Common Sense - Philosophy of Being and Dogmatic Formulas

by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange

Despite living in an "information age," we are confronted by the clash of ideologies and a crisis of universal knowledge. The Church is not unaffected by the world's weariness and similarly faces what Fr. Mauro Gagliardi describes as "the lack of truth, or perhaps better, the disinterest in it." Today's philosophical and doctrinal decline are the results of the loss of first principles and a relativistic view of doctrinal development.

This first-time English translation of Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange's Le sens commun: La philosophie de l' être et les formules dogmatiques by the acclaimed translator Matthew Minerd couldn't come at a better time. This book sees the great Dominican master address a variety of fundamental topics that we need to return to and relearn in our day: the relationship between common sense and both philosophy and faith; the proper defense for philosophical realism; the subordination and coordination of philosophical first principles; our natural capacity for knowing God's existence; and, at length, the problem of dogmatic development.

Although originally written during the Catholic Modernist crisis at the turn of the twentieth century, Thomistic Common Sense is no mere relic of past controversies. Jacques Maritain, for example, while reflecting on his formation as a Thomist, cited it as particularly influential. In our own time, this book serves as a foundational textbook of Thomistic philosophy, communicating its wisdom with clarity, power, and perennial resonance.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Catholic

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (February 21, 1877, Auch, France – February 15, 1964, Rome) was a Catholic theologian and, among Thomists of the scholastic tradition, is generally thought to be the greatest Catholic Thomist of the 20th century. He taught at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum, in Rome from 1909 to 1960.

Father Garrigou-Lagrange initially attracted attention when he wrote against the theological movement later called Modernism. He is also said to be the drafter or "ghostwriter" of Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, subtitled "Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine."

He is best known for his spiritual theology. His magnum opus in the field is The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which he propounded the thesis that infused contemplation and the resulting mystical life are in the normal way of holiness of Christian perfection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald...

Reviews

[Ian Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

After re-reading Augustine's "Confessions," this "Thomistic Common Sense" is the best book I've read all year, and arguably one of the most important theological books I've ever read. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange is one of the best expositor's of Thomas Aquinas' thought and his expertise helped me tremendously see how important true Thomism really is. I've taught the history of philosophy to undergrads for six years and it's only due to Garrigou that I now understand the real meaning behind this history. Of course, I teach all of the key figures and main points of their thought -- I've got all of the act/potency, ontological argument, Hegelian dialectic stuff in my course, and under the influence of people like Edward Feser, I've argued for the importance of realism over nominalism. But Garrigou put it all together for me in a way that is much deeper and more significant. He gave me helpful ways to categorise what I'd been teaching -- especially how "conceptual realism" answers the challenges first posted by Heraclitus and Parmenides that never leave the history of philosophy. I see more clearly why Hegel's philosophy of becoming is destructive to the notion of being.
Most importantly, however, the last section of Garrigou's book really hit home for me the importance of contemplation when it comes to doing theology and philosophy and also the role of wisdom. At points near the end of the book my heart beat actually rose. If we aren't contemplating the Triune God when we're doing our theology and philosophy, what are we doing all of this for? While as a Protestant I don't agree with a number of things he said, he definitely helped put those issues in a newer perspective for me. Protestants have a shallow understanding of Roman Catholic distinctives, and we will only be served in our polemic if we take seriously the thought of its best expositors. And I'll say something bold: I've yet to read a recent Protestant theologian that was as deep as Garrigou. I think we Protestants have a lot to do. But I also think it's doable. This is why I hope that "Thomistic Common Sense," along with Garrigou's other important books, get a wide readership not only amongst Protestants, but also Roman Catholics. They need this teaching too, to revive their own church. A huge thank you to Matthew Minerd for taking up the task of translating this and Garrigou's other books. The church catholic will be well-served by them.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful argument in favor of Thomistic metaphysics as the philosophy most in line with reality (and the Christian faith). Part 2 was excellent, part 3 was good as well (though from a Protestant’s perspective the argument at this point was encumbered by frequent connections to transubstantiation). The final chapter was beautiful.

[Daniel Arter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a struggle for me. Technically dense in a large portion of the book, but the flow of argumentation is relatively easy to pick up on. I have mixed emotions.

[Zachary Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of my personal enjoyment of this book, this rating might be a little generous. I had the regular feeling throughout that I was in the midst of a conversation with key details missing. That impression was the result of three factors: 1) terms that Garrigou-Lagrange employs frequently in constructing his argument that he does not define, 2) the frequent interaction with discussion partners whose work/criticism I was unfamiliar (and was not wholly explained in this text) thus leaving the sense of hearing only one side of a complicated conversation and trying to piece together what the other side is saying, and 3) an organizational structure wherein the key thesis floated in and out of focus. Further, as a Protestant reader, there were numerous occasions where I was simply not in sympathy with the author's perspective. The result was at times this felt like a very tedious and technical slog. The main argument this book defends is the conception of Thomistic "common sense" as the philosophy of being attainable spontaneously through the awareness of the interaction between the principle of identity and law of noncontradiction.

[Wyatt Graham]

I enjoyed Thomistic Common Sense, although I found Garrigou-Lagrange's organization slightly annoying; and since I was unaware of some of the people he argues with, I often felt a bit apathetic to the whole debate.

That said, where GL exceeds is defining exactly what he means by claiming with Thomas that the formal object of the intellect is being. Being in this is is all that can be comprised among the division of being, that is, what the intellect *sees*: substance, potency (non-being) and actuality (being), the principle of non-contradiction (A cannot be and not be in the same way and time); the principle of identity (something must be that is); and more.

These intellectual principles are known by a sort of intuition, which is common to all people; hence, common sense. For GL, these first principles of being undergird the universal truths of creedal statements, despite their being situated with Greco-Roman language (ousia, substantia, etc.). The concepts they convey are available to common sense (even if their precision is not).

[Rory Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written originally in 1909, this translation is based on the 4th edition published in 1936. That means that it represents the author’s ‘mature’ thought on all the issues in the book, including clarifications prompted by reactions to earlier editions.

However, this is not just a translation. A modern editor has gone through the text updating footnotes and adding explanations and further links to materials to help readers. He has also ‘corrected’ the authors’ referencing in places (eg p283-4) and added further details to incomplete citations. The amount of editorial work which has gone into the text is very impressive.

The quality of the editorial work is excellent, and the work carried out to make the book accessible to modern readers is exemplary. That is not to say that there aren’t occasional typos (such as ‘ifwe’ instead of ‘if we’ on p278) but they are very minor and do not significantly impact the reader experience.

The book itself is a ‘classic’ presentation of the author’s understanding of how a Thomist model of perception and cognition works, at the most general level of awareness. He engages with mainstream philosophical critics such as Descartes, Hume, Locke and Kant, to argue that they misunderstand Aquinas, and that their nominalist worldview is unable to coherently represent reality. As nominalism rejects a foundational awareness of reality, they have nothing to ground a law of non-contradiction on. And so their grasp of issues such as causality, change and plurality ends up being ultimately philosophically incoherent.

One of the features of the book which was particularly appreciated when it was published, was the author’s close engagement with the arguments of Bergson and le Roy. In the early decades of the twentieth century they were very popular writers, and so the author rightly devotes significant amounts of time to critiquing their views. A hundred years later, readers are probably going to be far less interested in those figures, and the particular issues which they raised. This means that significant parts of the book may seem to be of questionable relevance for modern readers.

What the book does well is to provide a very clear and detailed rationale for what was a common (neo)scholastic mindset and approach to philosophical problems. We see this particularly clearly in the sections on the proof for Gods existence. The book is clear about the role of background mindsets such as realism, in order to explain the premises which are appealed to (p166). It also made some interesting links to ancient philosophy, noting for example, that major emphases In the scholastic proof for Gods existence arise from the ancient argument between Heraclitus and Parmenides about being and becoming (p.183)

Overall, this is one of the most accessible versions of twentieth century neo scholastic writings, due to the high quality editing which has illuminated the text and its footnotes. However, it remains a complicated text with intellectual excursi sometimes going in directions which may not be of interest to modern readers. This means that it will probably be appreciated most by readers who already have some background in scholastic thinking, or by readers who have the time to take the text slowly.