The purpose of Descartes was to completely break with the past and with teachings of the preceeding theological and philosophical schools, in order to formulate a new Philosophy, in which, although we do not find an explicit formulation of a new Theory of the State, we can underline its important guidelines, from the new gnoseology and scientia mirabilis offered by Descartes.
In recent years a growing interest in Biblical exegesis of Aquinas has been observed. Finally, after a long period of silence on this theme, new texts have appeared which present the characteristics of the method of Aquinas’s exegesis and its content. The aim of this article is to go further and focus on the specific nature of Thomas’ “exegetic epistemology” and the status of its spiritual sense, the significance of which has been the subject of debate between Smalley and De Lubac. The characteristic aspect of this exegetic approach is to emphasize the role of contemplation in exegesis, not only as a theme, but also as a fundamental position of an exegete towards the inspired text.
In this paper we study the Laín Entralgo´s conception about the human person, which he describes as ‘sustantivity’ composed of soul and body, mental and biological being. This first period ends in 1989 with the book The Human Body.
Current theory, work from which he will defend, until the end of its production, a kind of monism of materialistic style.
Juan Zaragüeta, Spanish philosopher from the Basque Country (1883-1974), Cardinal Mercier’s disciple, published an article comparing the criteriology of Cardinal Newman to the Catalonian philosopher during the centenary of Jaime Balmes death (1948). In this writing he warns about lots of coincidences in both authors, which show a similar attitude towards the search for a knowledge for and about life. A knowledge for every man, and not only for the philosopher. It thus goes beyond the demonstrative character of scholastic philosophy to a life’s epistemology.
The humanism arising from the Christian concept of man falls into crisis with the emergence of atheistic humanism of 19th and 20th centuries (Feuerbach, Bakunin, Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre). Nédoncelle and Maritain agree on identifying the roots of this new approach in the problem of the relationship between nature and grace which arose in Patristic and Scholastic theology.
However, it seems to be rather Luther´s negative view of man that is responsible for the anthropology which underlies atheistic humanism.
The paper emphasizes that the acts of charity are intrinsic to the nature of the process of teaching and learning. The act of education is a unique connection of contemplative and active life. The act of education frees the evil from the man who experiences it. This evil –explained St. Thomas– is ignorance, lack of knowledge and understanding of the truth. Every person has the right to education because it is his natural and necessary good, by which he improves his personal life.
Teacher’s work appears as a very important and responsible occupation; the acquisition of knowledge about reality and its transmission.
We shall see that C. S. Lewis, with intellectual foundations from the Aristotelian philosophy, thought that both spirituality (as ethics) and its cognitive effects (as scientific praxis) are incompatible with relativistic theses that, inevitably, lead to a devastating nihilism.
This article analyzes the syntagma causa sui to seek an understanding of human liberty in the thought of Aquinas, in light of recent research.
The thomistic causa sui finds its inspiration from Aristotle and denotes the final causality of the agent. Some sustain that in Thomas, it acquires new connotations, that is, it implies the efficient causality of the subject. The author reviews the use of syntagma in the main thomistic authors so as to individuate the sense in which it is used in these contexts and later confirm whether it can be used as a valid element for a thomistic theory of subjectivity.
An introduction describes the meaning of temperance in the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoa. Ambrose considered it a cardinal virtue. Thomas brings clarity by dividing temperance into integral, subjective and the potential parts. Can a virtue be opposed to natural inclinations? Temperance does not withhold us from those pleasures which are conform to reason, it concerns the pleasures of touch consecutive on operations, ordained to the conservation of the individual and the species. Contrary vices intemperance and insensitivity. An integral part is feeling shamed. Subjective parts are abstinence and fasting, chastity and purity.
Finally, the so called potential parts are mentioned such as clemency, studiousness and curiosity.
Continuando el repertorio iniciado hace tres años, en este número de Espíritu recogemos la bibliografía tomista hispánica de 2015.
Santo Tomás tuvo siempre gran importancia en el pensamiento de Brentano. Su formación estuvo ligada al nacimiento de la así llamada “Neoescolástica” alemana (Neuscholastik), un proyecto que marcó su carrera incluso muchos años después de su abandono de la Iglesia católica.
