Philosophy of Nature 2017 Spring (original) (raw)
Related papers
This is the syllabus for my current upper level undergraduate course in metaphysics. It is for philosophy majors at Northeast Catholic College
The reception and transformation of Dionysian hierarchy in Thomas Aquinas.doc
It is through Pseudo- Dionysius (5th c) that the neologism ‘hierarchy’ entered the dictionaries. This was to become a master narrative from the Middle Ages and into the modern period which Karl Marx would later seek to explain by material and economic conditions. But for Dionysius, hierarchy embodied a cosmic order, a ‘harmonious law, the wonderful source of all visible and invisible order’ intrinsic to reality itself. This paper examines how Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) both received and transformed this notion of hierarchy and whether any aspects of his vision could still have relevance today. The 13th century inaugurated a new era in which old hierarchies were weakening and new ones were being formed. A new mercantile class was emerging, international bankers, monastic orders and religious movements. Universities too created a new public space for dialogue and learning. At the beginning of this time of great social change, Aquinas looked back conservatively to the threefold structure for society carved out in Plato’s Republic as a model of stability to emulate. Yet at the same time, Aquinas can be seen as progressive for his age by introducing important distinctions or limits to absolute power. This paper focuses on five of these distinctions: 1. The possibility of being called ‘King’ only by equivocation, 2. The recognition of limits on obedience. 3. The possibility of submitting to one’s inferior. 4. The recognition of an appropriate correction of a superior and 5. The potential deconstruction of the notion of hierarchy implicit in Aquinas’ doctrine of the Trinity. This paper argues that the emerging theology in Aquinas which transforms Neoplatonic understandings of hierarchy into a qualitatively different order ultimately flows out of the normative role of Scripture in Thomas’ thinking.
Ancient and Medieval Political Theory (doctoral-level syllabus)
This course introduces some of the most influential texts and themes in Western political thought, from the ancient Greeks through Aquinas. We examine questions like: What is the good life? What is justice? What are the advantages of and problems with democracy? What is the best political regime? This course does not merely aim to impart historical information, but to prompt critical engagement with some of the central texts of the Western philosophical tradition. Students are therefore expected to explore and develop their own considered responses to the ideas and arguments encountered in the readings.
This course will be on Aristotle’s De anima, a fundamental text for the history of philosophy and the history of psychology (the philosophical theory of the soul) in particular. The course will be based on the text, proposing articulate reflection on the topics discussed therein. Active participation by the students is required. The aim of the course is to teach the students how to read a philosophical text and therefore how to formulate their own questions in reading it. In other words, students who complete the course should have developed the skills required for a ‘Tekstcollege’, i.e. textual analysis. More precisely, students who complete the course should have acquired a fundamental knowledge of the philosophical themes discussed in Aristotle’s text (the definition of the soul and of its faculties; the different kinds of souls; the meaning of intellection), but also a general understanding of the main conceptual issues related to Aristotle’s De anima (e.g. the Aristotelian doctrine of potency and act; the problem of the separate intellect). Students who complete the course should also have acquired the skills of reflecting on philosophical texts (in translation), formulating their own questions on them and analysing philosophical arguments. A general knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy (Pre-Socratic Philosophy, Plato, Aristotle and Neo-Platonism in particular) is certainly an advantage for those who are about to read this important text.