Dries Desticker. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required: (i) In 1 Sent. d.8, q.q, a.1. “Whether being (esse) is properly said of God” (last item at http://richardctaylor.info/aquinas-selections-from-his-commentary-on-the-sentences/); (ii) Summa theologae Q.13: The Names of God.
Recommended: (i) Rocca 2004, Speaking the Incomprehensible God, Washington DC: CUA Press, 2004, Ch 10, 291 ff. ; (ii) Burrows 1994, Naming God beyond names; (iii) Symington 2011, “The Aristotelian Epistemic Principle and the Problem of Divine Naming in Aquinas”; (iv) In our studies of Aquinas it would be anachronistic and inaccurate if we were to disregard the most obvious consideration that he was first and foremost a theologian. B. Blankenhorn, “Aquinas on the Spirit’s Gift of Understanding and Dionysius’s Mystical Theology,” Nova et Vetera, English Edition, 14.4 (2016), 1113-1131.
Other: A modern day blogger’s account.
(Class 12) 12 November: Language and Reality 2 of 2: Truth
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Part 1 : The Unity of Truth in Ibn Rushd / Averroes
KUL-4: Zehao Lyu & Joeri Paul Leijdsman. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required : (i) Ibn Rushd / Averroes, Faṣl al-maqāl or the so-called “Decisive Treatise”; (ii) Taylor 2000, “Truth does not contradict truth. Averroes” Topoi; (iii) Sarrió 2015, “The Philosopher as the Heir of the Prophets – Averroes’s Islamic Rationalism”.
Recommended: (i) Taylor 2012 “Averroes on the Shari`ah of the Philosophers”; (ii) Black 2010, “Reason Reflecting on Reason – Philosophy, Rationality and the Intellect in the Medieval Islamic and Christian Traditions”; (iii) Taylor 2018 “Averroes and the Philosophical Account of Prophecy” SGA.
Part 2 : Aquinas on Truth
KUL-5 : Andy Yan & Kasra Abdavi Azar. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required: (i) Summa theologiae, prima pars, Question 16: On Truth, Latin & English, newer English; (ii) De Veritate. Question 1, article 12 Latin and English.
Recommended: (i) Jan A. Aertsen, “Truth as transcendental in Thomas Aquinas,” Topoi 11 (1992), pp. 159–171; (ii) Liran Shia Gordon, “Some thoughts about Aquinas’s Conception of Truth as Adequation”, Heythrop Journal 2015; (iii) TBA.
(Class 13) 19 November (Last MU class meeting): Principles of Ethics
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Part 1 : Aristotle and the Classical Rationalist Islamic Tradition on the Principles of Ethics
KUL-6 : Nojan Komeyli & Simon Derudder (second round). Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required : (i) Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1.1-2, 1.13; 2.1-2; 3.2-5; 6.1-2. 6.12-13; 10.7-8 (ca. 28 pp.) available at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183486/page/n61/mode/2up; (ii) Druart 1997, “Al-Farabi, Ethics, and First Intelligibles”; (iii) Avicenna, On the Science of Ethics, tr. McGinnis.
Students unfamiliar with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics may find these introductory undergraduate lectures of some value: NE-1, NE-2-4, NE-5, NE-7,10.
Recommended: (i) Kraut 2018, Aristotle’s Ethics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; (ii) Druart 1995, “Al-Farabi on the Practical and Speculative Aspects of Ethics”; (iii) Ibn Rushd / Averroes, Averroes on Plato’s Republic, tr. R. Lerner, Ithaca & London: Cornell U Press, 1974.
Part 2 : Aquinas on the Principles of Ethics
KUL-7 : Ryan Thomas Beaupre & Yutong Li / Zehao Lyu. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required: Aquinas’s Commentary on the 2nd Book of the Sentences, d. 24, q. 2 & d. 39, q. 3 (for these Latin texts, see the Texts links) and two articles from the Summa Theologiae, I, q.79, a.12 & II-II, q. 47, a. 6.
Recommended: TBA
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Note: MU course papers due 11:59 pm 8 December. Papers should be submitted to Turnitin.com: Class ID and Enrollment key have been emailed to MU students.
Regarding the required style, see https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_Fall_2018_MU_&_KUL/Course_Paper_Style_Guidelines.html
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(Class 14) 26 November KUL only: Necessity and Possibility
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Part 1: Avicenna on Necessity and Possibility
KUL-8: Rayan Dabous, Nougeanne Kumaily & Nele Vanmechelen. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required: (i) Avicenna, Metaphysics Bk 1, Ch. 5-6; Bk 8, Ch. 4, from The Metaphysics of “The Healing”. A parallel English-Arabic text translated, introduced, and annotated by M.E. Marmura, Brigham Young University Press, Provo, Utah 2005; (ii) O. Lizzini 2020, “Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, particularly section 4; (iii) A. Bertolacci 2008, “‘Necessary’ as Primary Concept in Avicenna’s Metaphysics”in Conoscenza e contingenza, S. Perfetti (ed.), Pisa: Edizioni ETS, pp. 31–50.
Recommended: (i) A. Bertolacci, 2012, “The Distinction of Essence and Existence in Avicenna’s Metaphysics: The Text and Its Context”, in F. Opwis and D. C. Reisman (eds.), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas, Leiden: Brill, 257–288; (ii) O. Lizzini, 2014, “A mysterious order of possibles, Some remarks on the views of Avicenna and Aquinas on creation: al-Ilāhiyyāt, the Quaestiones De potentia and Beatrice Zedler’s interpretation”, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 88: 237–270; (iii) J. McGinnis 2010, Avicenna, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch.6; (iv) J. McGinnis 2012, “Making Something of Nothing: Privation, Possibility and Potential in Avicenna and Aquinas”, The Thomist, 76: 1–25. Note: J. Janssens of KULeuven has published a bibliography with two supplemental volumes on the vast array of publications on Ibn Sina / Avicenna: An annotated bibliography on Ibn Sînâ (1970-1989) : including Arabic and Persian publications and Turkish and Russian references, Leuven : Leuven University Press, 1991; An annotated bibliography on Ibn Sīnā : first supplement (1990-1994), Louvain-la-Neuve [Belgium] : Fédération internationale des instituts d’études médiévales, 1999; An annotated bibliography on Ibn Sīnā : second supplement (1995-2009), Tempe, Arizona : ACMRS, 2017.
Part 2: Aquinas on Possibility and Necessity
KUL-9: Andy Yan. Handout of absolutely not more than 6 pp. + 2 pp bibliography due Tuesday 5 pm US Central Time/ midnight Leuven. Thursday at class: 8-10 min. oral presentation followed by discussion.
Required: Thomas Aquinas, (i) Expositio super Job ad litteram, cap. 5; (ii) Contra Gentiles, Book II, cap. 30; (iii) Expositio libri Peryermenias, Book I, lectiones 13-15; (iv) In Physicorum libros, Book 2, lectio 12. See https://isidore.co/aquinas/.
Recommended: (i) W. A. Wallace, Albertus Magnus on Suppositional Necessity in the Natural Science, in James A. Weisheipl (ed.), Albertus Magnus and the Sciences. Commemorative Essays, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980, pp. 103-128; (ii) J. M. Christianson, The Necessity and Some Characteristics of the Habit of First Indemonstrable (Speculative) Principles, «The New Scholasticism», 62(1988), pp. 249–296