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Students in this course will read primary source texts of selected Presocratic philosophers, Plato, and Aristotle, so as to identify the main issues in philosophy of nature, logic, knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy as first articulated in western thought. Attention will be given to the developing understanding of the human being and of relations in family and communities.
This course undertakes a careful reading of Pope John Paul II's Fides et Ratio to develop an understanding of philosophical methodology and the relationship between faith and reason. The relationship and distinction between philosophical and theological methodology will also be explored. The course will also promote the student's critical thinking skills through a study of logic. Students will learn to recognize arguments, to identify premises and conclusions, to evaluate deductive and non-deductive arguments, to distinguish forms of definition and to recognize formal and informal fallacies.
This course is a systematic treatment of knowledge and truth in the realist tradition. Students examine classic texts within the realist tradition and study contemporary challenges to it. The treatment of epistemology includes a discussion of the foundations of knowledge and challenges posed by relativism and conventionalism as well as strictly formal and conceptual systems akin to mathematics. In addition to examining the nature of knowledge and its relation to belief, opinion, and error, students will discuss perception, abstraction, insight, truth and certitude, and conclude with a discussion of scientific knowledge and its relation to perceptual knowledge.
Beginning with the question of being itself, this course will examine the transcendental and analogous properties of being; the fundamental structures of reality, including act and potency, essence and existence, form and matter, substance and accident; and the causes of being and becoming. Modern and contemporary views of being and change are examined and evaluated against the backdrop of an Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics.
(Prerequisite: Phil 1004) In this course, students are introduced to themes from the late classical period (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Neoplatonism, etc.) and readings from original writings of Boethius, Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas and other selected philosophers of this period. This course examines the main issues in Jewish, Islamic, and Christian medieval philosophy and attention is given to the developing understanding of the human person, the common good in families and communities, the problem of evil, and philosophical approaches to the existence and attributes of God.
(Prerequisites: Phil 1004 and Phil 1008) The focus of this class is the biological nature and interior structure of the human person from the perspectives of St. Thomas Aquinas and Karol Wojtyla. This will include intellect, will, imagination, memory, senses, passions, with particular emphasis on the nature of human acts. Attention is given to the mind body problem, the concept of soul, different definitions of the person and relation, the respective identities of man and woman, and the relation of person to culture.
This course involves an examination of the origin and transmission of Neoplatonism, one of the most influential forces in the development of medieval philosophy and theology. After studying the origins of Neoplatonism in Plotinus and Proclus, the course takes up some of the most important writers by whom it was transmitted to medieval Christian thinkers: Augustine, pseudo-Dionysius, the author of the Liber de causis, and Thomas Aquinas.
During the last few decades, a new vague and esoteric religious sensibility has emerged. This phenomenon has been globally called the New Age and has penetrated into different spheres of the arts, religion and culture. The movement has drawn the attention of Christian scholars who consider it especially harmful to the faith. This course is designed to give an introduction to the history of the ideas, practices and principal representatives of the New Age milieu, and to respond to some of the questions which the New Age raises. Also considered is the "Next Age," a more postmodern aspect of the New Age movement.
One of the reasons some people reject God, on the practical as well as theoretical level, is the existence of evil. How is it possible for an all-powerful and all-loving God to allow so much evil and suffering in the world? Philosophers and theologians have long sought a rational understanding of this problem. This seminar is designed to survey some of the principal contributions to the theodicy debate: The book of Job; Augustine and Thomas Aquinas; contemporary Thomistic theodicy (Maritain, Journet); the "faith solution" of K. Rahner; John Hick and Irenaean theodicy; conservative and popular theodicies (C.S. Lewis, Rabbi Kushner); process theodicy; John Paul II and The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering.
Building on students' knowledge of the classical treatment of the cardinal virtues in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, this course will focus on Summa Theologiae II-II, QQ. 47-206, in order to understand Thomas Aquinas' teachings on these virtues. Secondary literature will also be used in order to get a synthetic view of Thomas' teaching in our contemporary context. Particular attention will be given to celibate chastity in the context of Thomas' treatment of temperance.
(Prerequisites: Phil 1009) This course draws its themes from a variety of sources: Renaissance philosophy, the works of Descartes and Pascal, a selected empiricist, rationalist, and Kant. Students will identify the main issues in modern western philosophy. Attention will be given to the way modern philosophy has formed secular culture, and will then be focused on several contemporary responses of Catholic philosophers to this phenomenon.
(Prerequisites: Phil 1008) Students in this course will consider the reality of religion in two distinct parts. Part I will describe religion found phenomenologically and ontologically. Religion is thus discovered to be an original phenomenon based on man's spiritual nature, which cannot be reduced to or explained in mere sociological, psychological or cultural terms. Part II of the course is designed to introduce students to the issues and arguments that constitute the philosophical study of God. Questions to be examined include whether the existence of God is susceptible to rational demonstration, what is meant by the name God, and what can be known about the nature of a transcendent Supreme Being. The objection that the existence of evil is incompatible with the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God will also be considered.
(Prerequisites: Phil 1010) This course involves a survey of classical theories of ethics with a special emphasis on virtue theory and natural law. Themes such as voluntary and involuntary actions, conscience, derivation of norms, moral value, development of human character, happiness, friendship, and love will be included. Ethical theories based on rationalism, utilitarianism, relativism, emotivism, etc. will also be critically examined.
(Prerequisites: Phil 1007, 1008, 1009 and Phil 2006) Building on the principles of Thomas Aquinas studied in other historical and thematic courses, this course will take a synthetic view of his philosophical thought. Emphasis will be placed on reading Thomas' original works.
(Prerequisite: Phil 2004) The aim of this course is to introduce students to several of the major thinkers and ideas from the past two centuries of western philosophy. Topics will include German idealism, theistic and atheistic existentialism, language theory, phenomenology, neo-Thomism, hermeneutics, feminism and postmodernism. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which these philosophies interact with and are integrated into Catholic philosophy.
(Prerequisites: Phil. 2004 and Phil 2006) This course explores how modern and contemporary philosophy approach the relationship between the individual and community. In particular the course considers how the philosophies of Rousseau, Mill and Marx have shaped our contemporary understanding of this relationship. The contemporary Thomistic political thought of Jacques Maritain, Yves Simone and Karol Wojtyla will be used to evaluate and respond to these theories. The course also considers the relationship between the church and the state as it relates to issues of the individual, community and the common good.
(Prerequisite: Completion of the first year of the philosophy cycle) Under the supervision of a philosophy professor of his choice, each student will prepare a 30 page paper on a topic he selects, relevant to contemporary philosophy. This project should provide an opportunity for the student to synthesize what he has learned in his philosophical studies, bringing pertinent points from other courses and periods to bear on his specified topic in contemporary philosophy. During class, students will share what they are learning as their research progresses.
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the principles of classical rhetoric as articulated by Aristotle, Cicero, Quintillian, and other ancient rhetoricians. Beginning with Augustine, we shall also consider Medieval and Renaissance developments of this tradition. This course emphasizes the modern application of classical rhetoric and makes extensive use of examples, including those that would contribute to the pastoral vocation of a priest. The course is primarily concerned with the theory of rhetoric rather than the training of rhetoricians, although students are required to give brief oral presentations.
Students in this course will study the fundamental notions concerning the philosophical understanding of science and the physical world from classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary perspectives. The relation of empirical research, hypotheses, models, paradigms, and scientific 'revolutions' will be considered in regard to the particular approaches to truth found in different fields of scientific study.
Students in this course will study the development and fundamental ideas of postmodern thought. In particular, the focus will be on the conclusions and consequences of postmodernism in the areas of epistemology, ethics, aesthetics and religion. Also considered will be a critique of postmodernism by contemporary Christian and secular philosophers.
This course involves a systematic study of Kierkegaard, paying particular attention to the relation of faith and reason, indirect communication and conversion, absolute love for the absolute, the dialectic of ethics and religion, and the integrity of freedom and choice in the human condition.
Traditionally philosophers have described friendship as a virtue: among men, among men and women, and among men and God. In this course we will study the theory of friendship in classical authors Aristotle and Cicero, medieval Christian authors Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and contemporary authors Maritain and Sokolowski. Our purpose will be to identify why philosophers argue that friendship is a virtue and how this virtue may be useful in priestly life.
The focus of this course is the shaping of a human person. The readings and discussions involved address how a human being realizes his full potential. Naturally, this presupposes a theory of human society, the nature of human knowledge, and ultimately, the nature of being. Consequently, a connection between theories of education and various doctrines from other areas of philosophy should be recognized. In this course, students will examine competing theories of education, and will identify the philosophical presuppositions as well as the consequences of these theories. A special emphasis will be placed on the compatibility of these educational theories with traditional Catholic views on the subject.
Students in this course will study the philosophy of Edith Stein through a careful reading of her text Finite and Eternal Being. We will examine how she attempts to integrate the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas with Husserl's phenomenology, and how she applies her philosophy to the problems of empathy, the imagination, interiority, the passion of joy, women's identity, and personal autobiography.
The focus of this course is C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength). We will be especially interested in the cosmology of the Space Trilogy and its vision of the place of human beings in the universe. We will also read Lewis' The Abolition of Man to aid and supplement our understanding of how Lewis sees modern science affecting the human condition. Finally, we will conclude by reading G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man, a work that underlies much of Lewis' Trilogy.
This course offers an opportunity to explore a particular philosophical topic or a selected thinker in the history of philosophy. Recent offerings include:
This course of one hour per week will prepare students to take a comprehensive examination at the end of the Philosophy program. The comprehensive examination will be based upon a list of theses and questions, and will take place before three professors, one from the area of systematic philosophy, one from history of philosophy, and one representing the Pontifical Lateran University.
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