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Thomism: The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas
Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden Leaf Printing on round Spine (extra customization on request like complete leather, Golden Screen printing in Front, Color Leather, Colored book etc.) Reprinted in 2019 with the help of original edition published long back [1924]. This book is printed in black & white, sewing binding for longer life, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, we processed each page manually and make them readable but in some cases some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume, if you wish to order a specific or all the volumes you may contact us. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions. - eng, Pages 320. EXTRA 10 DAYS APART FROM THE NORMAL SHIPPING PERIOD WILL BE REQUIRED FOR LEATHER BOUND BOOKS. COMPLETE LEATHER WILL COST YOU EXTRA US$ 25 APART FROM THE LEATHER BOUND BOOKS. {FOLIO EDITION IS ALSO AVAILABLE.}
532 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
Étienne Gilson
248 books163 followersÉtienne Henri Gilson was born into a Roman Catholic family in Paris on 13 June 1884. He was educated at a number of Roman Catholic schools in Paris before attending lycée Henri IV in 1902, where he studied philosophy. Two years later he enrolled at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1907 after having studied under many fine scholars, including Lucien Lévy Bruhl, Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 25, 2022
Only within a used bookstore would I be able to find a book like this one. I highly recommend used bookstores for windows into another universe. I could not find this version of the book I read anywhere on the internet.
I, like most people I would hope, love reading St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologia and have finished the first two volumes of the three. The problem is Aquinas writes in a cryptic fashion and discursively by presenting all arguments equally. That can be confusing.
This book concisely takes Aquinas’ arguments for his propositions and lays out coherently what Aquinas meant. This book should be required reading before attacking the Summa.
God is being and Man has being since we participate only in the perfection created by the supreme being and the purpose of man is to participate fully in our nature and to know truth for our existence through the natural law of doing good and avoiding bad such that our will as understood by our reason points to the contemplation of the divine and the ontological difference between the self and the world gets resolved through our innate goodness from our rational selves since after all, man is a rational animal, and our truth of being as being and the supreme being itself is knowable through analogical reasoning.
I enjoyed writing that above paragraph. It saved me from explaining in detail what this book really means as it explains Aquinas. I want to note that everything in that paragraph would be antithetical to Nietzsche. Nietzsche starts and ends philosophy with Heraclitus and embraces the appearance as the reality that we can know and becoming predominates being for him, and rational thought and contemplation of the ontological difference is best avoided by using our instinctual will-to-power, and so on. Aquinas channels Plotinus’ the one through pseudo-Dionysius (even though, within this book the author tries to dissuade the reader from putting to much stock on that interpretation). Nietzsche mentioned that Spinoza understood that ‘good and evil’ are imaginary. Spinoza does something different with his one than what Aquinas does with his one.
Overall, this book was better than a Great Course lecture on Aquinas could possibly be and this book will go a long way in easing the reading of the Summa Theologia. As always, I would recommend spending more time in used bookstores in order to find gem of books like this one.
I, like most people I would hope, love reading St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologia and have finished the first two volumes of the three. The problem is Aquinas writes in a cryptic fashion and discursively by presenting all arguments equally. That can be confusing.
This book concisely takes Aquinas’ arguments for his propositions and lays out coherently what Aquinas meant. This book should be required reading before attacking the Summa.
God is being and Man has being since we participate only in the perfection created by the supreme being and the purpose of man is to participate fully in our nature and to know truth for our existence through the natural law of doing good and avoiding bad such that our will as understood by our reason points to the contemplation of the divine and the ontological difference between the self and the world gets resolved through our innate goodness from our rational selves since after all, man is a rational animal, and our truth of being as being and the supreme being itself is knowable through analogical reasoning.
I enjoyed writing that above paragraph. It saved me from explaining in detail what this book really means as it explains Aquinas. I want to note that everything in that paragraph would be antithetical to Nietzsche. Nietzsche starts and ends philosophy with Heraclitus and embraces the appearance as the reality that we can know and becoming predominates being for him, and rational thought and contemplation of the ontological difference is best avoided by using our instinctual will-to-power, and so on. Aquinas channels Plotinus’ the one through pseudo-Dionysius (even though, within this book the author tries to dissuade the reader from putting to much stock on that interpretation). Nietzsche mentioned that Spinoza understood that ‘good and evil’ are imaginary. Spinoza does something different with his one than what Aquinas does with his one.
Overall, this book was better than a Great Course lecture on Aquinas could possibly be and this book will go a long way in easing the reading of the Summa Theologia. As always, I would recommend spending more time in used bookstores in order to find gem of books like this one.
December 23, 2016
This is not an easy read, but it's an extremely helpful overview of Aquinas' philosophy. Aquinas wrote so copiously that it can be difficult, especially for moderns at such far remove from his worldview, to get a synoptic view of his entire philosophical edifice; but Gilson has painted a compelling and painstakingly sourced tableau which captures its full beauty and order. Once you get the lay of the land you can't help but want to explore the territory.
March 5, 2012
One of the most complete, and well-written, explanations of the philosophical and theological system of Thomas Aquinas. This book is a must read for anybody who wishes to understand the Thomistic way of doing philosophy.
July 13, 2020
By and large, I think this book gives the reader a fair understanding of Thomism and its views on a wide variety of subjects. This is not to say that that everything about Thomism is something to approve of (more on that below), but all the same it is easy to understand the appeal of Thomism. If you are committed to a synthesis of Greek thought and something approaching biblical Christianity, Thomism is a definitely appealing way of thinking. There are also some good conclusions that Thomism comes to when it comes to the proofs of God's existence. Admittedly, this book was not hugely exciting, to the point where I fell asleep while reading it and had to stay up a bit later than I wanted to in order to finish reading it. That said, the author has done a great job at bringing out the various elements of Thomist thinking and making this a very thoughtful work in making the philosophy better known to Anglophone readers, as Thomism has been considerably less influential here than in Continental Catholic traditions, which is something that many Catholic thinkers greatly regret.
This book is a lengthy one of more than 400 pages and is divided into three arts and numerous chapters. The book begins with a translators' introduction, preface, and list of abbreviations as well as an introduction into the nature of Thomist philosophy that includes the doctrinal framework of Thomas Aquinas and the question of the philosopher and the believer. The first part of the book looks at Thomist thinking on God (I), with chapters on the problem of the existence of God (1), the proofs of the existence of God (2), the nature of the divine being (3), as well as the Thomistic reform of Hellenistic Christian philosophy regarding theology and ontology (4). The second part of the book discusses Thomist thinking on nature (II), including chapters on creation (1), angels (2), the physical world and secondary causes (3), the human person (4), life and the senses (5), intellect and rational knowledge (6), knowledge and truth (7), and appetite and will (8). The third and final part of the book discusses moral science (III), namely the human act (1), love and the passions (2), the personal life (3), the social life (4), the religious life (5), the last end (6), and the spirit of Thomism (7). After that there are appendices on esse (i), the life of Thomas Aquinas (ii), and a chronology of works (iii) as well as a bibliography and an index of names and subjects.
There are many aspects of this book that raise questions about the nature of Thomist philosophy for those who seek to follow the Bible. For one, Thomas Aquinas was both a philosopher as well as a theologian, and in some ways these two elements are in tension, because it was his thinking that what was proven philosophically was no longer a matter of faith but was a matter of knowledge. Done uncritically, the advancement of natural theology and philosophy sets a god of the gaps approach based on what is viewed as knowledge, which is not always on a solid foundation. This lack of a solid foundation for speculation that is considered to be knowledge is on evidence in his thinking on angels, where he combines biblical thinking on angels which is on a sound basis with far less sound speculation that can be found in Hellenistic philosophy. And in Thomist philosophy in general it is the Greek philosophy that is the weak link in his attempts to synthesize knowledge together. Even so, it is immensely appealing to have a philosophy that manages to combine human reasoning as well as biblical exegesis, and anyone who wants to combine Jerusalem and Athens cannot help but seek an approach that is something like Thomism.
This book is a lengthy one of more than 400 pages and is divided into three arts and numerous chapters. The book begins with a translators' introduction, preface, and list of abbreviations as well as an introduction into the nature of Thomist philosophy that includes the doctrinal framework of Thomas Aquinas and the question of the philosopher and the believer. The first part of the book looks at Thomist thinking on God (I), with chapters on the problem of the existence of God (1), the proofs of the existence of God (2), the nature of the divine being (3), as well as the Thomistic reform of Hellenistic Christian philosophy regarding theology and ontology (4). The second part of the book discusses Thomist thinking on nature (II), including chapters on creation (1), angels (2), the physical world and secondary causes (3), the human person (4), life and the senses (5), intellect and rational knowledge (6), knowledge and truth (7), and appetite and will (8). The third and final part of the book discusses moral science (III), namely the human act (1), love and the passions (2), the personal life (3), the social life (4), the religious life (5), the last end (6), and the spirit of Thomism (7). After that there are appendices on esse (i), the life of Thomas Aquinas (ii), and a chronology of works (iii) as well as a bibliography and an index of names and subjects.
There are many aspects of this book that raise questions about the nature of Thomist philosophy for those who seek to follow the Bible. For one, Thomas Aquinas was both a philosopher as well as a theologian, and in some ways these two elements are in tension, because it was his thinking that what was proven philosophically was no longer a matter of faith but was a matter of knowledge. Done uncritically, the advancement of natural theology and philosophy sets a god of the gaps approach based on what is viewed as knowledge, which is not always on a solid foundation. This lack of a solid foundation for speculation that is considered to be knowledge is on evidence in his thinking on angels, where he combines biblical thinking on angels which is on a sound basis with far less sound speculation that can be found in Hellenistic philosophy. And in Thomist philosophy in general it is the Greek philosophy that is the weak link in his attempts to synthesize knowledge together. Even so, it is immensely appealing to have a philosophy that manages to combine human reasoning as well as biblical exegesis, and anyone who wants to combine Jerusalem and Athens cannot help but seek an approach that is something like Thomism.
May 21, 2021
La meilleur introduction au thomisme pour des lecteurs "avancés" en philosophie (mais pas celle que je conseillerais de lire en premier). Très technique et parfois pompeux (soutenu) mais très clair et agréable à lire. Exhaustif. Le résumé du thomisme à la fin est magnifique (dernier chapitre).
Gilson en tant qu'historien de la philosophie arrive à nous montrer en quoi la philosophie de Thomas d'Aquin diffère et est meilleure que celle de prédécesseurs (les scolastiques comme Bonaventure et d'autres, les aristotéliciens arabes comme Avicenne et Averroès, Augustin, Pseudo-Denys) sur de nombreux points comme l'existence et la nature de Dieu, la compréhension de "l'être". Ce que pense Thomas d'un sujet est donc toujours mis en rapport avec les penseurs de son contexte. On trouve même dans le dernier chapitre une comparaison entre sa position sur l'existence et celle des existentialistes (modernes) à proprement parler (Heidegger, Sartre etc.).
La philo de Thomas est avant tout une philosophie de l'être, c'est-à-dire qu'au lieu de partir de notions abstraites puis d'en déduire ce qui est existe, ce qui est impossible ou pas (la démarche de ce que Gilson appelle "la philosophie du concept"), Thomas part du réel (du monde réel de tous les jours), des choses individuelles qui existent pour construire sa philosophie. On est obligé de partir avec l'expérience du réel, d'une intuition de l'acte d'être (en parallèle avec tout autre acte comme acte de courir, acte de manger, l'existence n'est pas une propriété, un pouvoir mais une action, un acte qui ne peut pas être enfermé dans un concept dans nos têtes), une intuition de l'existence. Il n'y a pas de fondement plus profond pour être sûr de ce que nous connaissons et pouvons connaître. C'est seulement après cette "intuition" qu'on peut découvrir ce qu'est le monde et même remonter jusqu'à Dieu, l'ultime Acte d'être qui existe forcément (son essence est identique à son existence) qui transmet l'énergie de l'existence à toutes les natures qui seraient abstraites autrement. C'est lui qui donne la vie à des essences mortes.
Gilson en tant qu'historien de la philosophie arrive à nous montrer en quoi la philosophie de Thomas d'Aquin diffère et est meilleure que celle de prédécesseurs (les scolastiques comme Bonaventure et d'autres, les aristotéliciens arabes comme Avicenne et Averroès, Augustin, Pseudo-Denys) sur de nombreux points comme l'existence et la nature de Dieu, la compréhension de "l'être". Ce que pense Thomas d'un sujet est donc toujours mis en rapport avec les penseurs de son contexte. On trouve même dans le dernier chapitre une comparaison entre sa position sur l'existence et celle des existentialistes (modernes) à proprement parler (Heidegger, Sartre etc.).
La philo de Thomas est avant tout une philosophie de l'être, c'est-à-dire qu'au lieu de partir de notions abstraites puis d'en déduire ce qui est existe, ce qui est impossible ou pas (la démarche de ce que Gilson appelle "la philosophie du concept"), Thomas part du réel (du monde réel de tous les jours), des choses individuelles qui existent pour construire sa philosophie. On est obligé de partir avec l'expérience du réel, d'une intuition de l'acte d'être (en parallèle avec tout autre acte comme acte de courir, acte de manger, l'existence n'est pas une propriété, un pouvoir mais une action, un acte qui ne peut pas être enfermé dans un concept dans nos têtes), une intuition de l'existence. Il n'y a pas de fondement plus profond pour être sûr de ce que nous connaissons et pouvons connaître. C'est seulement après cette "intuition" qu'on peut découvrir ce qu'est le monde et même remonter jusqu'à Dieu, l'ultime Acte d'être qui existe forcément (son essence est identique à son existence) qui transmet l'énergie de l'existence à toutes les natures qui seraient abstraites autrement. C'est lui qui donne la vie à des essences mortes.
December 22, 2021
Gave me a different view on the world!
January 14, 2009
Sounds crazy, but this is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews