Thomas Aquinas Fall 2014: The Nature & Attainment of Happiness
Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI USA
Prof. Andrea Robiglio, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Thomas Aquinas Fall 2014:
Theomorphism or Anthropomorphism? Conceiving God in Aquinas and his Arabic Sources
Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee
(email: richard.taylor@hiw.kuleuven.be or Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu)
Prof. Andrea Robligio, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
(email: Andrea.Robiglio@hiw.kuleuven.be)
Last website update 29 November 2013
Live Classroom Course Meeting Times*:
28 August - 18 September: Thursday 9:00 - 11:00 am U.S. Central Time
25 September - 18 December 9:00-11:00 am US Central Time / 16h-18h European Central Time
Brief Course Description
In recent years the powerful influence of the Arabic tradition on the development of the philosophical reasoning and insightful doctrines of Aquinas has been firmly established in international conference meetings and publications on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’. In connection with that work, this course will begin with five weeks of a graduate introduction to Aquinas and then become an international collaborative graduate seminar with the subtitle, “Theomorphism or Anthropomorphism? Conceiving God in Aquinas and his Arabic Sources.” Team taught by professors at Marquette and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, this course will have assigned readings, video lectures, an online discussion board, student presentations (beginning in the sixth week), and weekly live video meetings for two hours of discussion involving students at Marquette and KULeuven as well as other selected international auditors. The content focus will be on issues, proofs, attributes, divine actions and more with particular reference to the initial (and often lasting) reasoning of Aquinas formed in connection with his use of ideas and arguments from the Arabic tradition. The course will close with four weeks of lectures on conceptions of God developed by later thinkers in engagement with the account of Aquinas. The structure of the course will follow the model found at https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_Fall_2013_MU_KUL/Course_Description.html.
Marquette grading will be based on course participation (50%) and a final professionally prepared course paper of 20-25 pp. (50%).
Fall 2013 Aquinas: Metaphysics
Fall 2012 Aquinas: Soul & Intellect
Fall2011 course, Aquinas and the Arabic Philosophical Tradition on ‘Creation’
Click HERE.
Brief Course Description
(more forthcoming)
In recent years the powerful influence of the Arabic tradition on the development of the philosophical reasoning and insightful teachings of Aquinas has been firmly established in international conference meetings and publications on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’. It has also become abundantly clear that Aquinas is most fully understood through the method of source based contextualism involving the location of the thought of Aquinas in relation to the sources he himself studied in forming his own philosophical and theological doctrines. This is the approach that will be followed in this course.
After a general introduction to key issues in the philosophical thought of Aquinas in the first 4-5 weeks for Marquette University students, this course will connect classes of graduate students at Marquette and at KU Leuven on 25 September 2014 and focus on the topic of the nature and attainment of happiness. Our initial focus will be on his earliest major work where he first addresses this topic, his Commentary on the Sentences, with special reference to his philosophical, theological and historical context. Among other things, this will involve careful consideration of the roles of the the Christian religious tradition, of the thought of Aristotle, of the thought of thinkers of the Greek Aristotelian Commentary Tradition, and of the thought of philosophers of the Classical Arabic Tradition in Latin translation in the formation of the teachings of Aquinas. (Texts will be available English with some published translations, some unpublished translations from the Latin or Arabic.) We will then follow the development of his teachings in various major works such as the Summa contra gentiles, the Summa theologiae and others.
This is a global collaborative course taught by Prof. Richard C. Taylor at Marquette University and Prof. Andrea Robiglio at the famous Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, as a hybrid course. That is, it will be taught using weekly video lectures, online tools and resources, classroom meetings with face-to-face discussions in live video with our class of graduate students at KU Leuven, and more. (From KU Leuven we will also be joined by Prof. Carlos Steel, renown expert in Ancient, Neoplatonic and Medieval philosophy.) The course meets at Marquette in Raynor Library room 320a on Thursdays 9 -11 am with live connections with the KUL class 9:30-10:30 am beginning 25 September 2014. On Thursdays that follow students will meet live online with video and audio for questions and discussion with Profs. Taylor & Robiglio and the student groups in Milwaukee and Leuven, Belgium.
Marquette grading will be based on course participation (leading class discussions, presentations, et alia, 50%) and a final professionally prepared course paper of 20-30 pp. (50%).
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven grading details (forthcoming).
Désiré-Joseph Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926)
in the garden of the KUL Institute of Philosophy
