Phil 6640 Thomas Aquinas: The Nature and Attainment of Happiness (2014)

Detailed Syllabus

Live Classroom Course Meeting Times:

MU students only:

28 August - 18 September: Thursday 9-11 am U.S. Central Time (US CT)

MU & KUL Students:

26 September - 4 December 9-11 am US CT / 16h-18h Central European Time (CET)

KUL students only:

11 & 18 December 16h-18h CET

Normal Live Internet Connection Time:

25 Sept - 4 Dec 9:30 am - 10:30 am US CT / 16h30-17h30 CET

Office Hours

Prof. Richard C. Taylor, MU: Coughlin Hall 238 and live online via Skype: misterteaatmac :

Wednesdays 1:15-4:14 pm US CT / 20:h15-21h15 CET & by appointment.

Email: Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu or richard.taylor@hiw.kuleuven.be.

Prof. Andrea Aldo Robiglio, KUL: Wednesdays 2:00-4:00 am US CT/ 9:00-11.00 am CET & by appointment - Skype account : andrea aldo robiglio

Email address: andrea.robiglio@hiw.kuleuven.be

Abbreviations:

SEP = Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu)

CCAP = The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, P. Adamson and R.C. Taylor, eds.  (Available Cambridge Collections Online via Marqcat.) (MU Ares Reserves)

CCA = The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, Kretzmann and Stump, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) Available through Cambridge Collections Online via Marqcat.

CAP = Classical Arabic Philosophy: an Anthology of Sources, J. McGinnis & D. B. Reisman, tr, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007) (MU Ares Reserves)

CHMP = The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, R. Pasnau et al. eds, vol 1 & 2 (Cambridge: CUP, 2010)  Available online via Marqcat.

EMP = Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy 500 -1500,  H. Lagerlund, ed. (Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer, 2011) Available in the Reference area at the MU library.

OHA = Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, B. Davies & E. Stump, eds. (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Available through online link via Marqcat library catalogue at MU as well as via ARES.

OHMP = Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy, J. Marenbon, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) (MU Ares Reserves)

MU Ares = Marquette University Ares Reserve for MU students only. https://www.marquette.edu/library/find/resstud.php

Past Masters Database = Marquette University subscription to Past Masters available to MU students through Marqcat.

Adamson Podcasts = “History of Philosophy without any gaps,” Peter Adamson at http://www.historyofphilosophy.net.

Teamwork at classes ## 7-13.

Students at each location will be gathered into distinct groups for collaborative teamwork involving these activities: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Take special note regarding Modeling: These procedures will be modeled by Prof. Robiglio for class #6 on 2 October). After that, student teams will begin these duties, starting with Marquette University.

NOTE: There are seven (7) team assignments, 3 for Marquette teams, 4 for KULeuven teams. (This may be modified on the basis of final course enrollments.)

     All texts are available in English translation with many available on the Web. Students are welcome to study the texts in Latin, Arabic, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, or any other language, but classroom discussions will all be in English. Each instructor will take responsibility for placing relevant texts on reserve for student use on their own campuses.

Regular Class Procedures

9:00-9:30 am Milwaukee / 16h-16h30 Leuven: local class meetings

9:30-10:30 am / 16h30-17h30: international class discussion

10:30-11:00 am / 17h30-18h: local class meetings

Detailed Syllabus

Class #1:  28 August: introduction to course and technology 

Preview:

Before class, students are to view video 1a: an introduction to Aquinas and topics in his teachings; and video 1b: course parameters, introduction to course materials and D2L.  Our live discussion will be on the course content and procedures.

Required in preparation for class:

(i) view online videos 1a (course content) click 1a and 1b (using online resources & tools);

(ii) Readings:

(a) Adriano Oliva, OP, “Philosophy in the Teaching of Theology of Thomas Aquinas,” The Thomist 76, 3 (July 2012), pp. 397-430. Available through online link to The Thomist in MARQCAT. Also available via ARES reserves.

(b) SEP: “Saint Thomas Aquinas” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/

(c ) SEP: D. Hasse, “Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West.”  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/

Suggested secondary sources:

C. Burnett (2005), "Arabic into Latin: the reception of Arabic philosophy into Western

Europe" CCAP, 370–404. (Available in Cambridge Collections Online via Marqcat.)

OHA: Pini, “The Development of Aquinas’s Thought;” Upham, “The Influence of Aquinas.”

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class will conclude with a introduction to the Arabic writing predecessors of Aquinas to set the stage for the next class.

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT:

By 1 September, each MU student is required to submit to Prof. Taylor via email a description of his/her philosophical interests and motivation. These will be shared with the entire class via D2L. Word limit: 200 only. Since our whole class will be ca. 20 students separated by thousands of miles, this will be a good way for us start to know one another both now and when we connect with KU Leuven on 25 September.

Class #2: 4 September: Aquinas’s natural epistemology

Preview: While Aquinas studied for years with Albert at Paris and then at Cologne, it has often been difficult to determine what teachings of Aquinas are to be traced substantially to the influence of Albert. Recent investigations have revealed that the basic epistemology of Aquinas deployed in his early Commentary on the Sentences and retained by him for his career (though with modifications) is in fact spelled out by Albert in his De homine written ca. 1245, just before Aquinas began his studies with Albert. Albert’s epistemology in the De homine is explicitly derived from his study of Avicenna and Averroes whom he cites repeatedly. However, Albert’s epistemology is also founded on his systematic and explicit misinterpretation of Averroes’s doctrine on human intellectual understanding.

(i) View videos. For video 2a, click HERE. Videos 2b and 2c were used in the 2012 course on Thomas Aquinas: Soul and Intellect. They work well for a basic account of the natural epistemology of Aquinas: 2b: https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Eq79Lyo8 & 2c: https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Qz39Wct7. 

(To explore more fully the theory of knowledge in Avicenna and Averroes, see lectures for Avicenna via these links: https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/e3YPo5t6 & https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/e3YPo5t6; and for Averroes via these links: https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Gy49Nxr7 & https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Lg49Aqd8).

(ii) Readings:

(a) OHA: Pickavé, “Human Knowledge.”

(b) Taylor, “The Key Roles of Avicenna and Averroes in the Development of the Natural Epistemology of Albertus Magnus in his De Homine” at

https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Research_&_Teaching/Draft__Aquinas_%26_Albert_Hannover_Feb_2012.html

(c) Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, Book 2, distinction 17, question 2, article 1: “Whether there is one soul or intellect for all human beings” pp. 277-296 in Philosophical Psychology in Arabic Thought and the Latin Aristotelianism of the 13th Century, Luis X. López-Farjeat and Jörg Tellkamp, eds. (Paris: Vrin 2013) An earlier draft of this translation is available at https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_and_the_Arabs_Project_Translations/39__In_2_Sent._D._17,_Q.2,_A.1.html

Suggested secondary sources:  

OHA: Pasnau, “Philosophy of Mind and Human Nature.”

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class will conclude with a introduction to the conceptions of soul among the predecessors of Aquinas to set the stage for the next class.

Class #3: 11 September: Aquinas on the human soul

Preview: Aquinas had formed his understanding of Aristotle’s underdetermined and incomplete account of soul and intellect through his study of the Arabic tradition and also through his own reflection on the nature of the human being. In the latter he was clearly influenced by his fundamental religious beliefs in the immortal nature of the human soul and the promise of resurrection of the body together with reunification of the soul with the body in the afterlife. But here we see Aquinas dealing directly with the text of Aristotle on the nature of the intellect after having settled his own mind on the issue. Does he read his view into Aristotle or is it already there in Aristotle?

(i) View these two videos: https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Zb2w9C7K and https://streaming.mu.edu/Watch/Nz35JeSp.

(ii) Readings:

(a) R. C. Taylor, “Aquinas and the Arabs: Aquinas’s First Critical Encounter with the Doctrine of Averroes on the Intellect, In 2 Sent. d. 17, q. 2, a. 1,” in Philosophical Psychology in Arabic Thought and the Latin Aristotelianism of the 13th Century, Luis X. López-Farjeat and Jörg Tellkamp, eds. (Paris: Vrin 2013), 142-183. An earlier draft of this article is available at https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Research_&_Teaching/Papers_7__Aquinas_and_the_Arabs__Aquinass_First_Critical_Encounter.html

(b) Again, study the translation of the relevant text at  https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_and_the_Arabs_Project_Translations/39__In_2_Sent._D._17,_Q.2,_A.1.html. The translation is also found at pp. 277-292 in Philosophical Psychology in Arabic Thought and the Latin Aristotelianism of the 13th Century, Luis X. López-Farjeat and Jörg Tellkamp, eds. (Paris: Vrin 2013)

(c) Aquinas, Quaestiones disputatae de anima, Qq. 1 & 4. Latin available via http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/qda01.html; English translation on MU ARES reserves. An older English translation of these can be found at http://dhspriory.org/thomas/QDdeAnima.htm.

Suggested secondary sources:

Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, III, lectiones 7-10 =  commentary on Aristotle, De anima 3.4-3.5.  Thomas Aquinas. A Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, P. Pasnau, tr. (New Haven: Yale U Press, 1999),  pp. 341-370. An earlier translation is available at  http://dhspriory.org/thomas/DeAnima.htm.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

NOTE:  No class meeting or office hours this week. Prof. Taylor will be at a workshop in Dijon (click HERE for information). The assigned materials for Class #4 will be discussed at the beginning of Class #5.

Class #4: 18 September: Aquinas on philosophy and religion

Preview: For Aquinas there are two sources of knowledge for human beings, natural human powers (sensation, intellection) and God who provides knowledge to human beings in a supernatural way. This supernatural way is either through revelation or through an efficient causality by which God shares knowledge directly with human beings and other creatures. For Aquinas all reality is through and through rational although not all reality is accessible by humans since human powers of sensory perception and intellection are weak and fallible even regarding the proper objects of human knowing (sensibles, the sensible world, and by abstraction universals based on sensory experience). Still, humans can reason to some knowledge of God and his way by demonstration quia or hoti. Yet God and immaterial entities (intelligences / angels / separate intellects) are not the proper objects of human knowing and can only be reasoned to in quite fallible ways. Nevertheless, God has chosen to share knowledge with human beings through revelation. Now, note that Aquinas is quite clear that this involves faith on the part of humans. And note that for Aquinas philosophy does not always yield to the pronouncements of theologians. Aquinas himself often uses philosophical reasoning in refutation of incorrect theological teachings of predecessors and contemporaries, for example, on the nature of the human soul, on the issue of whether it can be proven by reason that the world originated in time, and many more issues. But for Aquinas true and right theology does trump philosophy in the sense that true theological teachings cannot be refuted by philosophical argumentation, even argumentation purporting to be demonstrative.

(i)View video 4a click HERE.

(ii) Readings:

(a) Summa contra gentiles, Book 1, ch. 1-8; English translation available at http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles1.htm.

(b) Summa theologiae, prima pars, Q. 1; English translation available at http://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa-translation/Part%201/st1-ques01.pdf.

Suggested readings:

OHA: Niederbacher, “The Relation of Reason to Faith.”

OHA: Stump, “Resurrection and the Separated Soul”

Suggested secondary sources:

EMP:  Hall, “Thomas Aquinas” pp. 1279-1287.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class will conclude with a introduction to reasoning to the existence of God among the predecessors of Aquinas to set the stage for the next class.

RE. CLASS #5 NOTE: The first half hour of Class #5 will be devoted to the readings assigned for Class #4. This will be followed by a half hour of discuss of the assigned readings for Class #5.

Our first Internet connection with the students at KU Leuven will be 10-11 am.

**We will have 30 min. for introductions and some discussions. At 10:30 am Prof. Pedro Mantas of the University of Cordoba will give a short presentation on “The Transfer of Knowledge in 12th Century al-Andalus.” This should be a fine opportunity for brief but interesting discussion. It also adds to the international and diverse character of our course!**

Class #5: 25 September: Aquinas on proofs of God; first meeting with KULeuven students.

Preview:  The famous Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas are extremely briefly stated in the Summa theologiae though the account in the Summa contra gentiles of the argument from motion is longer. It is important to recall that Aquinas states at the beginning of the ST that this is a work for beginners. So it is not surprising that Aquinas does not delve into their foundations more deeply. As indicated in the video lectures, Aquinas was heavily dependent on the thought of Avicenna and to a lesser extent Averroes in the formation of these arguments. The second and third arguments are particularly interesting. In the video lectures the argumentative foundations for demonstration are explained and sources for parts of the arguments are indicated.

Class time schedule:

Marquette: 9-10 am discussion of Aquinas on Philosophy & Religion and on proofs of God.

KULeuven: 16h-17h introduction to the course.

Joint session: 10-11 am / 17h-18h

10-10:30 am / 17h00-17h30: introduction to the joint course

10:30-11 am / 17h30-18h00: Special event: Prof. Pedro Mantas, University of Cordoba on the “Transfer of Knowledge in Twelfth-Century al-Andalus” with questions and discussion.

(i)View videos 5a Aquinas on arguments for God click HERE & 5b Aquinas in the ST and remarks on the five ways click HERE.

(ii) Readings:

(a) Summa theologiae, prima pars, Q. 2.; English translation available at http://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa-translation/Part%201/st1-ques02.pdf

(b) OHA: Wippel, “Being”

(c) OHA: Pawl “The Five Ways”

Suggested secondary sources:

OHMP: G. Oppy, “Arguments for the Existence of God,” pp. 687-704.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

At this class we will make our first connection between student classes at MU and KUL.

Class #6: 2 October: Aristotle; the later Greek Tradition; and al-Kindi. Video lectures (6a) Taylor: Aristotle on happiness (30 min.); (6b) Taylor: Later Greek Tradition and al-Kindi on happiness.

For this week Prof. Robiglio will do a demonstration of regular class procedures for student teams by doing the following:

      (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Monday; (ii) send to me (Prof. Taylor) for distribution by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; and (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: Aristotle discussed happiness in his Nicomachean Ethics, particularly in Books 1 and 10, but there is also something of important consideration in NE 9.8 on self-love. Aristotle holds happiness not to be pleasure but rather human fulfillment of the highest function and power of a human being. This is intellectual fulfillment. In Metaphysics 1 & 2 this seems to involve knowing separate entities or celestial substances and their causes as the highest kind of knowledge. In NE 10.6-8 Aristotle distinguishes two sorts of fulfillment or happiness. The highest is that of the accomplished intellectual who has moral virtue and highest theoretical understanding of reality, sharing in what God has all the time but humans have for only a short time. There is no indication of a post mortem existence for humans by Aristotle in these readings. Al-Kindi in On Dispelling Sorrows draws heavily on the Stoic tradition and that of the Epicureans, neither of which held for an afterlife. But al-Kindi does hold for an afterlife for the human soul with a very Platonic understanding. The two seem not to mix well but perhaps they do if the first is a worldly perspective and the second a more encompassing Islamic conception.

(i)videos 6a (Aristotle) and 6b (al-Kindi)

(ii) Readings:

(a1) Aristotle: selections from Nicomachean Ethics: 1.7; 1.13; 9.8; 10.6-8. Text available at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html.

(a2) Aristotle: selection from Metaphysics: 12.7. Text available at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.html.

(b) al-Kindi, “On Dispelling Sorrows,” in The Philosophical Works of al-Kindi, Adamson & Pormann, tr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. ARES Reserves.

Suggested secondary sources:

For the interpretation of Aristotle, I recommend very strongly chapters 7-8 of C.D.C. Reeve, Action, Contemplatio, and Happiness. An Essay on Aristotle (Cambridge, AM & London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2012). This book is available to MU students online through Marqcat. I refer to this in the video lecture.

Richard Kraut, “Aristotle’s Ethics,” SEP

Richard Parry, “Ancient Ethical Theory,” SEP

Peter Adamson, “Al-Kindi,” SEP

Adamson Podcasts: Philosopher of the Arabs: al-Kindi

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class #7: 9 October: al-Farabi & Avicenna on happiness. Video lectures: (7a) al-Farabi (30 min.); (7b) Avicenna (30 min.)

Student team #1 MU Tim Rothhaar, Brett Yardley & D. J. Hobbs: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: Al-Farabi was the initiator of the Classical Rationalist philosophical tradition in the Islamic milieu and influenced Avicenna. Both hold intellectualist and elitist views distinguishing accomplished philosophers from the masses. Philosophy holds greatest truth in its fullest, while religion is a subdivision of the Aristotelian practical science of Politics. Religion aims at right conduct and uses similitudes and images of philosophy at a lower level to move humans to right action.

(i) View videos: 7a al-Farabi and 7b Avicenna rev.

(ii) Readings:

(a) al-Farabi, “Attainment of Happiness,” in Alfarabi: Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, M. Mahdi, tr. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. ARES Reserves.

2. (b)Avicenna, Metaphysics 10.1-3, 10.5 in The Metaphysics of the Healing, M. E. Marmura, tr. Provo, Utah: Brigham University Press, 2005. ARES Reserves.
   

3. (c)Adamson Podcasts:
   

State of Mind: al-Farabi on Religion and Politics

The Self-Made Man: Avicenna’s Life and Works

Into Thin Air: Avicenna on Soul

Suggested secondary sources:

Dominic J. O’Meara, Platonopolis. Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity (Oxford 1989) connects al-Farabi with late Neoplatonism. Here is a link to a review:

http://gramata.univ-paris1.fr/Plato/spip.php?article61

S. Elhajibrahim, “Alfarabi's Concept of Happiness Sa'ada: Eudaimonia, The Good and Jihad Al-Nafs”. Click HERE.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Special note: KUL & MU students unfamiliar with the epistemologies of al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes, should consult videos and readings for classes ##3,4,5 of the 2012 course at https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_Fall_2012_MU_KUL_UP/Detailed_Syllabus.html.

Class #8: 16 October: Ibn Rushd / Averroes and Augustine on happiness. Video lectures (8a) Averroes & (8b) Augustine. Student team #2 MU: Anne Samata, Phil Mack & Alex Neubauer: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: In his mature works, in particular his Long Commentaries on the De Anima and Metaphysics of Aristotle, Averroes taught that ultimate human happiness is found in the present life for perishable human beings. While he examines the view of others of the tradition on the issue of whether ultimate happiness is found in knowing separate substances and perhaps ultimately God, for Averroes himself ultimate happiness for perishable human beings consists in maximal fulfillment in knowledge during bodily life. There is no afterlife for Averroes. Augustine in his On Seeing God (De videndo deum) provides a valuable analysis of the meanings of vision and seeing in a large number of Scriptural passages in an effort to set out a coherent doctrine. He also distinguishes the seeing of the body and the seeing of the mind. And he makes it clear that humans in the afterlife will see God but certainly not comprehend the wholeness of God.

(i) View videos:  Video 8a (Averroes) and Video 8b (Augustine with addendum on Averroes and Latin Averroism)

(ii) Readings: 

1. (a)Averroes, Ibn Rushd’s Metaphysics. A Translation with Introduction of Ibn Rushd’s Commentary on Aristotles’ Metaphysics, Book Lam. Leiden: Brill, 1986), pp. 154-161. Available on ARES.
   

2. (b)Averroes, Long Commentary on the De Anima:  Latin: Averrois Cordubensis Commentarium Magnum in Aristotelis De Anima Libros, F. Stuart Crawford (ed.). (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953), pp. 486-503; English: Averroes (Ibn Rushd) of Cordoba. Long Commentary on the De Anima of Aristotle, R. C. Taylor (tr.), Th.-A. Druart, subeditor (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 388-401.
   

(c) Augustine, Letter 147 with A Book on Seeing God. See ARES reserves. Also available through the Past Masters Database. Latin available in CSEL v.44. See https://archive.org/details/corpusscriptoru26wissgoog.

(d) Adamson Podcasts:

Back to Basics: Averroes on Reason and Religion

Richard Taylor on Averroes

Suggested secondary sources:

Regarding the strange interpretation of Averroes found in the Latin tradition, I recommend highly two articles by Carlos Steel:

Carlos Steel, “Medieval Philosophy - an Impossible Project? Thomas Aquinas and the ‘Averroistic’ Ideal of Happiness” (1998), available on ARES reserves at MU, on Toledo at KUL.

Carlos Steel, “Siger of Brabant versus Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility of Knowing Separate Substances,” Miscellanea Mediaevalia, 2001, available on ARES reserves at MU, on Toledo at KUL.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class #9: 23 October: Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, on happiness / beatitude: (9a) the Commentary on the Sentences, 1 of 2 (30 min.);  (9b) the Commentary on the Sentences, 2 of 2 (30 min).

Student team #3 MU: William Wilson, Tom Hansberger & Travis Williams: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: In his earliest consideration of the nature of ultimate human happiness, Aquinas draws deeply on the Long Commentary on the De Anima of Aristotle by Averroes for conceptions of knowing separate substances in Theophrastus, Alexander, Themistius, al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes. Of course, for Aquinas it is an issue of knowing the greatest of all separate substances, God. But he starts his analysis of this central element of Christian theology with these philosophers. He carefully considers but dismisses the views of all these philosophers except Alexander and Averroes. The interpretation he has of Alexander comes from the Long Commentary on the De Anima of Aristotle. In the end, Aquinas adopts from Averroes’s noetics a model for understanding how humans in the afterlife can come to see God face-to-face, that is, per essentiam or in His essence.

(i) View videos: video 9a Preliminaries and video 9b (Aquinas In4Sentd49q23a1).

(ii) Readings: 

1. (a)Thomas Aquinas, In 4 Sent D.49 Q.2, A.1.
   

Latin: click HERE.  English: click HERE.

2. (b)R. C. Taylor, “Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’: Arabic / Islamic Philosophy in Thomas Aquinas's Conception of the Beatific Vision in his Commentary on the Sentences IV, 49, 2, 1" The Thomist 76 (2012) 509-550.
   

Suggested secondary sources:

Katja Krause, “Albert and Aquinas on the Ultimate End of Humans: Philosophy, Theology, and Beatitude,” Proceedings of the ACPA, v. 86 (2013) 213-229.

J.-B. Brenet, "Vision beatifique et separation de l'intellect au debut du XIVe siecle: Pour Averroes or contre Thomas d'Aquin?" in Les sectatores Averrois: Noetique et cosmologie aux XIIIe - XlVe siecles,ed. Dragos Calma and Emanuele Coccia, Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 53 [2006]: 310-42. 

J.-P. Torrell, "La vision de Dieu 'per essentiam' selon Saint Thomas d'Aquin," View and Vision in the Middle Ages - Micrologus. Nature. Science and Medieval Societies V (Florence: Edizioni SISMEL-11 Galluzzo, 1997), 43-68; reprinted in J.-P. Torrell, O.P., Recherches Thomasiennes. Etudes revues et augmentees (Paris: Vrin, 2000), 177-97.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

NOTE FOR CLASS ON 30 OCTOBER 2013 : Due to differences between Europe and the US regarding the change from daylight saving time, the live meeting for class will  be at US CT 10-11 am / 16-17h CET.

Class #10: 30 October: (10a) Aquinas, In Psalmos Davidis Expositio (Ps. 31, n° 1); De Veritate, q. 14, a. 2, on happiness / beatitude;  and  (10b) presentation of issues and problems in the Latin interpretation and use of Averroes in the development of Latin Averroism.

Student team #4 KUL: xxxx: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: This week we consider several topics. The first is the natures of Scripture interpretation and of faith according to the thought of Aquinas. The senses of Scripture are distinguished and the preference for dealing with Scripture literally for Aquinas is indicated and explained. Faith is also defined an explained in some detail. Second we consider the issue of knowing separate substances as ultimate happiness in Latin Averroism and the very different understanding of this notion in Averroes himself. Here the contention is set out that a deep misunderstanding of Averroes and the principles of his metaphysical thought led to a convoluted and false reading of Averroes by the Latin tradition. But is Thomas Aquinas somewhat involved in the origination of this misreading and its perpetuation? That will be considered in the next class.

(i) View videos: 10a (Aquinas Scripture and Faith) & 10b (Averroism and Averroes)

2. (ii)Readings: 
   

1. (a)Aquinas, Commentary on Psalm 31. English & Latin
   

2. (b)Aquinas, De Veritate, q. 14, a. 2: English & Latin or English only
   

100. (c)Th. Prügl, "Thomas Aquinas as Interpreter of Scripture", in R. Van Nieuwenhove and J. Wawrykow (eds.), The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Notre Dame, IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 2005, pp. 386-415. On ARES reserves.
     

(d) Carlos Steel, “Siger of Brabant versus Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility of Knowing Separate Substances,” Miscellanea Mediaevalia, 2001, available on ARES reserves at MU, on Toledo at KUL.

Suggested secondary sources: 

Carlos Steel, “Medieval Philosophy - an Impossible Project? Thomas Aquinas and the ‘Averroistic’ Ideal of Happiness” (1998), available on ARES reserves at MU, on Toledo at KUL.

H. de Lubac, “Duplex Hominis Beatitudo (Saint Thomas, 1a 2ae, q. 62, a. 1),” Translated by A. Riches and P. M. Candler, Jr. « Communio » 35 (Winter 2008), pp. 599–612. Available at http://www.communio-icr.com/files/delubac35-4a.pdf.

R. C. Taylor, “Averroes’ Philosophical Conception of Separate Intellect and God,” in La lumière de l’intellect : La pensée scientifique et philosophique d’Averrès dans son temps. ed. Ahmad Hasnawi (Leuven: Peeters 2011), pp. 391-404.

R. C. Taylor, “Averroes on Psychology and the Principles of Metaphysics,” The Journal of the History of Philosophy 36 (1998) pp. 507-523

A. J. Celano, "The Concept of Worldly Beatitude in the Writings of Thomas Aquinas", Journal of the History of Philosophy, 25 (April 1987), pp. 215-226.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

**Class #11 canceled at KULeuven due to 150 Anniversary Lecture**

The live presentation scheduled for Class #11 will be given at class #12.

At MU we will discuss how to prepare course papers and Prof. Taylor will meet individually with students to discuss their interests for the course paper assignment.

Class #11: 6 November: Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, on happiness / beatitude. Videos (11a) & 11b). Student team #5 KUL: xxxx: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c)  key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: Aquinas provides a substantial philosophically reasoned account of happiness in Book 3 of the Summa contra gentiles, an account that importantly draws on philosophical conclusions reach in Book 1 regarding the nature of God and Book 2 regarding the nature of intellect in human beings. Aquinas is critical of Averroes but as I have explained, his conception of Averroes on happiness consisting in some sort of (perhaps intuitive) knowing of separate substances, not just knowing God or the First Cause. Steel’s valuable article provides an account of the Latin ‘Averroistic’ conception of happiness. And Adams brings a critical consideration into the question of the value of the interpretation of Aristotle on which Aquinas bases his view.

(i) View videos 11a Some key issues in SCG 3 and 11b SCG 3 continued

2. (ii)Readings: 
   

(a) While we recommend study of Summa contra gentiles, Book 3, chapters 1-62, only the following are required reading:

Summa contra gentiles, Book 3, chapters 1-3, 16-21, 25-26, 37-44, 47-48, 51-53, 63-64. These texts are available at http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles3a.htm

(b) D. Adams, “Aquinas on Aristotle on Happiness,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology, 1 (1991), pp. 98–118.

(c) Carlos Steel, “Medieval Philosophy - an Impossible Project? Thomas Aquinas and the ‘Averroistic’ Ideal of Happiness” (1998), available on ARES reserves at MU, on Toledo at KUL.

Suggested secondary sources:

R.-A. Gauthier, Saint Thomas d'Aquin, Somme contre les Gentils: Introduction, Paris, Éditions Universitaires, 1993;

A. Kenny, “Aquinas on Aristotelian Happiness,” in S. MacDonald and E. Stump (eds.), Aquinas’s Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1999, pp. 15–27.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class #12: 13 November: Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-IIae, qq. 1-3, on happiness.

Student team #5 KUL will present first on work assigned for the previous week when the meeting with KUL was canceled for the 125th Anniversary of the HIW.

Student team #6 KUL: xxxx: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c) key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: In ST IaIIae Qq 1-5 Aquinas provides a detailed account of the nature and attainment of happiness in the context of his major theological work. Wieland’s article emphasizes the reasoning here at theological. He is certainly correct regarding the context but what of the arguments themselves? Are they essentially in their own rights theological, or are they philosophical arguments brought into a theological contexts, philosophical arguments that in the SCG were able to stand as philosophical?

(i) View videos: 12a on Aquinas ST Ia IIaeQq 1-2 & 12b ST Aquinas ST Ia IIae Q 2 (Forthcoming)

(ii) Readings: 

(a) Selections from Summa theologiae First Part of the Second Part (sel from QQ1-3). See http://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FS.html.

(b) G. Wieland, “Happiness (Ia IIae, qq. 1–5).” in S. J. Pope (ed.), The Ethics of Aquinas, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 2002, pp. 57–68;

Suggested secondary sources:

B. Davies, Thomas Aquinas's 'Summa Theologiae': A Guide and Commentary, Oxford, OUP, 2014.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class #13: 20 November: Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-IIae,, qq. 4-5.

Student team #7 KUL: xxxx: (i) Lead online discussions from Thursday to midnight Tuesday; (ii) post on D2L & send to me (Prof. Taylor) by noon Wednesday for all students a 4-5 page summary of key issues in (a) the readings, (b) videos and (c) key issues in the D2L discussions; (iii) present at the Thursday class meeting a brief summary of the key notions in the readings and key questions raised in the online discussion in no more than 7 min. to initiate our international discussion.

Preview: In this class we study Aquinas on what is required for happiness and on the attainment of happiness. Here Aquinas explains delight that accompanies ultimate happiness (as in Aristotle pleasure accompanies imperfect earthly happiness) and stresses that delight is not the end to be achieved but a quieting of the will in the attainment of ultimate happiness. In studying note particularly the remark at Q.4 A.5 Reply to Objection 5 where Aquinas indicates that there is a greater happiness in a way when the separated soul is united with its body. But he cannot say directly that there is something better for a human being than the soul’s attainment of ultimate happiness in intellectual apprehension of God. He opts, then, to say that with the body happiness is not more intensive but more extensive.  Note also that what Aquinas provides here is a philosophical account inside a theological context. Much of his reasoning follows from (i) his conception of God as intentionally willing Creator who puts ends into all things and (ii) his conception of intellectual understanding as grounding the immateriality, incorruptibility, and indestructibility of the human soul and as the ultimate fulfillment and end of human beings. There is much here for philosophical discussion.

(i) View video: 13. Click HERE*.

(ii) Readings: 

(a) Selections from Summa theologiae First Part of the Second Part (from QQ4-5). See http://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FS.html.

2. (b)Suggested secondary source:
   

S. A. Long, “On the Possibility of a Purely Natural End for Man,” The Thomist, 64 (2000), pp. 211–37.

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class #14: 27 November: Thanksgiving. No class in Milwaukee. Class at KU Leuven only.

Assignments TBA.

      

Class #15: 4 December: SPECIAL 2 HOUR SESSION: Prof. Carlos Steel, KUL, on (i) the beatitudes, and (ii) reditio / return in Neoplatonism and Aquinas.

Preview: For this class Prof. Carlos Steel, KULeuven, expert in Ancieht Philosophy, Neoplatonism, Aquinas, and more, will discuss two topics: the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount and the notion of raditio or return in Neoplatonism and in the thought of Aquinas.

i) Readings:  If you read German,

1. (a)Carlos Steel, “Abraham und Odysseus. Christliche und neuplatonische Eschatologie,” pp. 115-137 in Jan A. Aertsen, Martin Pickavé. Ende und Vollendung: Eschatologische Perspektiven im Mittelalter; mit einem Beitrag zur Geschichte des Thomas-Instituts der Universität zu Köln anläßlich des 50. Jahrestages der Institutsgründung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002. XIII + 763 S.
   

2. (b)Carlos Steel, Der Adler und die Nachteule. Thomas und Albert über die Möglichkeit der Metaphysik, (Munster: Aschendorff, 2001)
   

NOTE: For Marquette students the formal course meetings end with the 4 December class. 8-12 December is final exam week with no class meetings required, though there is no final exam for this course. The Marquette students’ final course paper is due on 10 December.

Class #16: 11 December: Aquinas’s later interpreters on happiness: Renaissance Thomism until Luis de Molina (1535–1600) with Prof. Robiglio.

Preview: forthcoming

Readings:  forthcoming

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.

Class 17: 19 December: Aquinas’s modern interpreters:  Virtue-Ethicists and Contemporary Thomism with Prof. Robiglio.

Preview: (Forthcoming)

(i) Readings:  (Forthcoming)

(a) TBA

(b) J. M. Anderson, "Aquinas on the Graceless Unbeliever", Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Theologie, 59 (2012), pp. 5-25.

Suggested secondary sources: (FORTHCOMING)

Suggested video web links: (FORTHCOMING)

For more suggested readings, see the Optional Additional Literature page on the course website.