Why philosophy abides for Aquinas

Heythrop Journal - Quarterly Review of Philosophy and Theology

Volumn 42, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 329-348

  Hankey, Wayne J ^a  

^a DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 61149091687     PISSN: 00181196     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2265.00162     Document Type: Article

References (133)

1. J. Milbank and C. Pickstock, Truth in Aquinas, Radical Orthodoxy (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 20 and 21.
2. C. Early, 'MacIntyre, Narrative Rationality and Faith', New Blackfriars 82:959 (2001), p. 35.
3. Of the many efforts at this, I shall refer to those of Mark Jordan, 'Theology and Philosophy' in N. Kretzmann and E. Stump (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 232-51 and earlier works cited below.
4. I. Aertsen, 'Aquinas's Philosophy in its Historical Setting', The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, p. 20;
5. M. D. Jordan, The Alleged Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas, The Étienne Gilson Series 15 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1992), pp. 9-10.
6. R. A. Gauthier in Aquinas, Expositio Libri Posteriorum, Editio altera retractata (Leonina 1989, vol. 1, pars 2), p. 55.
7. For the Summa Theologiae (Leonina [Marietti, 1952]), see 2-1, questions 49-52.
8. See Super Epistolam ad Colossenses (Cai, 1953), 1.4 sections 40-42.
9. See W. J. Hankey, 'Aquinas and the Platonists' in M. J. F. M. Hoenen and S. Gersh (eds.), The Platonic Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period - A Lexicographic Approach (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, in press).
10. Alain de Libera, La Querelle des universaux: De Plato à la fin du Moyen Âge, Des Travaux (Paris: Seuil, 1996), pp. 68-124.
11. M. D. Jordan, Ordering Wisdom. The Hierarchy of Philosophical Discourses in Aquinas (Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 1986), pp. 185-201;
12. see P. Hadot, 'Théologie, exégèse, révélation, Écriture dans la philosophie grecque', reprinted in his Études de philosophie ancienne, L'Âne d'Or (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1998), pp. 27-58.
13. Jordan, Ordering, p. 194.
14. See W. J. Hankey, 'Aquinas, Pseudo-Denys, Proclus and Isaiah VI6', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 64 (1997), pp. 59-93.
15. Compare In Sententiarum, lib. 2, dist. 14, quest. 1, art. 2 with In De Divinis Nominibus, proemium, and 5.1, sect. 634.
16. De Malo (Leonina 1982, vol. 23), 16, 1 ad 3.
17. See Super Librum De Causis Expositio (Saffrey Fribourg 1954), p. xxxvi.
18. See Thomas d'Aquin, L'Unité de l'intellect contre les Averroïstes suivi des Textes contre Averroès antérieurs à 1270, texte latin, traduction, introduction, biographie, chronologie, notes et index par A. de Libera, 2nd ed. (Paris, GF-Flammarion, 1997).
19. For his method of analysis, see R. J. Henle, Saint Thomas and Platonism. A Study of the 'Plato' and 'Platonici' Texts in the Writings of Saint Thomas (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1956), p. 295.
20. Tractatus de Spiritualibus Creaturis, edited by L. W. Keeler, Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana Textus et Documenta, series philosophica 13 (Rome, 1959), a. 3.
21. Aquinas appears to be referring to Simplicius, Commentaire sur les Catégories d'Aristote, Traduction de Guillaume de Moerbeke, edited by A. Pattin, 2 volumes, Corpus Latinorum commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum 1-2, vol. 1 (Louvain-Paris: Publications Universitaires de Louvain - Éditions Béatrice Nauwelaerts, 1971), prologus p. 8 line 70-p. 9 line 85.
22. P. Hadot, 'Philosophie, exégèse et contrasens', reprinted in Études de philosophie ancienne, pp. 3-11.
23. See J. van Banning, 'Saint Thomas et l'Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum' in A. Piolanti (ed.), Atti dell'VIII Congresso Tomistico Internazionale, viii (Vatican City: Editrice Vaticana, 1982), pp. 73-85.
24. Jordan, 'Alleged', pp. 11-14.
25. F. Bossier, 'Traductions latines et influences du Commentaire In de Caelo en Occident (XIIIe-XIVe s.)' in I. Hadot (ed.), Simplicius sa vie, son oeuvre, sa survie, Peripatoi 15 (Berlin & London: de Gruyter, 1987), pp. 289-325 (pp. 304-8) gives a list of points of agreement and disagreement.
26. In De Caelo, 1.22, sect. 227.
27. Sententia libri de Anima (Leonina 1984, vol. 45, pars 1), cap. 8, p. 38, lines 3-9.
28. In De Caelo, 1.22, sect. 228.
29. For a small sampling of Aquinas's reproduction of Simplicius's history and acceptance of his judgements on the hermeneutic principles, compare Aquinas, In De Caelo (Spiazzi, 1952)
30. r comments 4 & 5.
31. In De Caelo, 1.22 sect. 228.
32. In De Caelo, 2.1 sect. 295.
33. Bossier, 'Traductions latines', p. 306;
34. Aertsen, 'Aquinas's Philosophy', p. 21.
35. rb, comm. 100.
36. In De Caelo, 3.2 sect. 551
37. ra, comm. 4.
38. ST Ia.5 ad 12
39. see R. D. Crouse, 'St Thomas, St Albert, Aristotle: Philosophia Ancilla Theologiae', Atti del Congresso Internazionale Tommaso nel suo settimo centenario, i (Naples, Edizioni Domenicane Italiane, 1975), pp. 181-5.
40. ST 1a. 1.1 ad 2
41. see J. F. Wippel, Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1984), p. 18.
42. Jordan, 'Theology', pp. 233-4.
43. On Origen see Quaestiones DisputataeDe Potentia (Pession, 1965), 6.6 ad 2;
44. Super Boetium De Trinitate (Leonina 1992, vol. 50), 3.4, resp., p. 116, lines 124-34;
45. De Substantiis Separatis (Leonina 1968, vol. 60, pars D), cap. 12.
46. ST 1a. 1.8 ad 2 and la.2.2 ad 1;
47. See Fergus Kerr, 'Thomas Aquinas' in G. R. Evans (ed.), The Medieval Theologians (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), p. 207.
48. ST 1a. 1.6 ad 2.
49. Milbank, Truth, p. 42.
50. S. Menn, Descartes and Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 24, 47-9, 74, 132, 206, 322-36;
51. Z. Janowski, Index Augustino-Cartésien: Textes et Commentaire, Histoire de la philosophie (Paris: Vrin, 2000), pp. 11-16.
52. Early, 'MacIntyre', p. 35.
53. For the dependence of the sciences on maintaining the limits of the forms of knowing, see Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate (Spiazzi 1964), 15.2 ad 3.
54. Milbank, Truth, pp. 22-4, 51, note 8 at p. 118 and note 103 at p. 126.
55. See C. Lafleur, 'Abstraction, séparation et tripartition de la philosophie théorétique: Quelques éléments de l'arrière-fond farabien et artien de Thomas d'Aquin, Super Boetium «De Trinitate», question 5, article 3', Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 67:2 (2000), pp. 249-69;
56. on its origins see de Libera, La Querelle, pp. 110-16.
57. De Veritate, 2.6 ad 1.
58. De Substantiis Separatis, cap. 1 p. D 42 fines 80-92.
59. See In librum Beati Dionysii de divinis nominibus expositio (Pera 1950), 4.1 sect. 276;
60. De Substantiis cap. 4 p. D 47 fines 3-19;
61. Super Librum de Causis, prop. 3 p. 18 fines 8-14;
62. prop. 10 p. 67 fine 19-p. 68 line 7;
63. prop. 13 p. 83 fines 8-17.
64. De Veritate, 15.1. See ad 2 and ad 8 of this article, as well as the whole of 15.2 and 8.2 ad 3.
65. The account in De Veritate, 10.6, is essentially the same as that in the De Spiritualibus Creaturis 10 ad 8 and the objections direct it against Augustine as well as Plato. The account in the Summa Theologiae la. 79 makes it a dispute between Plato and Aristotle.
66. E.g., ST 1a. 79.3;
67. la. 79.4 ad 3;
68. De Veritate, 10.6;
69. 10.8 ad in contranum 10.
70. Catherine Pickstock, 'Radical Orthodoxy and the Mediations of Time' in L. P. Hemming (ed.), Radical Orthodoxy? - A Catholic Inquiry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), p. 72.
71. L. P. Hemming, 'Introduction', in Radical Orthodoxy?, note 24, p. 12.
72. De Veritate, 18.2.
73. De Veritate, 18.1 ad 1.
74. De Spiritualibus Creaturis, 10 ad 8;
75. see De Veritate, 16.3;
76. ST 1a. 79.5.
77. On the Peripatetics, see H. J. Blumenthal, Aristotle and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity. Interpretation of the 'De Anima' (London: Duckworth, 1996), p. 17;
78. the Neoplatonic commentators maybe responsible for what Aquinas concludes; see 'Simplicius', On Aristotle On the Soul 3.1-5, trans. H. J. Blumenthal, Ancient Commentators on Aristotle (London: Duckworth, 2000), pp. vii, 8, 220: 15-17 and 25-35.
79. De Spiritualibus Creaturis, 10 ad 10.
80. De Veritate, 8.3 resp. and ad 3; 8.8 ad 3; 8.15; 10.11; 10.13 (on why we cannot know the Trinity by natural reason).
81. De Substantiis Separatis, cap. 1 p. D 42 lines 66-70.
82. ST 1a. 84.2.
83. Super de Trinitate, 5.3 p. 149 lines 275-90;
84. ST 1a.84.1;
85. De Spiritualibus Creaturis, 10 ad 8.
86. ST 1a. 84.1 'salvare certain cognitionem veritatis a nobis per intellectum haberi'.
87. De Substantiis Separatis cap. 2 p. D 44 lines 11-13.
88. Compare ST 1a.2.3.
89. De Veritate 10.12;
90. see also 14.9 resp. and ad 9.
91. ST 1a. 2.2 sed contra.
92. De Veritate, 14.10 and
93. ST 1a. 1.1.
94. Pickstock, Truth, pp. 8 and 12.
95. ST 1a. 1.5 ad 12.
96. Milbank and Pickstock, Truth, p. xiii and see pp. 25-6.
97. My argument here is given in extenso in chapters 2 and 3 of my God in Himself Aquinas' Doctrine of God as Expounded in the Summa Theologiae (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
98. ST 1a.2.1 ad 2.
99. It is significant that De Simplicitate Dei begins with the question Utrum Deus sit corpus, and starts its answer by reference to God as primum movens immobile, ST 1a.3.1.
100. See De Veritate, 10.12.
101. Blumenthal, Aristotle and Neoplatonism, p. 18;
102. H. D. Saffrey, Le Néoplatonisme après Plotin, Histoire des doctrines de l'antiquité classique 24 (Paris: Vrin, 2000), p. viii;
103. see R. M. Van den Berg, 'Towards the Paternal Harbour: Proclean Theurgy and the Contemplation of the Forms' in A. Ph. Segonds and C. Steel (eds.), Proclus et la théologie Platonicienne. Actes du Colloque International de Louvain (13-16 mai 1998) en l'honneur de H. D. Saffrey et L. G. Westerink, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy De Wulf-Mansion Centre Series I, XXVI (Leuven-Paris: Leuven University Press - Les Belles Lettres, 2000), pp. 425-6.
104. For a quick and accurate sketch of the position, see M. Edwards, Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by Their Students, Translated Texts for Historians 35 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), p. x1.
105. W. J. Hankey, 'Between and Beyond Augustine and Descartes: More than a Source of the Self', Augustinian Studies 32:1 (2001), pp. 81-8.
106. P. Hadot, Qu'est-ce que la philosophie antique? Collection Folio/Essais (Paris: Gallimard, 1995), p. 387.
107. In duodecim libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Expositio (Cathala, 1971).
108. For a good summary of what it says and for unrefuted criticism of Milbank on Aquinas, see N. Lash, 'Where Does Holy Teaching Leave Philosophy? Questions on Milbank's Aquinas', Modern Theology 15:4 (1999), pp. 433-44.
109. Super de Trinitate, 6.3
110. ScG 1.2;
111. see J.-L. Marion, 'Saint Thomas d'Aquin et l'onto-théo-logie', Revue Thomiste 95:1 (1995), p. 43.
112. ScG 4.1;
113. Super de Trinitate, 5.4;
114. and see my God in Himself, endnote 1, pp. 162-3.
115. De Veritate, 2.5, 2.6 and 10.5.
116. and 'Radical Orthodoxy and the Mediations of Time', p. 72
117. and Hemming's correction 'Quod Impossibile Est!
118. Aquinas and Radical Orthodoxy' in Radical Orthodoxy, p. 79.
119. See my 'Theoria versus Poesis: Neoplatonism and Trinitarian Difference in Aquinas, John Milbank, Jean-Luc Marion and John Zizioulas', Modern Theology 15:4 (October 1999), pp. 387-415.
120. See J.-L. Marion, 'La Science toujours recherchée et toujours manquante' (pp. 13-36)
121. e Congrès de l'Association des Sociétés de Philosophie de Langue Française in La métaphysique: Son histoire, sa critique, ses jeux, edited by J.-M. Narbonne and L. Langlois (Paris: Vrin, 1999).
122. J. Milbank, 'Only Theology Overcomes Metaphysics', New Blackfriars 76:895 (1995), pp. 49-59
123. and Truth, p. 39.
124. Milbank, Truth, note 84, p. 125.
125. and J. Hanvey, 'Conclusion: Continuing the Conversation' in Radical Orthodoxy?, pp. 155 and 164.
126. J. F. Wippel, 'Metaphysics' in The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, p. 89;
127. see Wippel, Metaphysical Themes, pp. 69-104.
128. Marion, 'Saint Thomas d'Aquin', pp. 43 & 63.
129. There is a useful summary in B. J. Shanley, 'St Thomas, Onto-theology and Marion', The Thomist 60 (1996), pp. 617-25.
130. Marion, 'Saint Thomas d'Aquin', p. 65, note 82: 'penser l'être à partir de l'inconnaissabilité de Dieu'.
131. Hankey, God in Himself, pp. 5-6;
132. D. Bradshaw, 'Neoplatonic Origins of the Act of Being', The Review of Metaphysics 53 (1999), pp. 383-401.
133. A version of this article was delivered to a Research Seminar at Heythrop College in February 2001. I am grateful to Dr Laurence Hemming for the invitation, to the members of the Seminar for useful discussion, to Dr James Hanvey and the Jesuit community for warm hospitality, and to Clare Hall, Cambridge, for the Visiting Fellowship which brought me to England.