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Scholastic Metaphysics
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 23, 2012
Short review, to start, since there are as yet no others.
I have long sought reasoned arguments for the existence of God, and beyond that, for persuasive arguments about the nature of God. All arguments against the existence of God begin, ironically, with specific, and inevitably contradictory, definitional assumptions. I was first impressed with the more catholic form of reasoning on the divine, when I encountered Thomas Aquinas' proofs for the existence of God. Years later, not realizing how richly the subject of "metaphysics" had evolved, through intelligent designation of terms and irreducible complexity of the metaphysical, divine "oneness", I happened upon John McCormick's "Scholastic Metaphysics."
I was pleased to discover that someone had given so much thought and study to the subject, that he was able to express clearly and persuasively what the qualities of God should - or must - be like. I eventually bought a copy of the book, plus the second book of which this first is prelude, "Natural Theology". Two or three times a week, I will pick this book up and read a paragraph or a section, and try to figure out what it means, and whether I agree, and what alternative I could possibly offer.
Don't expect to get away reading this as easily as, say, Keith Ward's “Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Hawkins", or C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity", neither of which are even in the same category, but are concerned with the same subject. This is an academic text. Though covering complex, difficult to understand topics, McCormick addresses one issue at a time, neither too conservatively succinct nor with a too liberal simplicity, but methodically (painstakingly, deliberatively) and systematically (classificatory arrangement). The reader will have to work through it in order to understand it as McCormick intends it to be understood, rather than as one might misinterpret it through the endarkling lens of biased preconcepts and capricious prejudice. A work in progress, in the sense that full understanding will not arrive at once. Unless you are already a chaired theologian or matriculated philosopher, in which case, this book will be a breeze for you.
(Some license to exaggerate for effect, or to stick tongue in cheek or elsewhere, has been taken in this review.)
(This review subject to sudden, unannounced changes, including possible deletion.)
I have long sought reasoned arguments for the existence of God, and beyond that, for persuasive arguments about the nature of God. All arguments against the existence of God begin, ironically, with specific, and inevitably contradictory, definitional assumptions. I was first impressed with the more catholic form of reasoning on the divine, when I encountered Thomas Aquinas' proofs for the existence of God. Years later, not realizing how richly the subject of "metaphysics" had evolved, through intelligent designation of terms and irreducible complexity of the metaphysical, divine "oneness", I happened upon John McCormick's "Scholastic Metaphysics."
I was pleased to discover that someone had given so much thought and study to the subject, that he was able to express clearly and persuasively what the qualities of God should - or must - be like. I eventually bought a copy of the book, plus the second book of which this first is prelude, "Natural Theology". Two or three times a week, I will pick this book up and read a paragraph or a section, and try to figure out what it means, and whether I agree, and what alternative I could possibly offer.
Don't expect to get away reading this as easily as, say, Keith Ward's “Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Hawkins", or C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity", neither of which are even in the same category, but are concerned with the same subject. This is an academic text. Though covering complex, difficult to understand topics, McCormick addresses one issue at a time, neither too conservatively succinct nor with a too liberal simplicity, but methodically (painstakingly, deliberatively) and systematically (classificatory arrangement). The reader will have to work through it in order to understand it as McCormick intends it to be understood, rather than as one might misinterpret it through the endarkling lens of biased preconcepts and capricious prejudice. A work in progress, in the sense that full understanding will not arrive at once. Unless you are already a chaired theologian or matriculated philosopher, in which case, this book will be a breeze for you.
(Some license to exaggerate for effect, or to stick tongue in cheek or elsewhere, has been taken in this review.)
(This review subject to sudden, unannounced changes, including possible deletion.)
July 7, 2013
My Metaphysics class in College took as it's main text Peter Kreeft's "Summa of the Summa" which is a collection of "essential" passages from St. Thomas' Summa Theologica.
This book filled in many of the gaps that we did not have time to thoroughly treat.
This was a text used in seminaries in the 1950s (i obtained the book from a former seminarian). A third or fourth year philosophy student should have no trouble with this book. It is a classic systematic text on Metaphysics, though my theological background was very helpful.
The Chapters of the Book are: The meaning and use of Metaphysics, The concept of being, essence and existence, possibility and actuality, the transcendental attributes of being, substance and accident, quality--space--time, qualities--habit--relation, Cause; Efficient and Final Causes, Material and Formal Causes. The Theories of the Constitution of Inorganic Bodies, Material and Formal Causes. The Aristotelian-Scholastic Theory, Matter and Form and the Organism, Matter and Form and Human Life.
In each chapter, McCormick offers a summary of the material, propositions that the reader should be able to explain, suggestions for further study, and authors he referenced.
Also, McCormick gives critique of Materialist and Dualistic Philosophies, especially pointing out their incoherence or where they fall short in comparison to scholastic metaphysics.
I read this book in my fifth year of ordained priesthood.
This book filled in many of the gaps that we did not have time to thoroughly treat.
This was a text used in seminaries in the 1950s (i obtained the book from a former seminarian). A third or fourth year philosophy student should have no trouble with this book. It is a classic systematic text on Metaphysics, though my theological background was very helpful.
The Chapters of the Book are: The meaning and use of Metaphysics, The concept of being, essence and existence, possibility and actuality, the transcendental attributes of being, substance and accident, quality--space--time, qualities--habit--relation, Cause; Efficient and Final Causes, Material and Formal Causes. The Theories of the Constitution of Inorganic Bodies, Material and Formal Causes. The Aristotelian-Scholastic Theory, Matter and Form and the Organism, Matter and Form and Human Life.
In each chapter, McCormick offers a summary of the material, propositions that the reader should be able to explain, suggestions for further study, and authors he referenced.
Also, McCormick gives critique of Materialist and Dualistic Philosophies, especially pointing out their incoherence or where they fall short in comparison to scholastic metaphysics.
I read this book in my fifth year of ordained priesthood.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews