Ignacio Silva | Universidad Austral (original) (raw)

Books by Ignacio Silva

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency. Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics of Divine Action

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of the contemporary de... more Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of the contemporary debate over divine providential action and the natural sciences, suggesting a re-consideration of Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysical doctrine of providence coupled with his account of natural contingency. By looking at the history of debates over providence and nature, the volume provides a set of criteria to evaluate providential divine action models, challenging the underlying, theologically contentious assumptions of current discussions on divine providential action. Such assumptions include that God needs causally open spaces in the created world in order to act in it providentially, and the unfitting conclusion that, if this is the case, then God is assumed to act as another cause among causes. In response to these shortcomings, the book presents a comprehensive account of Aquinas’ metaphysics of natural causation, contingency, and their relation to divine providence. It offers a fresh and bold metaphysical narrative, based on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, which appreciates the relation between divine providence and natural contingency.

Logos, 2021

Este volumen busca ofrecer una mirada original sobre la providencia divina, presentando perspecti... more Este volumen busca ofrecer una mirada original sobre la providencia divina, presentando perspectivas filosóficas, psicológicas y teológicas acerca de la providencia humana. El tema de la providencia divina es uno de los más acuciantes problemas en teología analítica y en filosofía de la religión hoy en día, en particular de cara a la evidencia científica de un mundo natural repleto de indeterminismo y contingencia, por ejemplo, en el mundo cuántico, en ciertos modelos cosmológicos del origen del universo, y la biología evolutiva. De acuerdo al teísmo clásico, Dios gobierna la historia del mundo natural y de la humanidad con conocimiento perfecto de los eventos futuros. Pero Dios también permite a las creaturas tener comportamientos contingentes no-deterministas. Considerando la providencia humana, este volumen busca catalizar un cambio de paradigma respecto de esta cuestión, aplicando nuevas metáforas para comprender y explicar las relaciones entre la providencia divina y el obrar de la creatura.

This volume offers an original perspective on divine providence by examining philosophical, psych... more This volume offers an original perspective on divine providence by examining philosophical, psychological, and theological perspectives on human providence as exhibited in virtuous human behaviours. Divine providence is one of the most pressing issues in analytic theology and philosophy of religion today, especially in view of scientific evidence for a natural world full of indeterminacies and contingencies. Therefore, we need new ways to understand and explain the relations of divine providence and creaturely action.

The volume is structured dynamically, going from chapters on human providence to those on divine providence, and back. Drawing on insights from virtue ethics, psychology and cognitive science, the philosophy of providence in the face of contingent events, and the theology of grace, each chapter contributes to an original overall perspective: that human providential action is a resource suited specifically to personal action and hence related to the purported providential action of a personal God.

By putting forward a fresh take on divine providence, this book enters new territory on an age-old issue. It will therefore be of great interest to scholars of theology, philosophy, and religion and science.

Latin American Perspectives on Science and Religion

Latin America plays an increasingly important role in the development of modern Christianity yet ... more Latin America plays an increasingly important role in the development of modern Christianity yet it has been underrepresented in current scholarship on religion and science. In this first edited volume on the subject, contributors explore the different ways that religion and science relate to each other, how developments in natural science shaped religious views from the pre-Hispanic period until the nineteenth century and the current debates over evolution and creationism. It will appeal to those researching theology, divinity, philosophy, history of science and Latin American studies.

Voces recientemente publicadas: ORGANISMO, FILOSOFIA DE LA ECONOMIA. El Diccionario Interdisci... more Voces recientemente publicadas: ORGANISMO, FILOSOFIA DE LA ECONOMIA.

El Diccionario Interdisciplinar Austral (DIA) es una herramienta en español de alta calidad académica de apoyo a la enseñanza y al servicio de futuras investigaciones. Las voces de DIA ofrecen un actualizado estado de la cuestión, con las correspondientes referencias bibliográficas, de los principales temas que involucran relaciones interdisciplinares entre las ciencias, la filosofía y/o la teología. Es de acceso libre y está completamente disponible online: http://dia.austral.edu.ar/.

Selección de voces publicadas hasta el momento: Ajuste fino, Altruismo biológico, Argumento ontológico, Caos, Complejidad, Conciencia, Decoherencia cuántica, Dualismo, Enactivismo, Epigenética, Especie, Evolución, Función biológica, Gramática moral universal, Identidad personal, Inteligencia artificial, Interpretaciones de la mecánica cuántica, Modelos científicos, Naturalismo, Origen de la vida, Psicología positiva, Tiempo, Vida extraterrestre.

Indeterminismo en la Naturaleza y Mecánica Cuántica: Werner Heisenberg y Tomás de Aquino

Sobre la Unidad del Intelecto contra los Averroístas, Tomás de Aquino – Tratado acerca del Alma Intelectiva, Siger de Brabante

La Universidad de París en la Europa de finales del siglo XIII fue centro de acaloradas discusion... more La Universidad de París en la Europa de finales del siglo XIII fue centro de acaloradas discusiones acerca del alma del hombre. La cuestión del alma es el punto doctrinal central y se muestra decisivo porque en la resolución de este único punto puede verse el trasfondo antropológico y metafísico de toda una cosmovisión filosófica e incluso teológica del universo. Una de las más problemáticas cuestiones que se plantearon acerca del alma es el problema de la unidad del intelecto para todos los hombres. Parecería contradictorio pensar que todos los hombres piensan con un único intelecto, pero a su vez suena absurdo afirmar que un principio espiritual, inmaterial, se una a un cuerpo por un tiempo determinado para luego separarse. Ambas posiciones surgen de la consideración de nuevos textos llegados a las manos de los pensadores parisinos a través de autores árabes: los textos del De anima de Aristóteles.

Papers by Ignacio Silva

Thomas Aquinas and William E. Carroll on Creatio ex Nihilo: A Response to Joseph Hannon’s “Theological Objections to a Metaphysicalist Interpretation of Creation”

Theology and Science, 2021

Joseph Hannon has expressed a most surprising objection to Aquinas scholar Prof William E. Carrol... more Joseph Hannon has expressed a most surprising objection to Aquinas scholar Prof William E. Carroll in his latest paper “Theological Objections to a Metaphysicalist Interpretation of Creation.” The main claim is that Prof. Carroll misunderstands Aquinas' doctrine of creatio ex nihilo by reducing it to a metaphysical notion, rather than considering it in its full theological sense. In this paper I show Hannon's misinterpretation of Carroll's and Thomas Aquinas' thought, particularly by stressing the dependence that the doctrine of providence through secondary causes has on the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo.

Studium. Filosofía y Teología, 2019

The main goal of this paper is to compare how Thomas Aquinas expressed his doctrine of providence... more The main goal of this paper is to compare how Thomas Aquinas expressed
his doctrine of providence through secondary causes, making use of both Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic principles, in the seventh article of the third question of his Quaestiones Disputatae De Potentia Dei and his Super Librum de Causis Expositio, in which he intends to solve the problem of the
metaphysical mechanism by which God providentially guides creation. I will first present his arguments as they appear in the disputed questions, followed by a presentation of his thought on the matter in his commentary of the Liber de Causis, and concluding with my comparative analysis of Aquinas’ solution to the issue of God’s providential activity in nature.

European Journal of Science and Theology, 2019

In this paper I offer a distinction between design and teleology, referring mostly to the history... more In this paper I offer a distinction between design and teleology, referring mostly to the history of these two terms, in order to suggest an alternative strategy for arguments that intend to demonstrate the existence of the divine. I do not deal with the soundness of either design or teleological arguments. I rather emphasise the differences between these two terms, and how these differences involve radically different arguments for the existence of the divine. I argue that the term „design‟ refers to an extrinsic feature that was in history understood to be imposed by God in nature, while one may argue for an internal tendency, what I call „teleology‟. I first offer a historical tour of design arguments and how the basic notion of design was understood in extrinsic terms. I then briefly present three kinds of objections available in history to these arguments: philosophical, scientific, and theological. I finally move to discussing an intrinsic understanding of teleology, and how this notion differs from that of extrinsic design. I end the paper showing how this notion could be useful in interpreting processes in nature, in particular the reproductive tendencies in living beings.

Diccionario Interdisciplinar Austral, 2019

Las relaciones entre ciencia y religión son tema de amplio debate dentro de la filosofía, la teol... more Las relaciones entre ciencia y religión son tema de amplio debate dentro de la filosofía, la teología y la historia. Desde una postura de conflicto hasta la complejidad histórica, pasando por una gran variedad de posibles tipos de relaciones, las opiniones acerca de las mismas intentan describirlas y sugerir cuál es la mejor forma en la que ciencia y religión deben relacionarse. La ciencia, en cuanto conocimiento de la naturaleza con vocación de universalidad, propone teorías que, tanto en la historia como en la actualidad, se han relacionado con el discurso teológico. Así, esta voz describirá algunas posibles relaciones entre los postulados, investigaciones, teorías y actividad científicos y los discursos religiosos y teológicos, sobre todo cristiano, pero también puntualizando relaciones en otras tradiciones religiosas. Analizando diversas perspectivas de las posibles relaciones entre ciencia y religión, se considerarán el campo académico interdisciplinar de ciencia y religión, las diversas propuestas de tipologías de relación y la crítica histórica a tales tipologías. Además, se tratarán diversas discusiones actuales concernientes a la cosmología y la microfísica, la biología, la antropología y las ciencias cognitivas, y la teología de la acción divina. Finalmente se analizará la interdisciplinariedad necesaria para este tipo de campo académico.

Attempts to solve the issue of divine action in nature have resulted in many innovative proposal... more Attempts to solve the issue of divine action in nature have resulted in many innovative proposals seeking to explain how God can act within nature without disrupting the created order but introducing novelty in the history of the universe. My goal is to show how Aquinas' doctrine of providence, mainly as expressed in his De Potentia Dei, fulfils the criteria for an account of divine action: that God's action is providential in the sense that God is involved in the individual and particular here and now.

Contemporary debates on divine action tend to focus on finding a space in nature where there woul... more Contemporary debates on divine action tend to focus on finding a space in nature where there would be no natural causes, where nature offers indeterminacy, openness, and potentiality, to place God’s action. These places are found through the natural sciences, in particular quantum mechanics. God’s action is then located in those ontological ‘causal-gaps’ offered by certain interpretations of quantum mechanics. In this view, God would determine what is left underdetermined in nature without disrupting the laws of nature. These contemporary proposals evidence at least two unexamined assumptions, which frame the discussion in such a way that they portray God as acting as a secondary cause or a ‘cause among causes’. God is somewhat required to act within these ‘gaps’, binding God to the laws of nature, and placing God’s action at the level of secondary causes. I suggest that understanding God’s action, following Thomas Aquinas, in terms of primary and secondary causation could help dissolve this difficulty. Aquinas moves away from this objection by suggesting to speak of an analogical notion of cause, allowing for an analogical understanding of God’s causality in nature. With a radically different understanding of the interplay between secondary causes and God, Aquinas manages to avoid conceiving God as a cause among causes, keeping the distinctive transcendent character of God’s causality safe from objections.

The Heythrop Journal 54:4 (2013), 658-667

Many authors within the contemporary debate on divine action in nature and contemporary science a... more Many authors within the contemporary debate on divine action in nature and contemporary science argue for and against a Thomistic account of divine action through the notions of primary and secondary causes. In this paper I argue that those who support a Thomistic account of divine action fail to explain Aquinas’ doctrine in full, while those who argue against it base their objections on an incomplete knowledge of that same doctrine or identify it with Austin Farrer’s doctrine of double agency – thereby ultimately failing to refute it. I present and analyse these objections, and show how these do not address Aquinas’ doctrine by offering a brief but full account of it.

In this paper, I present and analyse the theological reasons given by contemporary authors such a... more In this paper, I present and analyse the theological reasons given by contemporary authors such as Robert J. Russell, Thomas Tracy and John Polkinghorne, as well as thirteenth‑century scholar Thomas Aquinas, to admit that the created universe requires being intrinsically contingent in its causing, in particular referring to their doctrines of providence. Contemporary authors stress the need of having indeterminate
events within the natural world to allow for God’s providential action within creation, whereas Aquinas focuses his argument on the idea that a universe which includes contingent causes is a more perfect universe. I compare these two approaches, concluding that Aquinas’ seems to be better suited to account for true indetermination within the natural world, claiming that divine causality is not required to complement natural causality in its own level.

You may find the paper here:
Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 2:2 (2015:137-157)
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mohr/ptsc/2015/00000002/00000002/art00002

Otherwise, please send me a request.

Providencia y acción divina

La presente voz introducirá al lector en las cuestiones básicas históricas y contemporáneas acerc... more La presente voz introducirá al lector en las cuestiones básicas históricas y contemporáneas acerca del problema de cómo concebir la acción de Dios en el mundo, o lo que se llama ‘acción especial de Dios’. También se dice que Dios obra de modo general al crear el mundo, pero esto no será tema del presente texto. Se entiende teológicamente que la acción especial de Dios en el mundo creado puede dividirse, al menos, en cuatro modos: 1) milagros; 2) inspiración; 3) gracia; y 4) providencia. Los milagros son eventos extraordinarios que exceden el poder productivo de la naturaleza, siendo su ocurrencia, por definición, rara, dado que lo extraordinario presupone lo ordinario. La inspiración es una especie de entendimiento con un sentido de iluminación divina, generando comprensión, permitiendo ver las cosas que ya se conocen encajar de una nueva manera; es decir, rara vez sirve para adquirir nuevos conocimientos, sino una nueva comprensión de lo ya conocido. La gracia se identifica con un don o un favor inmerecido que Dios otorga al hombre, por el cual se participa de la vida divina. Por último, la providencia, es el ordenamiento y gobierno del mundo por parte de Dios, a través de las causas creadas hacia un fin. Esta voz estará dedicada a presentar las cuestiones básicas históricas y contemporáneas acerca de la providencia divina, dejando de lado los tres primeros modos de considerar la acción especial de Dios.

In this paper I suggest a reason why the Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of providence is attractive to ... more In this paper I suggest a reason why the Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of providence
is attractive to contemporary philosophers of religion in the English-speaking academy. The
main argument states that there are at least four metaphysical principles that guided discussions
on providence and divine action in the created world, namely divine omnipotence and
transcendence, divine providential action, the autonomy of natural created causes, and the
success of reason and natural science. Aquinas’ doctrine, I hold, is capable of affirming these
four principles without rejecting any of them, as it is in the cases of other doctrines. In addition,
I present and answer some objections raised against Aquinas’ thought, and briefly
expand on how Aquinas’ ideas on providence are used today to tackle issues regarding contemporary
science, such as evolutionary biology, quantum mechanics, and big bang theory.

The state of the debate surrounding issues on science and religion in Latin America is mostly unk... more The state of the debate surrounding issues on science and religion in Latin America is mostly unknown, both to regional and extra-regional scholars. This paper presents and reviews in some detail the developments made since 2000, when the first symposium on science and religion was held in Mexico, up to date. I briefly introduce some features of Latin American academia and higher education institutions, as well as some trends on the public reception of these debates and atheist engagement with it in Mexico and Argentina. The primary conclusion of this paper is that, even though the discussion is new to Latin American academic circles, it is gaining traction and will certainly grow in the coming years.

In the first part of this paper I argue that even if at first Alvin Plantinga’s reasons for allow... more In the first part of this paper I argue that even if at first Alvin Plantinga’s reasons for allowing special divine action seem similar to those of Thomas Aquinas, particularly in De Potentia Dei for allowing miracles, the difference in their metaphysical language makes Aquinas’ account less prone to the objections raised against Plantinga’s. In the second part I argue that Plantinga errs when recurring to quantum mechanics for allowing special divine action, making God to be a cause among causes. Thomas Aquinas, by speaking of primary and secondary causality when referring to God’s activity, avoids taking this step, evading the conclusion that God could be seen as a cause among causes. Aquinas, however, maintains in a statement which goes beyond Plantinga’s, that God’s providence requires the universe to be indeterministic because this indeterministic feature makes the universe more perfect.

I examine John Polkinghorne's account of how God acts in the world, focusing on how his ideas dev... more I examine John Polkinghorne's account of how God acts in the world, focusing on how his ideas developed with the consideration of the notion of kenosis, and how this development was not a rejection of his previous ideas, but on the contrary a fulfilling of his own personal philosophical and theological insights. Polkinghorne's thought can be distinguished in three different periods:1) divine action as input of active information (1988-2000/2001);2) Polkinghorne's reception of the notion of kenosis (2000-2004);3) Polkinghorne's "thought experiment" approach to his ideas on divine action (2004- ). Finally, I consider the question of internal coherence of this theological development, focusing on the transition from the first to the second period, which I believe to be the most significant.

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency. Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics of Divine Action

Logos, 2021

Latin American Perspectives on Science and Religion

Voces recientemente publicadas: ORGANISMO, FILOSOFIA DE LA ECONOMIA. El Diccionario Interdisci... more Voces recientemente publicadas: ORGANISMO, FILOSOFIA DE LA ECONOMIA.

Indeterminismo en la Naturaleza y Mecánica Cuántica: Werner Heisenberg y Tomás de Aquino

Sobre la Unidad del Intelecto contra los Averroístas, Tomás de Aquino – Tratado acerca del Alma Intelectiva, Siger de Brabante

Thomas Aquinas and William E. Carroll on Creatio ex Nihilo: A Response to Joseph Hannon’s “Theological Objections to a Metaphysicalist Interpretation of Creation”

Theology and Science, 2021

Studium. Filosofía y Teología, 2019

European Journal of Science and Theology, 2019

Diccionario Interdisciplinar Austral, 2019

The Heythrop Journal 54:4 (2013), 658-667

You may find the paper here:
Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 2:2 (2015:137-157)
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mohr/ptsc/2015/00000002/00000002/art00002

Otherwise, please send me a request.

Providencia y acción divina

Anuario Filosófico 46:2 (2013), 405-422

Many innovative proposals have been offered over the last few years to solve the problem of divin... more Many innovative proposals have been offered over the last few years to solve the problem of divine action in nature, looking mainly at ontological causal gaps in nature, which would allow God to act in nature. Analysing these proposals I argue that they reduce God to a cause among causes. In order to avoid this conclusion, I suggest revisiting Aquinas’ doctrine of providence and God’s interplay with contingent created causes.

When Werner Heisenberg presented his views of the fundamental indeterminism to which his uncertai... more When Werner Heisenberg presented his views of the fundamental indeterminism to which his uncertainty principle pointed in the basic levels of reality described by quantum mechanics, he used the Aristotelian technical terms of act and potency, affirming that the quantum system is in potency before the measurement and that the potency was actualised when the measurement took place, speaking thus of a ‘new ontology’ of quantum mechanics. I argue that Thomas Aquinas’ Aristotelian account of indeterminism in nature, through his analysis of the notions of matter as potency and form as act, can provide a suitable framework to understand Heisenberg’s philosophical intuition about the nature of quantum systems.

"Many innovative proposals regarding for God’s activity in the created universe were given within... more "Many innovative proposals regarding for God’s activity in the created universe were given within the Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action Project. The most important one was what Robert Russell called ‘non-interventionist, objective divine action’ (NIODA). This new perspective seeks scientific theories that can be interpreted as pointing to ontological causal gaps in nature, thus providing a place for God to act without disrupting the laws of nature.
Russell finds that quantum mechanics offers such a possibility, and thus advocates for a Quantum Divine Action. On the other hand, John Polkinghorne - agreeing to the NIODA project - dismisses this possibility due to the lack of connection between the quantum world and the macro-world. He proposes that chaos theory can be interpreted in an indeterministic way and thus allowing God to act in a non-interventionist manner through chaotic systems as input of information with no energy exchange.
Many authors (Smedes, Dodds, Stoeger, and myself) argued that Russell’s Quantum Divine Action renders God’s causality another kind of natural causality, a theologically undesirable conclusion. I will compare Russell’s argument to Polkinghorne’s and evaluate whether the latter suffers with the same conclusion. In the end I will show that with his turn into kenotic theology, Polkinghorne agrees with the conclusion and finds it compelling."

Indeterminismo en la naturaleza y acción divina en De Potentia Dei” de Santo Tomás de Aquino

El problema acerca de la acción divina en la naturaleza no es sólo un tema de la historia de la f... more El problema acerca de la acción divina en la naturaleza no es sólo un tema de la historia de la filosofía, sino que es un debate de la teología y la filosofía actual. El dilema se presenta de la siguiente manera: en un mundo regulado por leyes aparentemente deterministas, tal como lo presenta la ciencia moderna, parecería imposible que Dios pudiese actuar, lo que contradice el concepto de divinidad que las grandes religiones presentan: un Dios omnipotente capaz de intervenir en la naturaleza ante las súplicas de sus fieles. Por otro lado, si admitimos que Dios puede obrar en la naturaleza, aquellas leyes que gobiernan el comportamiento del obrar natural serían rotas, lo que abriría la puerta para poner en duda el conocimiento infinito de Dios y su infinito poder. Más allá de estas discusiones, si Dios obrase en la naturaleza, la ciencia empírica parecería no tener fundamento alguno, ya que sería imposible determinar si el efecto que se le atribuye a una causa natural no fuese más bien efecto de la acción divina. Si esto fuese cierto, la ciencia carecería de todo sentido, ya que no sería más que una mera construcción del intelecto humano sobre la regularidad que la voluntad divina impone sobre los eventos naturales.
Una de las propuestas para solucionar tal dilema se centra en una interpretación teológica del indeterminismo que presenta la física cuántica del siglo XX. En ella se propone que Dios podría actuar dentro de los eventos cuánticos sin romper ninguna ley, ya que obraría dentro de la indeterminación que presenta la naturaleza.
Sin embargo, esta propuesta trae nuevas dificultades. Un análisis más preciso de la manera en que Dios actuaría a nivel cuántico muestra que Dios debería ser considerado como una causa más dentro del orden natural, lo que pone en riesgo tanto su status trascendental, como su omnisciencia y providencia de los eventos futuros.
En la obra de Tomás de Aquino es posible encontrar una explicación de la posibilidad de indeterminismo en la naturaleza, dado que los efectos de las causas naturales pueden ut semper, ut in pluribus, ut in paucioribus, o ad utrumlibet. Para explicar por qué los efectos pueden no ocurrir como se lo espera (ut in paucioribus), Tomás da tres razones: 1) Propter concursum duarum causarum; 2) Propter debilitatem agentis; 3) Propter indispositionem materiae. Por su propia composición hilemórfica, todo agente natural tiene la posibilidad de encontrar otro agente, de estar debilitado en su obrar o de encontrar alguna indisposición en la materia sobre la que obra.
A esto se le suma su análisis del obrar divino en la naturaleza. Tomás presenta una triple acción divina ad extra divinitatis: creación, obrar en cada acción natural, y obrar sin las causas naturales. Este análisis lleva consigo la impronta de que Dios, al ser infinito en su ser, lo es también en su poder, con lo que es capaz no sólo de crear, sino de obrar en su creación. Nos centraremos en el análisis que Tomás hace del obrar divino en la naturaleza sin las causas naturales, y veremos por qué no es necesario invocar ningún tipo de indeterminación para permitir el obrar divino, ya que aun una naturaleza determinista no excluiría la posibilidad del obrar de Dios.

Teólogos y científicos debaten sobre la acción divina en el mundo

Desde hace unos veinticinco años, teólogos y físicos han intentado encontrar la manera de describ... more Desde hace unos veinticinco años, teólogos y físicos han intentado encontrar la manera de describir la forma en que Dios obra directamente en el universo creado. El indeterminismo propuesto por algunas interpretaciones de la mecánica cuántica ofrece el posible ‘lugar’ perfecto en el que Dios podría intervenir en el curso de la historia universal sin interferir en el orden natural regido por las leyes de la naturaleza. Esta propuesta, sin embargo, promueve la visión de que Dios obra a la manera de las causas naturales, lo que implica un radical cambio en la noción tradicional de Dios

La ciencia moderna nace de la inquietud teológica

Se acepta popularmente que los orígenes de la ciencia moderna durante el siglo XVII se debieron m... more Se acepta popularmente que los orígenes de la ciencia moderna durante el siglo XVII se debieron más a una posición conflictiva con la autoridad religiosa y a una búsqueda de autonomía que a otra cosa. Así, en recuentos populares se llama la atención sobre casos como el de Galileo o el de Darwin, héroes la ciencia moderna, aunque en aparente rechazo de las ideas religiosas. Sin embargo, un análisis más detallado de la historia del siglo XVII, de los mismos autores que llevaron a cabo la llamada Revolución Científica y de sus argumentos para llevar adelante la nueva empresa científica, muestra una imagen totalmente distinta

Introducción

La providencia humana y divina Aproximaciones desde la filosofía, la psicología y la teología, 2020

La providencia divina ha vuelto a ser objeto de discusión teológica. Una somera revisión de los d... more La providencia divina ha vuelto a ser objeto de discusión teológica. Una somera revisión de los debates recientes revelará el interés creciente sobre este tema. Sin embargo, una mirada atenta sobre lo escrito en las últimas cinco décadas mostrará que hay un considerable desacuerdo en la conceptualización de la providencia y, consecuentemente, sobre cuál sería la mejor manera de aproximarse a ella. Entonces, ¿qué significa realmente en el contexto teológico la “providencia”? ¿Hay modelos disponibles que ayuden a entender y a utilizar tal doctrina de la providencia concebida de esa manera?
Este volumen busca sumar reflexiones a esta creciente conversación, ofreciendo una perspectiva innovadora sobre cómo considerar el significado de la providencia divina y cómo es su funcionamiento. Nuestra propuesta es, básicamente, que la providencia humana puede ayudar a entender la providencia divina. Creemos que el estudio de la providencia humana es un recurso suficientemente adecuado para la riqueza de la acción personal y, por lo tanto, para esta propuesta de la providencia de un Dios personal. La providencia humana se muestra, por ejemplo, en comportamientos como la deliberación, la planificación y el anticipo de contingencias, y está particularmente asociada a la virtud de la prudencia. Esperamos que este volumen, que explora la virtud de la providencia humana desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, logre ampliar las discusiones teológicas contemporáneas en maneras innovadoras, invitando a distintas perspectivas que van desde la ética de la virtud, la psicología y las ciencias cognitivas, la filosofía de la religión (en relación con la providencia divina y los eventos contingentes) hasta la teología de la gracia.

Divine providence and natural contingency

Divine and Human Providence - Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches, 2020

Much of the contemporary discussion on divine providence focuses on the execution of the divine p... more Much of the contemporary discussion on divine providence focuses on the execution of the divine plan, on God’s active involvement in the historical development of creation, and in particular on the salvific history of human beings. Only few comments are made about an understanding of how God planned his plan for creation, even before putting that plan into action. This chapter discusses in what sense natural contingency can play a role in this planning and pairs this analysis with an exploration of how natural contingency allows God to execute that plan. The chapter, thus, analyses how natural contingency can be seen both in the planning and the execution aspects of divine providence. To this end, the chapter contrasts the perspectives of some current trends in science and religion circles, finding natural causal gaps in the created order to allow for God’s providence, with a typically Thomist approach in classical theistic circles.

Introduction

Divine and Human Providence - Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches, 2020

The topic of divine providence is back on the theological agenda. Even a cursory review of the re... more The topic of divine providence is back on the theological agenda. Even a cursory review of the recent debates will reveal an increasing interest in this issue. A closer look at the literature of the last five or so decades indicates, however, that there is a considerable disagreement about the conceptualisation of providence and, consequently, how to approach the topic best. What does ‘providence’ in the theological context actually mean, and are there models available to help understand and appropriate the thus conceived doctrine of providence?
This volume seeks to add to this ever-growing conversation by offering an innovative perspective on how to consider what divine providence means and how it works. Our proposal is, simply put, that human providence can shed light on divine providence. We believe that the study of human providence is a resource suited specifically to the richness of personal action, and hence to the purported providence of a personal God. Human providence is exhibited, for example, in behaviours such as deliberation, planning, and anticipating contingencies, and is particularly associated with the virtue of prudence. Our hope is, then, that this volume exploring the virtue of human providence from an interdisciplinary perspective will extend the contemporary theological conversation in innovative ways, inviting insights from virtue ethics, psychology and cognitive science, the philosophy of religion regarding divine providence in the face of contingent events, and the theology of grace.

Thomas Aquinas on Natural Contingency and Providence

Abraham’s Dice: Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions, 2016

Thomas Aquinas’s engagement with newly received Arabic commentaries on Aristotle and Neoplatonic ... more Thomas Aquinas’s engagement with newly received Arabic commentaries on Aristotle and Neoplatonic ideas shaped his distinct approach to God’s action in the world. Aquinas understood divine providence as encompassing God as first cause and contingent secondary created causes, contributing to a richer, more perfect world. This moderate indeterminism, based on the fourfold causes of Aristotle, lets Aquinas uphold a primary cause that, while causing secondary causes to cause contingently, causes their effects without determining their outcome. When Aristotelian philosophy, inspired in part by biological prototypes, was replaced by the mechanical philosophies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the interplay between primary and secondary causes became problematic, resulting in occasionalist or deist positions.

Heisenberg y su interpretación filosófica de la física cuántica

Diversas interpretaciones se han propuesto acerca de la física cuántica. Desde su fundación a ini... more Diversas interpretaciones se han propuesto acerca de la física cuántica. Desde su fundación a inicios del siglo XX los físicos han estado discutiendo sobre la plausibilidad de las teorías cuánticas, sobre todo acerca del indeterminismo que ella parece comportar. Entre las diversas interpretaciones, una de las que parece más sensatas y de la cual se puede seguir un promisorio camino en la filosofía de la naturaleza es la propuesta por Werner Heisenberg. La intención del presente trabajo es exponer las ideas fundamentales de tal interpretación, sobre todo con respecto al problema ontológico y de causalidad que ella presenta.

Los orígenes de la ciencia moderna y su fuente teológica

Once teólogos ante el diálogo ciencia-fe, 2018

La contingencia en el obrar de los agentes naturales según Tomás de Aquino

in Héctor Velázquez Fernández (comp.), Tomás de Aquino, Comentador de Aristóteles, Universidad Panamericana, México DF., 2010

"El problema del obrar de Dios en el mundo creado ha sido tratado largamente durante la historia ... more "El problema del obrar de Dios en el mundo creado ha sido tratado largamente durante la historia de la filosofía y la teología cristiana e islámica. Este problema ha siempre vacilado entre dos extremos: el del ocasionalismo, en el que los agentes naturales no poseen ningún poder causal propio, dejando toda acción causal a Dios, quien es el único agente activo en el universo, y una suerte de deísmo, en el que, por querer salvar la evidente causalidad de los agentes naturales en el universo creado, se postula a un Dios creador que no se involucra en nada dentro de su creación.
La gran mayoría de las veces, al debatir este problema es común asumir que si Dios pudiese obrar en el mundo natural, los agentes naturales perderían su causalidad y su autonomía en el obrar. Es decir, si existiese la posibilidad de que Dios obrase en la naturaleza, al involucrarse con los eventos naturales, y por lo tanto intervenir en el orden causal del mundo natural, parecería que los agentes naturales no deberían poseer la autonomía que suponemos tienen en sus acciones. Esta idea se encuentra sustentada por el presupuesto de que el obrar de Dios en el mundo natural se opone directamente al obrar regular de los agentes naturales. O se recalca la regularidad de estas acciones, por lo que el obrar de Dios no debe ser admitido dentro del universo natural, o se niega la veracidad de nuestra percepción de tal autonomía causal natural y se adjudica toda acción al único agente universal: Dios. Ahora bien, si no se quiere abandonar la idea tradicional de Dios que proclaman las grandes tradiciones monoteístas (un Dios omnipotente, benevolente, omnisciente y providente), es necesario encontrar la manera de explicar cómo Dios puede guiar providencialmente un universo que ha sido creado autónomo y con agentes capaces de causar sus propios efectos.
Tomás de Aquino, reconociendo que no es fácil responder satisfactoriamente a esta cuestión, afirma un Dios omnipotente, en el sentido más amplio posible, y una naturaleza propiamente autónoma. De hecho, es precisamente porque Dios es omnipotente que los agentes naturales pueden ser causas reales. Si Dios no tuviese todo poder causal, sería imposible encontrar algún poder causal en la naturaleza, simplemente porque todo lo que existe necesita de una causa creadora, y una causa creadora no puede dar aquello que no posee."

El advenimiento de la noción de ‘leyes de la naturaleza’ a principios del siglo XVII

Cuadernos de Anuario Filosófico dedicado a La Causalidad en el siglo XVII, Dec 2012

"The notion of ‘law of nature’ was used for the first time around the early beginnings of sevente... more "The notion of ‘law of nature’ was used for the first time around the early beginnings of seventeenth century modern science as replacing the Aristotelian notion of cause as the base of all explanation in natural philosophy. John Henry affirms that there are three historical narratives to explain this development during the seventeenth century: 1) an explanation of social character offered by Edgar Zilsel and Joseph Needham; 2) a reduction to discussions on divine providence during the thirteenth century, by Francis Oakley and John R. Milton; 3) another reduction to medieval discussion on mathematical rules, by Jane E. Ruby.
Henry suggests that these narratives do not fully explain the new meaning of the notion of law of nature during the seventeenth century. Instead, he claims that it is in the mathematical and cosmological studies of the first works of Descartes (in Le Monde, for example) where the cause of this development should be sought and where the notion of law of nature becomes a paradigm of explanation in natural philosophy and the expression of God’s activity in the world.
The problem with Henry’s claim is that, even explaining the rise of the notion of law of nature during the first decades of the seventeenth century due to Descartes’ influence all over Europe, it leaves aside the great differences in the use of the term ‘law of nature’ by different authors. Following Sophie Roux’s ideas in Les lois de la nature au XVIIe siècle, I show that post-Cartesian authors have used different notions of laws of nature, which requires a more extensive narrative to understand why this notion was preferred to explain nature in these terms."

La posibilidad del no-cumplimiento de la ley natural en el pensamiento filosófico natural de Tomás de Aquino

Las causas de que un agente natural no produzca los efectos esperados son: 1) Propter concursum d... more Las causas de que un agente natural no produzca los efectos esperados son: 1) Propter concursum duarum causarum; 2) Propter debilitatem agentis; 3) Propter indispositionem materiae.
Sumando a esto la doctrina de los grados de ser, es posible afirmar que en los grados más bajos hay una mayor indeterminación material o pasiva, que explicará la posibilidad de la no producción del efecto esperado; mientras que en aquellos más altos en la escala del ser se encontrará una mayor indeterminación formal o activa, que favorecerá la no determinación del efecto en la causa previamente a la espontaneidad o libertad.

Divine Action in Nature. Thomas Aquinas and the Contemporary Debate

On the face of it, the idea of divine action in nature brings challenges to the autonomy of natur... more On the face of it, the idea of divine action in nature brings challenges to the autonomy of nature, and thus to the foundation of the natural sciences. According to the contemporary scientific world view, nature does not need anything extra to bring about any event which happens in nature. Apparently contrasting with this view, the main monotheistic religions claim that God is capable of intervening in the universe to guide it to its end and completion, and does so.
This dilemma has brought theologians to search for a way in which God could perform this activity without interfering with the natural processes. The indeterminism of quantum events seems to be a conceptual framework which provides the place where God could choose the outcome of any event, given its indeterminacy. This solution, however, raises several difficulties for the traditional understanding of God as omnipotent, omniscient, provident, and transcendent. In the end, God has to act as another natural cause. The root of this dilemma (God’s action against nature’s actions) is the notion of deterministic causality used in the debate, which remains unexplained, and the assumption that God depends upon the natural order to act.
This project is to evaluate some modern approaches to the problem of divine action, and to consider Aquinas’ views on causality, with which it is possible to hold a non-deterministic interpretation of nature. Then, to see first how he applies this notion to God’s causality, to show how nature depends on God, and second how God acts providentially in all natural operations, as a first cause moving a secondary cause.

God in the Age of Science? A Critique of Religious Reason. By Herman Philipse. (Oxford UP, 2012. Pp. xvii + 372. Price £40.00.)

The Philosophical Quarterly, 2013

Evidence and Religious Belief. Edited by KellyJames Clark, Raymond J.VanArragon. (Oxford UP, 2011. Pp. x + 214. Price £35.00.)

The Philosophical Quarterly, 2013