Mexico City 20-21 September 2013
Aquinas, Alfarabi, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides & Albertus
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2018 Annual Fall Workshop of
The Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
Aquinas and the Arabs International Annual Fall Meeting
Meeting Date: 23-25 August 2018
(Thursday afternoon through late afternoon Saturday.)
Location: Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
Organizers:
Prof. Theres Cory, Notre Dame University
Prof. Luis López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana
Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University &
KU Leuven De Wulf-Mansion Centre
The Aquinas and the Arabs International Annual Fall Meeting will take place on August 23-25, 2018 (Thursday afternoon through late afternoon Saturday), at Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City.
AQUINAS AND ‘THE ARABS’ FALL MEETING 2018
August 23-25
Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
Organized by Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Therese Cory and Richard Taylor
Sponsored by Universidad Panamericana and University of Notre Dame
Thursday August 23
4:50: Welcome Addresses: Richard Taylor & Luis Xavier Lopez-Farjeat
5:00-5:50
Nicholas Oschman, Marquette University
Two Philosophical Critiques of Prophecy: Abū Bakr al-Rāzī and Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī on the Preeminence of Natural Reason
6:00-6:50
Michael Fatigati, University of Toronto
Varieties of Animal Emotions in Avicenna
Friday August 24
9:20: Welcome Address: Maria Elena García Peláez, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Universidad Panamericana
9:30-10:20
Keynote speaker: Richard Cross, University of Notre Dame
‘God as Form of the Intellect in Aquinas’s Account of Beatific Union: Explans or Explicandum?’
10:30-11:20
Bret Yardley, Marquette University (Skype)
The Role of Testimony in Moses Maimonides’s Critique of Saadya Gaon
11:30-12:20
Brian Carl, Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies
Divine Perfection in Avicenna, Averroes, and Aquinas
12:30-1:20
Daniel Regnier, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
The Arabic Plotinus on the Relationship between Soul and Intellect
1:30-2:50
Lunch
3:00-3:50
Deni Gamboa, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
Ockham on Phantasia and Sensus Communis
4:00-4:50
Jörg Tellkamp, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Averroist by Contagion? Marsilius of Padua on Scientia Civilis
5:00-5:50
Richard Taylor, Marquette University
Contextualizing the Kalām fī mahḍ al-khair / Liber de causis
6:00-6:50
Rollen E. Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas
Avicenna and Aquinas on Demonstrating God’s Existence
Saturday August 25
9:00-9:50
Youssef El Amari, Regional Academy of Education and Formation Tangier-Tetouan-al-Hoceima (Skype)
Averroes and Galileo on the Interpretation of Sacred Texts
10:00-11:50
Elisa Coda, University of Pisa (Skype)
Themistius’ interpretation of the Aristotelian abstraction and its role in Arabic philosophy
12:00-12:50 (Skype)
Nicola Polloni, Durham University
Avicennian Cosmologies? Remarks on Grosseteste and ‘the Arabs’
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Many thanks to the University of Notre Dame for hosting
a valuable and stimulating 2017 conference with insightful
contributions by professors and graduate students.
Particular thanks must be extended to Prof. Therese Cory
and Prof. Francisco Romero Carrasquillo for their
organizational work.
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2017 Annual Fall Workshop of
The Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
Aquinas and the Arabs International Annual Fall Meeting
Meeting Dates: Fri, August 25th, and Sat, August 26th, 2017
Location: University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana
Co- organizers: Therese Scarpelli Cory (Notre Dame), tcory@nd.edu and Francisco Romero Carrasquillo (Univ. Panamericana), fromero@up.edu.mx.
The 2017 annual fall meeting of the “Aquinas and the Arabs Project” will take place at the University of Notre Dame. We invite submissions of paper proposals on topics relating to the project interests, broadly construed as figures and themes whose study contributes to a better understanding of how philosophical concepts developed in an Islamic and Jewish milieu helped shape Latin Scholasticism. Papers may consider questions of transmission / influence; or compare thinkers from different traditions; or deal with just one tradition / thinker on a philosophical topic that is nonetheless of interest in multiple traditions. In general, papers should be congenial for an audience consisting of specialists in different areas of Islamic, Jewish, and Latin medieval philosophy. Please send a title and proposal of roughly 300-500 words to the co-organizers, Therese Scarpelli Cory, tcory@nd.edu and Francisco Romero Carrasquillo, fromero@up.edu.mx. Graduate students should additionally send a CV. Program selection will take place by May 15th.
Information about papers: Each paper will be scheduled for a 1-hr slot. We prefer to leave substantial time for discussion, so 35-40 min are suggested for presentation time, leaving 20-25 min for discussion.
Preliminary practical information:
Lunch and dinner will be provided both days. We regret that we are unable to cover travel and accommodation costs for presenters or attendees. Special conference rates are available at the Fairfield Inn and Suites South Bend (across the street from ND campus, $124/night if booked by July 25th; please contact Therese Cory for the reservations link): http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sbnnd-fairfield-inn-and-suites-south-bend-at-notre-dame/ . Please note that due to other events being organized on campus, it is expected that area hotels will be full. So hotel arrangements should be made early.
About the “Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ Project.” The goal of the project is to promote understanding and insight into philosophical and theological issues prominent in the Medieval period in the Abrahamic traditions in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin writings, issues which continue to inform philosophical and theological thought today in important ways. The major focus of the Project is on issues in the thought of Aquinas which elucidate the depth of his engagement with the Arabic and Jewish traditions and the positive and valuable influence of those traditions on his thought and that of Christian thinkers of the high middle ages in Europe. The Project, however, is not limited to Aquinas but rather seeks to promote the understanding of philosophical thought in all three Abrahamic traditions in themselves as well as in their interactions and influences. To that end the Project encourages work in all three traditions and is particularly interested in influences, parallel developments and also unique and valuable philosophical and theological insights and contributions to the history of philosophy. For more information, see AquinasAndTheArabs.org.
List of Presenters
1. Tom Burman – "Aquinas and the Absence of Islam in Scholastic Thought."
2. Richard Taylor. “On Abstraction in the Medieval Aristotelian Tradition.”
3. Therese-Anne Druart, Al-Fârâbî’s Enumeration of the Sciences, Avicenna’s On Demonstration, II, 8, and their Latin Readers
4. Jacob Andrews, Loyola University Chicago (GS). “Transmigration and the Teacher: Philoponus on De Anima 3.4-8.”
5. Celia Byrne, University of Toronto (GS). “Establishing the Finiteness of Efficient Causes in the Metaphysics of the Healing.”
6. Michael Fatigati, University of Toronto (GS). “Circumscribing Emotions in Avicenna's Thought.”
7. David Cory, Catholic University of America (GS). "Aquinas on Exceeding Matter and Being a Body"
8. Mark Schulz, Marquette University (GS). "Divine Will and the Metaphysics of God in Avicenna and Aquinas.”
9. Fr. Philip Neri Reese, University of Notre Dame (GS). “Thomas Aquinas, His Predecessors, and the Properties of Being Qua Being.”
10. Nathaniel Taylor, Marquette University (GS). “Essentialism and Scientific Necessity in Thomas Aquinas.”
11. Matthew Kostelecky, University of Alberta. “Continuity, Rupture, And Fragmentation: Charting the Uneasy Course of ‘Divine Science’ from Antiquity to Early Modernity.”
12. Lu Jiang, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. “Boethius, Thomas Aquinas and Avicenna on Divine Foreknowledge of Future Contingents.”
13. Stephen Metzger, Notre Dame University. “‘Le penchant pour l’arabisme’ at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century, or How Did Aquinas Learn Arabic Philosophy?”
14. Stephen Ogden, Catholic University of America. “Avicenna’s Emanationist Abstraction.”
15. Fr Burrell on al-Ghazali and what counts as Islamic phil (20 min presentation at the end)
Aquinas and the Arabs International Working Group
Annual Fall Meeting 2017
Tentative Schedule
Location: Hospitality Room, South Dining Hall, University of Notre Dame
Friday, August 25th:
9:00 am: Welcome (Therese Scarpelli Cory, University of Notre Dame) and introduction to the Aquinas and the Arabs Project (Richard Taylor, Marquette University)
9:20 am-10:10 am: “Avicenna’s Emanationist Abstraction” (Stephen Ogden, The Catholic University of America)
10:10 am-11:00 am: “On Abstraction in the Medieval Aristotelian Tradition” (Richard Taylor, Marquette University)
11:00 am-11:30 am: Break
11:30 am-12:20 pm: “Transmigration and the Teacher: Philoponus on De Anima 3.4-8” (Jacob Andrews, Loyola University Chicago)
12:30 pm-2:00 pm: Lunch, Oak Room of South Dining Hall
LECTURE: “Raimundus Lullus and his Acceptance of Islamic Thought” (Josep Puig Montada, Universidad Complutense, Madrid)
2:00-2:30 pm: Break
2:30 pm-3:20 pm: “Continuity, Rupture, And Fragmentation: Charting the Uneasy Course of ‘Divine Science’ from Antiquity to Early Modernity” (Matthew Kostelecky, University of Alberta)
3:20 pm-4:10 pm: “Al-Fârâbî’s Enumeration of the Sciences, Avicenna’s On Demonstration, II, 8, and their Latin Readers” (Thérèse-Anne Druart, The Catholic University of America)
4:10pm-4:30pm: Break
4:30 pm-5:20 pm: “Thomas Aquinas, His Predecessors, and the Properties of Being Qua Being” (Philip Neri Reese, University of Notre Dame)
5:20 pm-6:00 pm: “Essentialism and Scientific Necessity in Thomas Aquinas” (Nathaniel Taylor, Marquette University)
Dinner (speakers and chairs)
Saturday, August 26th
9:00 am-9:50 am: “Aquinas and the Absence of Islam in Scholastic Thought” (Tom Burman, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame)
9:50 am-10:40 am: “‘Le penchant pour l’arabisme’ at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century, or How Did Aquinas Learn Arabic Philosophy?” (Stephen Metzger, University of Notre Dame)
10:40 am-11:00 am: Break
11:00 am-11:50 am: “Boethius, Thomas Aquinas and Avicenna on Divine Foreknowledge of Future Contingents” (Lu Jiang, Sun Yat-sen University)
11:50 am-12:40 pm: “Divine Will and the Metaphysics of God in Avicenna and Aquinas” (Mark Schulz, Marquette University)
12:40 pm-2:00 pm: Lunch for all participants in the Oak Room of South Dining Hall
2:10 pm-3:00 pm: “Circumscribing Emotions in Avicenna's Thought” (Michael Fatigati, University of Toronto)
3:00 pm-3:50 pm: “Establishing the Finiteness of Efficient Causes in the Metaphysics of the Healing” (Celia Byrne, University of Toronto)
3:50 pm-4:10 pm: Break
4:10 pm-5:00 pm: “Aquinas on Exceeding Matter and Being a Body” (David Cory, Catholic University of America).
5:00-5:10 pm: Break
5:10 pm-5:30 pm, Concluding Remarks: “al-Ghazālī and Islamic Philosophy” (David Burrell, University of Notre Dame)
Dinner (speakers and chairs)
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Many thanks to the presenters and attendees at this event
in person or via Skype for a very successful meeting. Insightful presentations led to valuable discussions both at the meeting and at the dinners and receptions.
Richard Taylor & Francisco Romero Carrasquillo
2016 Annual Fall Workshop of
The Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
The Fall 2016 North American Workshop of the AAIWG
will take place at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI,
16-17 September 2016.
Raynor Memorial Library
Third Floor, Room 320a
(limited seating available)
Featuring 13 presenters from Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, United Kingdom & US.
Conference Schedule
Thursday 15 September
For visitors interested in getting together for dinner at Miss Katie’s Diner (an iconic American diner where President Clinton ate lunch with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1996), meet Prof. Taylor in the lobby of the Raynor Memorial Library 1355 W. Wisconsin Avenue at 5:30 pm. We can walk the few blocks to the restaurant.
*SPECIAL PRE-WORKSHOP EVENT*
Prof. Fouad Ben Ahmed
Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute
Rabat, Morocco
presenting
“The Arabic Reception of Averroes’ Thought”
3:30-5:00 pm Thursday, 15 September 2016
Location: Raynor Library, third floor, room 330b
Friday 16 September
Raynor Memorial Library
Third Floor, Room 320a
9:00 Welcome
Friday Morning Session Chair: Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University
9:15-10:15 am #1 Luis X. Lopéz-Farjeat (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City), “Cosmology, Biology and the Nature of the Soul in al-Farabi and Ibn Sina”
10:15-11:15am #2 Joshua Lee Harris (Institute of Christian Studies, Toronto, Canada), “Aquinas’ misreading of Avicenna on transcendental unity: A rationale.”
SKYPE CONNECTION
11:15-11:30 break
11:30 am -12:30 pm #3 Francisco Romero Carrasquillo (Universidad Panamericana, Guadaljarro, Mexico) “Exterior Religious Worship in John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas”
12:30-2:00 pm Lunch options: Marquette Alumni Memorial Union Lunda Room restaurant, Law School cafe, AMU cafeteria
Friday Afternoon Session Chair: Prof. David Twetten, Marquette University
2:00-3:00 pm #4 Brett Yardley (Marquette University, Milwaukee), “Al-Ghazali as Anachronistic Philosopher”
3:00-4:00 pm #5 Nicholas Oschman (Marquette University, Milwaukee),
“What is the status of Plato’s ‘knowledge of existing things insofar as they are existent’ according to al-Fārābī?”
4:00 - 4:15 pm break
4:15-5:15 pm #6 David Cory (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC), “Less Immersed in Matter. How Non-Human Souls Exceed the Powers of the Elements in Thomas Aquinas”
6:30 pm Reception at the Home of Profs. Richard & Carolyn Taylor 30 miles Northwest of Milwaukee on Friese Lake at 4938 Lakeview Avenue, Hubertus, WI 53033. For directions, click HERE. Carpooling available.
8 pm Dinner at the Fox and Hounds Restaurant (iconic Milwaukee inexpensive Friday Fish Fry available!)
Saturday 17 September
Raynor Memorial Library
Third Floor, Room 320a
Saturday Morning Session Chair: Prof. Luis López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana
10:15 - 11:15 am #7 Saime Hızır (Faculty of Divinity, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey), “Aristotle and Avicenna on Definition” SKYPE CONNECTION
11:15 am - 12:15 pm #8 Therese Cory (University of Notre Dame) & Katja Krause (University of Durham, UK), “From First Principles to Ultimate Conjunction in Averroes” SKYPE CONNECTION
12:15 - 1:00 pm Lunch options: Tory Hill Cafe at the Marquette Law School, Miss Katie’s Diner; fast food places on Wells Street
Saturday Afternoon Session Chair: Prof. Therese Scarpelli Cory, University of Notre Dame
1:45 - 2:45 pm #9 Anna Moreland (Villanova University & University of Notre Dame) “Aquinas on Prophecy: Contemporary Considerations”
2:45 - 3:45 pm # 10 Stephen Ogden, (John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland) “The Avicennian Averroes: On Common Natures”
3:45 - 4:00 break
4:00 - 5pm #11 Maricarmen Elvira Torres Torija (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City), “Aquinas's hylomorphism and its implications on soul's self-knowledge”
5:00 - 6:00 pm #12 Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania, Rabat, Morocco) “Averroist Logicians in Muslim Spain After Averroes”
6:30 pm Dinner at Shahrazad Persian Arabic Restaurant, 2847 N. Oakland Ave., Milwaukee
After dinner reception at the home of Prof. David Twetten. Carpooling available. Travel information will be available at the Workshop.
Presentation Abstracts
Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania, Rabat, Morocco) “Averroist Logicians in Muslim Spain After Averroes”
Abstract: More than 160 years ago, and based on a very limited acquaintance with the Arabic libraries and works after the twelfth century, Ernest Renan claimed that Averroes, “the most famous philosopher in the eyes of Latins had no school among his compatriots” and remained “totally ignored by his coreligionists.” More than 150 years later, in his careful chapter on “Arabic Logic,” Tony Street devoted a section to deal with what he named “Averroist Logicians” where one can find no more than a single name of someone almost unknown. This is mainly due to facts such as that “Averroes rarely appears in later Arabic treatises on logic.” Therefore, some questions may arise immediately: What happened to Averroes’s disciples on logic? Where are their treatises? What was the fate of his logical teaching? These are some issues my paper aims to treat.
David Cory (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC), “Less Immersed in Matter. How Non-Human Souls Exceed the Powers of the Elements in Thomas Aquinas”
Abstract: Thomas Aquinas has a theory in which the substantial forms of animate corporeal beings exceed the potency of matter without thereby achieving incorporeality: They are “not fully immersed in matter.” What it means to be “immersed” in matter, and how this immersion is susceptible of degrees, however, has never been explained. This paper argues that his various formulations of this idea (going beyond the active and passive potencies of the elements, exceeding the potency of matter, dominating or conquering matter, or being less immersed in matter) all point to differences between the kind of agency belonging to animate and inanimate corporeal beings (especially the elements.) Whereas inanimate sub-lunary bodies are limited to operations consisting of the mutual expulsion of qualities, animate corporeal beings have operations that use the contrary qualities instrumentally or merely by way of disposition of an organ. I will argue that Aquinas interprets this difference between inanimate and animate corporeal action as a form exceeding matter, and that this successive overcoming of matter by higher and higher animate forms makes animate forms more complete, perfect, and in certain respects more akin to spiritual substances.
Therese Cory (University of Notre Dame) & Katja Krause (University of Durham, UK), “From First Principles to Ultimate Conjunction in Averroes”
Abstract: How does the Agent Intellect come to be conjoined to a human knower for the first time, and how does this conjunction justify the claim that it is "form" for us? How does the human being acquire first principles? What is the intellectus in habitu? In what sense is rationality "natural" to us, if we lack rational powers at birth? And how does our acquisition of the human sciences necessarily lead us to ultimate conjunction? These fundamental questions about Averroes's noetic theory ultimately are rooted in his novel, but as-yet unexplored, "metaphysics of cognitive development" in the human being. In unfolding his approach, our paper proposes a new reading of Averroes's Long Commentary on De anima that offers a single unified set of tools to answer these questions. We also draw some broader conclusions about the usefulness of labels like "naturalistic" or "illuminationist" in interpreting thinkers like Averroes.
Joshua Lee Harris (Institute of Christian Studies, Toronto, Canada), “Aquinas’ misreading of Avicenna on transcendental unity: A rationale.”
Abstract This paper attempts to understand Aquinas’ apparently mistaken criticism of Avicenna on the subject of transcendental unity by examining both philosophers’ unique positions on the so-called “opposition” of the concepts of unity and multitude. Whereas Avicenna aims to safeguard the epistemic and metaphysical primacy of unity with respect to multitude by rejecting any opposition between the two concepts, Aquinas’ own position on the matter involves the introduction of an entirely new transcendental notion, multitudo transcendens. Such a move offers a notional priority to unity, but denies any metaphysical priority, since both unum and multitudo are “convertible with being.” This recontextualization of the problem (i.e. in light of the opposition of unum and multitudo) may be a primary motivating factor behind Aquinas’ criticism of his Arab counterpart.
Saime Hızır (Faculty of Divinity, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey), “Aristotle and Ibn Sina on the Problem of Unity in the Theory of Definition
Abstract: Aristotle raises the problem of the unity of the formula of definition in Z 12 by asking ‘why is twofooted animal one and not many, viz. animal and two-footed?’ (1037b14). The answer is based on a main ontological claim that is a kind of identification of matter and form. Accordingly, the problem of unity arises when one thinks of the matter and the form as separate parts. But if the pair of potentiality and actuality is brought into context, there would be no problem at all since the proximate matter and the form are one and the same thing, the one potentially, the other actually. Therefore, to ask the cause of unity of the substance becomes pointless. Aristotle applies the same solution to the unity of definition: one part of the formula is potentiality and another part is actuality. In other words, genus is posited as matter and differentia as form. The aim of this paper is to investigate why Aristotle thinks that there is a correlation between the theory of substance and of definition and to examine how Ibn Sina discusses the same problem in his metaphysics.
Luis X. Lopéz-Farjeat (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City), “Cosmology, Biology and the Nature of the Soul in al-Farabi and Ibn Sina”
Abstract: Most theories of the soul within the classical Arabic and Islamic philosophical contexts were built mainly upon Aristotle’s De anima. There were, however, different approaches to the Aristotelian conception of the soul, many of which display a strong Neoplatonic background. Both al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā are good examples of this sort of hybridization between Peripatetic and Neoplatonic sources. When explaining the origination (ḥudūth) of the soul both philosophers resort, on the one hand, to an elaborate cosmological structure of the universe that combines Neoplatonic emanationism with the Aristotelian conception of the celestial spheres; on the other hand, they provide biological considerations in order to explain the origination and interaction of the body and the soul. Both theories, however, seem problematic when defining the nature of the soul as something originated simultaneously with the body, but able to become a separated and immaterial substance, either an intellect or an individuated soul. In what follows, I shall discuss this particular problem: how is it possible to hold the idea that the origination of the body is necessary for the origination of the soul, and at the same time argue that the soul becomes something immaterial.
Anna Moreland (Villanova University & University of Notre Dame) “Aquinas on Prophecy: Contemporary Considerations”
Abstract: This paper provides a close textual analysis of Aquinas on prophesy to show that prophetic knowledge can occur outside the bounds of the church. The paper is part of a larger argument that marries contemporary magisterial claims made about Muslim belief and practice at Vatican II to Aquinas’ subtle treatment of prophecy. If Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest spoke prophetically, or the Roman soldiers who divided Jesus’ garments acted prophetically, or Agabus and the daughters of Phillip prophesied after the death of Jesus, what are we to make of Muhammad?
Stephen Ogden, (John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland) “The Avicennian Averroes: On Common Natures”
Abstract: What are the criteria for labeling a thinker a philosopher? Traditionally the Persian Muslim thinker al-Ghazali has been denominated a theologian, in contrast to the innovative Aristotelian philosopher Avicenna. Yet in his refutation of Avicenna the Incoherence of the Philosophers, al-Ghazali consistently draws on Aristotelian methodological analysis to philosophically undermine deemed inadequacies. I further the arguments made by contemporary scholarship on Islamic thought for the denomination of al-Ghazali as philosopher, but from a very different perspective through the consideration of modern day analytic philosophy of religion. I conclude by returning to my opening question on applying the label, “philosopher.”
Nicholas Oschman (Marquette University, Milwaukee),
“What is the status of Plato’s ‘knowledge of existing things insofar as they are existent’ according to al-Fārābī?”
Abstract: Assuming its authenticity as a Fārābīan text, the Harmonization of Plato and Aristotle defines philosophy as the ‘knowledge of existing things insofar as they are existent’ and affirms two distinct approaches by which humans might secure knowledge of existents: division and synthesis. The former method is representative of Plato’s philosophy, while the latter is preferred by Aristotle (although al-Fārābī finds the two methods compatible, reliant upon one another, and present in the writings of each). However, al-Fārābī’s epistemological writings require demonstration (i.e. synthesis) for certainty. Given al-Fārābī’s mimesis of Platonic ethical and political philosophy, he clearly attributes knowledge to Plato, but Plato’s reliance on the method of division, rather than synthesis, raises questions as to the epistemological status of this knowledge. In this paper, I will attempt to construct a justification for how al-Fārābī can attribute knowledge to Plato, despite his own assertion that certitude requires demonstrative synthesis.
Francisco Romero Carrasquillo (Universidad Panamericana, Guadaljarro, Mexico) “Exterior Religious Worship in John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas”
Maricarmen Elvira Torres Torija (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City), “Aquinas's hylomorphism and its implications on soul's self-knowledge”
Abstract: Thomas Aquinas's psychological proposal focuses on the study of the rational soul (anima rationalis) which in some passages he refers to as "mind" (mens). His analysis is part of a much broader study of the soul which implies a metaphysical or ontological approach from which it is determined what it is and how it is. At first sight, the ontological definition of the soul seems simple. The soul is the vital principle by which living things are what they are, and by which they have a set of powers or faculties (STh. I, q.75 a.1). Aquinas takes up Aristotle's anthropological hylomorphism by which the soul and the body are not different independent substances but, co-principles of the same subject. However what distinguishes the rational soul is its immaterial intellectual capacity. The problem is that "...the same intellectual principle, called mind, or understanding, has a substantial independent operation of the body" (STh. I q.75, a.2 c) and from this Aquinas explains that "...we must conclude that the human soul is something incorporeal..." (STh. I q.75 a.2 c). If this is the case, then it is not clear how the soul unites with the body, how it operates and how it is able to know itself, the body and the other faculties. Basically the main problem is that, if the soul is immaterial in itself, but our faculties can only know what we know through the senses (following the Aristotelian criterion, there is nothing in the mind that has not passed through our senses), then the self-knowledge of the soul needs to be a different kind of knowledge. This matter is discussed by Aquinas in article 8 of the question 10 of the De Veritate, where he explains that the mind knows itself through its essence and not through a species, however in the Prima Pars, q .87 Article 1 of the Summa Theologiae, he explains that the soul doesn´t know itself by its essence but by its operations. In this paper I shall discuss these problems while I attempt to build a proposal in order to understand the self-knowledge of the soul according to Aquinas's ontological definition of the soul and the mind, and try to solve the alleged contradiction of the passages mentioned above. For my purpose, I shall focus on the treatise of man in the Summa Theologiae and the Opuscula concerning the soul.
Brett Yardley (Marquette University, Milwaukee), “Al-Ghazali as Anachronistic Philosopher”
Abstract: What are the criteria for labeling a thinker a philosopher? Traditionally the Persian Muslim thinker al-Ghazali has been denominated a theologian, in contrast to the innovative Aristotelian philosopher Avicenna. Yet in his refutation of Avicenna the Incoherence of the Philosophers, al-Ghazali consistently draws on Aristotelian methodological analysis to philosophically undermine deemed inadequacies. I further the arguments made by contemporary scholarship on Islamic thought for the denomination of al-Ghazali as philosopher, but from a very different perspective through the consideration of modern day analytic philosophy of religion. I conclude by returning to my opening question on applying the label, “philosopher.”
Housing Options
Among the most convenient local hotels are the four star Ambassador Hotel and the less expensive three star Ambassador Inn across the street. These are a short walk up Wisconsin Avenue from the MU Library workshop location.
See http://www.ambassadormilwaukee.com and
http://www.ambassadorinnmilwaukee.com.
Registered Skype Attendees
Vladimir Lasica, (Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, & University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany)
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For the wonderfully successful 2015 meeting we want to express our many thanks to our host, the Universidad Panamericana, to our presenters at the Mexico City workshop, both to those physically present and to those presenting from Oregon and Rome, and to our audience with its valuable questions and comments. Special thanks to our guest, Prof. Dr. Henryck Anzulewicz, Albertus Magnus-Institut, Bonn, Germany.
Annual Fall Workshop on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’
The “Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group”
At Mexico City 29-30 October 2015
Hosted by the Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
Organized by Luis Xavier López-Farjeat & Richard C. Taylor
Click Here for poster.
Conference Hotel:
Holiday Inn Dakota
Calle Dakota 95, Benito Juarez, Nápoles, 03810 Ciudad de México, D.F.
Conference Schedule
Wednesday, October 28
For visitors interested in getting together for dinner, meet in the lobby of the conference hotel at 7:30 pm.
Thursday, October 29
9:45 Welcome by Dr. José Alberto Ross, Vice-Chancellor of Humanities at Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
10:00-11:00 Therese Scarpelli Cory, University of Notre Dame, “The Metaphysics of Intelligibility: Avicenna, Averroes, and their Latin Reception”
11:00-12:00 Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, “Rethinking First and Second Averroism”
12:00-12:30 Coffee break
12:30-13:30 Ann Giletti, University of California, Rome Campus, “al-Ghazālī, Aquinas and Ramon Martí: A Question of Audience of the Pugio Fidei”
13:30-15:00 Lunch
15:00-16:00 Henryck Anzulewicz, Albertus Magnus-Institut, Bonn, Germany, “Albert the Great and his Arabic-Peripatetic Sources: His Early Appropriation in Light of his Late On the Intellect and Intelligible”
16:00-17:00 Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, “Avicenna and Albert the Great on the Language of Non-Human Animals”
17:00 - 18:00 Jörg Alejandro Tellkamp & Paloma Hernández, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, “Albert the Great on animal knowledge and Ghazālī’s Logica”
Dinner at a fun taco place near the Universidad Panamericana:
El Charco de las Ranas
Friday, October 30
10:00-11:00 Julie Swanstrom, Armstrong State University, “Creation, Divine Simplicity, and Divine Will in Aquinas”
11:00-12:00 Francisco Romero, Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, “Aquinas’ Reception of Albert the Great’s Account of the Virtue Religion”
12:00-12:30 Coffee Break
12:30-13:30 (i) Presentation of The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy (2015); (ii) Update on research on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ and some recent developments and future plans
13:30-15:00 Lunch
================
Annual Fall 2014 Workshop on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’
**Many thanks to the participants in Houston and also via Skype from Berlin & Würzburg, Germany, Mexico City, Mexico, and St Louis, Milwaukee & Atchison, USA, for making this a deeply stimulating philosophical experience.
And also many thanks to the University of St Thomas, Houston, and its Center for Thomistic Studies for generously hosting this event.**
Looking to the future, we are now planning for the Fall 2015 North American Workshop at the Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City.
Annual Fall Workshop on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’
The “Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group”
At Houston, Texas, 5-6 September 2014
Hosted by The University of St Thomas, Houston
Organized by R. E. Houser & Richard C. Taylor
CALL FOR PAPERS
Presentations on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ (inclusive of Maimonides as well)
will be considered for sessions of 75-90 min. which allow for extensive discussion.
We will also consider presentations on philosophical issues in the Arabic tradition itself that contribute to the understanding of the sources employed by Aquinas.
Submission deadline: 1 August 2014
Established scholars: send a title with an abstract of no more than 150 words.
Junior scholars and graduate student: send title, abstract and current CV.
NOTE:
A draft of the complete paper must be sent by 15 August 2014 since we will have commentators for each presentation.
Send submissions for the Program Committee’s consideration to:
with a copy to richard.taylor@hiw.kuleuven.be
Any questions should also be sent to these addresses.
***Conference agenda complete. Many thanks to those who submitted proposals.***
Conference Schedule*
*(Skype attendees: see the connection schedule
at the bottom of this page.)
Friday 5 September
8:20 am: Continental breakfast, Center, 4218 Yoakum
9 - 10:30 am: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Prof. Julie Swanstrom, Armstrong State University (in person) with commentary by Prof. Jon McGinnis via Skype
“Creation as Efficient Causation in Aquinas”
Abstract: I defend the claim that Aquinas accepts the truth of the Aristotelian model of causation. I show that in discussions of divine creating, Aquinas calls God an efficient cause of what comes to exist and discusses God’s causation of what exists in terms of efficient causation. I also defend the claim that, for Aquinas, Aristotelian efficient causation is not incompatible with God creating ex nihilo. While Aristotle presents efficient causation in which an agent activates some potentiality and focuses on an example of efficient causation in which a patient underlies the change, Aquinas asserts that Aristotle dwells upon one type of efficient causation—namely, natural efficient causation—and that there is another typeof efficient causation—namely, efficient causation of being, which does not involve any patient underlying the change. Aquinas does not take Aristotle’s account of efficient causation to be exhaustive of all cases of efficient causation.
10:45 am - 12:15 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Prof. Richard Taylor, Marquette University (in person) with commentary by Prof. Therese-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
“Remarks on Abstraction in al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes”
Abstract: The notion of an intellectual abstraction of intelligibles in act formed on the basis of external and internal human sense functions and intellect was commonly attributed to Aristotle by thinkers of the classical rationalist tradition in Arabic philosophy, among them al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes. Parts of their accounts were embraced by Albert the Great and his student Thomas Aquinas and played important roles in the formation of their views on the nature of intellectual understanding. In this presentation I focus on Alexander of Aphrodisias as the initial source of the attribution of intellectual abstraction to Aristotle and then provide accounts of the differing conceptions of intellectual abstraction held by al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes.
12:15 - 1:45 pm lunch: Black Lab Pub, near campus
1:45 - 3:15 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Katja Krause, Max Planck Institute, Berlin, via Skype with commentary by Prof. López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, via Skype
“AQUINAS AND HIS LATIN PSEUDO-DIONYSIAN PREDECESSORS ON THE BEATIFIC VISION: A RECONSIDERATION”
Abstract: Among the Latin theologians of the early 13th century, it was not a shared assumption that God must be a properly intelligible object of the beatific vision. In fact, the apophatic tradition that had reached the Latin West in the 9th century with the Corpus Dionysiacum and gained increasing attention in the 13th century conceived of God as beyond intelligibility. The beatific vision was held to be possible only in virtue of so-called theophanies: mediating actualities flowing from God. Scholarship commonly agrees that this apophatic view is a major historical difficulty that Aquinas solved with his conception of the beatific vision in his Commentary on the Sentences. In my presentation, I wish to reconsider this reading. My purpose is to show that when Aquinas constructed the theological distance of the beatific vision, this historical difficulty had much less force. The Parisian apophatic theologians had gradually modified their conception of God from supra-intelligible to purely intelligible by reconceiving the scope of the divine essence. This reconception of God’s essence has gone unnoticed to scholarship. Yet, as I show, it is key to understanding Aquinas’ own conception of the beatific vision and its overall purpose.
3:30 - 5:00 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Daniel DeHaan, University of St Thomas, Houston with commentary by R. E. Houser, University of St Thomas, Houston
“Why Existential Necessity? Finding Being To Be Necessary in Avicenna’s Metaphysics of the Healing”
Abstract: In the Metaphysics of the Healing Avicenna describes the primary notion the necessary as meaning the invariance of existence. In this paper I chart the epistemological significance of his characterization of existence as necessity. Avicenna acknowledged that all Aristotelian demonstrative sciences concern what is per se and necessary. But he also maintained that existence, the principle of being, is accidental to the quiddity of all things. How then can there be a philosophical science of existence, such as Avicenna proposes in Metaphysics of the Healing? I argue that Avicenna overcame the difficulty of presenting a scientific treatment of the accidentality of existence by virtue of his identification of existence with necessity. I then conclude by connecting this epistemological advantage of his doctrine of existential necessity with the major ontological, aitiological, and theological themes of his overall metaphysical project.
5:00 - 6:00 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Update on research on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ and some recent developments and future plans.
7:00 pm: Reception and buffet dinner at home of Ed Houser and Mary Catherine Sommers.
Saturday 6 September
9:00 - 10:30 am: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Prof. Therese Cory, University of Notre Dame, via Skype with commentary by E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas, via Skype
“Mind-Reading and the Metaphysics of Attention in Aquinas's ‘De malo 16’”
Abstract:
In discussing the psychological steps leading to intellectual cognition, Aquinas often seems to be describing an automatic, almost mechanical process whereby identical intelligibles are consistently produced in each human mind. His discussion in De malo 16 of demonic interactions with the human mind, however, reveals the degree to which both free choice and physiological influences enter into our intellectual acts. This chapter will study two questions that Aquinas addresses in De malo 16, which turn out to provide an occasion for him to explore the nature and causes of intellectual attention: “Can the demons cognize human thoughts?” (De malo 16, art. 8) and “Can the demons affect the human intellect?” (De malo 16, art. 12)
In art. 8, Aquinas’s argument for demonic ignorance of human thoughts has important implications for the metaphysical status of a thought (cogitatio) as a free act of intellectual attention distinct from intelligible species and habits, and not reducible to the current configuration of the intellect. His comments here also raise interesting questions about how one mind can have experiential cognition of another mind. In art. 12, however, he goes on to document a strong influence of one’s personal sensory and imaginative experiences on one’s intellectual thoughts: the phantasms, illuminated by the light of the agent intellect, “move” the intellect. He thus argues that a malevolent being could influence the production of intelligible species and even the direction of intellectual attention by manipulating the senses and imagination. Together, a. 8 and a. 12 make it clear that for Aquinas, the automatic abstraction of intelligibles from phantasms does not tell the whole story of human intellection; rather, one must also consider how the intellect’s attention is shaped and swayed in the interplay among personal experience, free will, and the natural illumination by the agent intellect.
10:45 am - 12:15 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Prof. R. E. Houser, University of St Thomas, Houston, with commentary by Rev. Dr. Timothy Belamah, Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC, and Commissio Leonina, Paris
“Avicenna, Averroes, and the Development of Aquinas’s Arguments for the Existence of God”
Abstract: This paper attempts to trace the influence of Avicenna and, on one crucial point, Averroes on the gradual development of Aquinas’s arguments for the existence of God. The paper covers three important texts of Aquinas. 1) At In 1 Sent., d. 3, q. 1, art. 2, Aquinas answers the question Is ‘God exists’ known self-evidently? The structure of his response is taken from Bonaventure, and his answer follows the arguments from efficient causality found in Albert, In 1 Sent., d. 3, art. 4 and Avicenna, Metaphysics of the Healing, VIII.3. 2) Then we will turn to De veritate, 12.10, where he widens the scope of his consideration with the aid of Avicenna, Metaphysics of the Healing I.2, and again follows Avicenna’s argument from efficient causality. 3) In the interests of time we must skip the Summa contra gentiles and proceed directly to the Summa theologiae. His argument, extending over three articles, shows the full flowering of the influence of Avicenna on his thought. He offers five ways to argue for the existence of God. The first is a much simplified version of Aristotle’s argument from motion. The other four ways follow the inspiration of Avicenna’s abandoned attempt to prove the existence of God along the routes of efficient, material, formal, and final causality in his Metaphysics of the Healing VIII.1-3. In the second, fourth, and fifth ways, he adjusts the argument by using Avicennian metaphysical principles, while in the third way he adjusts Avicenna’s argument from possibility and necessity by making use of Averroes.
12:15-1:30 pm Lunch: Deli lunch in place.
Grad students Saturday afternoon (papers of 35-40 min. with 20-25 min for discussion)
1:30-2:25 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Daniel Wagner, University of St Thomas, Houston
“The Avicennian Formulation of the Subject Matter of Metaphysics”
Abstract: This study compares Avicenna’s method of formulating the subject of metaphysics to that of Aristotle. Like the Stagyrite, Avicenna takes being qua being (al-mawjud bi-ma huwa mawjud) as the proper subject of the science. Unlike Aristotle, however, who used πρὸς ἕν (pros hen) equivocation to formulate the subject, it is shown that Avicenna makes novel use of the method Aristotle sets down in Posterior Analytics for achieving intellectual insight (νοῦς) of first terms: induction (ἐπαγωγή). This thesis is appropriately nuanced, given Jon McGinnis’ study of Avicenna’s treatise On Demonstration (al-Burhan), which shows that Avicenna rejects what was taken to be the Aristotelian conception of induction, promoting instead a method of “experimentation” for the establishment of the first principles. It is modestly contended that there is an Aristotelian method of induction yielding intellectual insight of first principles, and that Avicenna utilizes this method in formulating the subject of metaphysics.
2:30-3:25 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Nicholas Oschman, Marquette University, Milwaukee
“Reflections on the Agent Intellect: Situating the place of al-Farabi’s Epistle on the Intellect within his Broader Corpus”
Abstract: It has been argued by certain scholars, e.g. Herbert Davidson, Th. Anne Druart, and Damien Janos, that al-Fārābī's Risalah fi-l-'aql represents an immature and unfinished stage of al-Fārābī's thought in light of more mature works like his al-Siyāsah al-Madaniyyah and al-Madīnah al-Fādilah. Druart even goes so far as to suggest that the Risalah, while written by al-Fārābī, does not represent his own position, but is merely the exercise of a dutiful commentator of Aristotle. Janos cites al-Fārābī's inconsistent use of terminology, particularly the term for form (ṣuwar) as proof of the immaturity of the Risalah, while both Davidson and Druart note that the Risalah identifies the Active Intellect as the giver of sublunary forms while his more mature works seem to credit form-giving to the Celestial bodies. That said, the Risalah contains within it al-Fārābī's most robust account of the human intellect and the only full account of his doctrine of abstraction. In this paper, I will argue that while the Risalah represents a less mature work of al-Fārābī, he maintains the same doctrines in both the Risalah and his mature works. The differences between their doctrines are primarily cosmetic, brought about by the shift in terminology identified by Janos. In light of this consistency, al-Fārābī's doctrine of abstraction found within the Risalah may be viewed as an informative supplement to his less complete, but more mature, discussions of epistemology.
3:30-4:30 pm: Center, 4218 Yoakum
Brian Kemple, University of St Thomas, Houston
“Does the First Principle have a Quiddity?”
Abstract: It is a question as to whether or not, according to Avicenna, quiddity is something which can be said of the First Principle. It appears as though any attribution of a quiddity to the Divine by Avicenna is only of a quiddity improperly so-called. This appearance is due to Avicenna’s insistence upon the purity of the First; that He is existence alone and anything else said of the First “simply melts in the fire of true existence.” As Avicenna himself states, “The First… has no quiddity.” This denial of the First possessing a quiddity comes after a quite different assertion: “The First has no quiddity (mahiyah) other than His individual existence (anniyah).” It is our intention to unravel these seemingly contradictory claims and demonstate that, by Avicenna’s own principles, asserting that the First Principle has a quiddity is neither impossible nor improper.
5:00 - 6:00 pm: Mass available at campus chapel
7:00 pm: Conference dinner
********
Skype presenters’ and commentators’
connection schedule
All times US Central Time.
Friday 5 September
9:35 am: Open Skype connection for McGinnis comment on Swanstrom..
10:30 am: close Skype connection.
ca. 11:35 am: Open Skype connection for Th.-A. Druart comment on Taylor.
12:15 pm: close Skype connection
2:30 pm: Open Skype connection for Luis López-Farjeat comment on Krause.
3:15 pm: close Skype connection
4:15 pm: Open Skype connection for R. E. Houser comment on DeHaan.
The connection will remain open for:
5:00-6:00 pm Update on research on Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ and some recent developments and future plans.
6:00 pm: close Skype connection
Saturday 6 September
9:45 am: Open Skype connection for you all for Ed Macierowski’s commentary on Therese Cory’s paper.
10:30 am: close Skype connection
11:20-30 am: Open Skype connection for the commentary of Rev. Dr. Tim Belamah on the presentation by R. E. Houser.
12:15 pm: close Skype connection
1:50 pm: Open Skype connections for the entire period of the graduate student papers from 2 pm through 4:45 pm.
4:45 pm: Thanks to our hosts at UST by all of us.
4:50 pm: close Skype connection.
=============
Fall 2012 North American Meeting
The Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group (AAIWG) will meet at the annual meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA) in Los Angeles 2-4 November 2012.
The following AAIWG members won places on the ACPA Program. Their papers will
be published in the Proceedings of the 2012 annual conference:
R.E. Houser, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Katja Krause, King’s College London
Luis X. López-Farjeat, Universidad Pamericana, Mexico City
Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee
Daniel DeHaan, University of St. Thomas, Houston
In addition to presentations inside the ACPA Program, Satellite sessions
sponsored by the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
with four papers with commentaries were presented.
=============
Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’
The annual Fall North American conference
13-15 October 2011
at
Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City.
Conference Hotel:
City Express Insurgentes Sur, Av. Insurgentes Sur No. 1581
Col. San José Insurgentes
03900 Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Tel: (55) 5482-0280
01-800-248-9397
Conference Schedule
Wednesday 12 October
Evening informal dinner near the hotel. Meet at 7:15 pm at the lobby.
Thursday 13 October Room 37
8:30 coffee
9-10 Welcome by Universidad Panamericana Rector, Dr. José Manuel Nuñez Pliego, followed by a project description update by Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA, & member, De Wulf - Mansion Centre, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
10-11:15 Prof. Francisco O’Reilly, Philosophy Department at Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay, “Metaphysics as Mimesis of the Divine. An analysis of the Philosophia Prima of the Avicenna Latinus”
11:15-11:30 break
11:30-12:45 Paloma Hernández-Rubio, graduate student, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico, “Sensata communia sunt instrumenta: The role of common sensation in Albert the Great’s De homine”
1-3 Lunch for speakers sponsored by the UP Department of Philosophy
3:00-4:15 Prof. Therese Cory, Philosophy Department, Seattle University, Seattle, WI, USA, “The Influence of Avicenna and the Liber de causis in Aquinas’s ‘Turn to the Phantasms’”
4:15-4:30 break
4:40-5:45 Dr. Marta Borgo, Commissio Leonina, Paris, France, “Aquinas on matter. Notes on the reception of Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics in the 13th century”
Evening dinner at 7:30
Friday 14 October Room 37
8:30 coffee
9:00-10:15 Prof. Francisco Romero, Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara Campus, Guadalajara, Mexico, “The Reception of Averroes’s Abstractionist Theory of Intentionality in the Latin West”
10:15-10:30 break
10:30-11:45 Prof. Jörg Alejandro Tellkamp, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico, “How did John of la Rochelle influence Thomas Aquinas?”
11:45-1:00 Prof. Deina Ali Abdelkader, Political Science Department, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, MA, USA, “Thomas Aquinas’ Common Good and al-Shatibi’s Public Welfare”
1:00-3:00 Lunch for speakers sponsored by the UP Department of Philosophy
3:00-4:15 Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University & DeWulf Mansion Centre, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, “Primary Causality and ibdā‘ in the Liber de causis”
4:15-4:30 break
4:30-5:45 Prof. R. E. Houser, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, USA, “The Friar and the Vizier on the Range of the Theoretical Sciences”
Evening dinner at 7:30
Saturday 15 October Room 37
8:30 coffee
9:00-10:30 Presentation of sample translation with commentary for discussion of the project on the Sentences of Thomas Aquinas, by Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA, & De Wulf - Mansion Centre, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and Prof. Luis X. López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
10:30 trip to market area at San Ángel for lunch and browsing. After lunch, museum visit.
ca. 2:00-6:00 Museo Nacional de Antropología
Evening dinner at 6:30/7:00
* * * * *
Fall 2010 Research Seminar Conference
September 10-12, 2010
“Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ / Thomas d’Aquin et ses sources arabes”
presented by
the University of St. Thomas and its Center for Thomistic Studies,
3800 Montrose Blvd., Houston, Texas 77006
Organized by Prof. R. E. Houser, University of St. Thomas
in conjunction with
the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group,
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, and the Commissio Leonina, Paris, France
Local Hosts: Drs. R. E. Houser (Center for Thomistic Studies) and
Mary C. Sommers (Director, Center for Thomistic Studies)
with Valerie Hall (Administrative Assistant, Center for Thomistic Studies)
Attendees
Fr. Timothy Belamah, O.P., Commissio Leonina, Paris, and
Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D. C.
Prof. Mark Barker, Notre Dame Seminar, New Orleans, Louisiana
Daniel DeHaan, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Prof. Thérèse-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
Dr. Max Herrera, (Ph.D. Marquette University) Weston, FL
Prof. R. E. Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Prof. Luis Xavier Lopéz-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
Prof. E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
Prof. Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri. St. Louis
Nathan Poage, Houston Community College, Houston
Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee
Preliminary Program
Friday September 10, 2010, 7 pm:
Reception at the home of Prof. Houser,
3604 Garrot, Houston, 77006
(ca. seven blocks from the Center for Thomistic Studies)
Saturday September 11
Location: Brezik Seminar Room, Center for Thomistic Studies
9:00 - 10:30 am: Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University, Milwaukee
“Thomas’s Debts to Avicenna and Averroes on Cognition”
Brief Comment by E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
10:30-10:45: Break
10:45-12:00: Mark Barker, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana
“Retrieving the Arabic Origins of the Preparation of Phantasms”
Brief Comment by E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
12:15-2:00 pm: Lunch at Kam’s Chinese Restaurant
2:00 -3:30: Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri, St. Louis “On Avicenna’s Physics”
Brief Comment by Thérèse-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
3:30-3:45: Break
3:45-5:15: R. E. Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas
“Aquinas’s Use of Averroes and Avicenna in his De principiis naturae”
Brief Comment by Thérèse-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
5:30-6:30: Mass in the Chapel of St. Basil
7:00 pm: Dinner at Max and Julie’s Bistro
Sunday September 12, 2010
Location: Brezik Seminar Room, Center for Thomistic Studies
9:00-10:30: Luis Xavier Lopéz-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City
“Aquinas on the Eternity of the World in II Sent. d. 1, q. 1, art. 5,
and his Arabic/Islamic and Jewish Sources”
Brief Comment by E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
10:30-10:45: Break
10:45-12:00: Max Herrera, Ph.D. Marquette University
“Hylomorphism in Avicenna, Averroes, and Aquinas”
Brief Comment by E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
12:00-1:30: Catered Luncheon
1:30-2:45: Nathan Poage, Houston Community College
“Avicenna and Aquinas on the Subject Matter of Metaphysics”
Brief Comment by Thérèse-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
2:45-3:00: Break
3:00-4:15: Daniel DeHaan, Center for Thomist Studies, University of St. Thomas
“Aristotle’s’ De anima: A Common Point of Departure for Averroistic and Thomistic Noetics”
Brief Comment by Thérèse-Anne Druart, Catholic University of America
4:15-5:00: Informal Discussion of the “Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ Project”
5:00 pm: End of conference
* * * * *
Fall 2009 Research Seminar Conference
Conference photo gallery: click here.
October 17, 2009, 1:30-7:00 pm
and
October 18, 2009, 12:00 - 5:00 pm
“Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ / Thomas d’Aquin et ses sources arabes”
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Organized by
the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group, Marquette University,
and sponsored by
the Commissio Leonina, Paris, France, and
the Departments of Philosophy and Theology at Marquette University,
and the Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
with funding from the Mellon Fund and the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences
Location: Marquette University Raynor Memorial Library
Beaumier Conference Center
Presenters & Presiders
Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P., Commissio Leonina, Paris & Washington, D.C.
Mr Nathan Blackerby, Marquette University
Rev. Fabio Gibiino, O.P., Commissio Leonina, Paris,
Prof. R. E. Houser, University of St Thomas, Houston,
Prof. Mark Johnson, Marquette University,
Prof. Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City,
Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University,
Prof. David B. Twetten, Marquette University,
Ms Rosa Vargas Della Casa, Marquette University
SCHEDULE
Friday October 16, 2009
Evening (7:30 pm): Welcoming Reception at the Home of
Prof. David B. Twetten
1895 Pilgrim W Brookfield WI
(for directions use Googlemaps or Mapquest)
Saturday October 17, 2009, 1:30 - 7:00 pm
1:30-2:45 Session Chair: Prof. David Twetten, Marquette University
Presenter: Prof. Rollen E. Houser, University of St Thomas, Houston,
“Avicenna on Truth”
2:50-4:05 Session Chair: Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University
Presenter: Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City,
“Maimonides on Religious Beliefs”
4:10-6:10 Session Chair: Prof. R. E. Houser, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Presenter: Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University,
“Intellect and Intelligibles in the Commentary on the Sentences: Avicenna, Averroes and Aquinas.”
6:15-7:00 Roundtable session: Presentation of the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ Project on Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences
Presenters: Profs. Houser, Taylor and López Farjeat
7:30 pm Reception with buffet dinner at the home of Prof. Taylor.
14360 Indian Ridge Drive, Brookfield, WI 53005
(for directions use Mapquest or Googlemaps)
Sunday October 18, 2009, 12:00-5:00 pm
Advanced Graduate Student Presentations
12:00-1:15 Session Chair: Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P., Commissio Leonina, Paris & Washington, D.C.
Presenter: Rev. Fabio Gibiino, O.P., Commissio Leonina, Paris,
“Saint Thomas et la science divine.”
1:20-2:35 Session Chair: Prof. David Twetten, Marquette University
Presenter: Ms. Rosa Vargas Della Casa, Marquette University,
“Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility or Impossibility of a Conceptual Apprehension of Esse.”
2:40-3:55 Session Chair: Prof. Prof. Mark Johnson, Marquette University
Presenter: Mr Nathan Blackerby, Marquette University,
“On the Origins of Aquinas’s Dualism. An Exposition of Aquinas’s Metaphysics of Soul and a Comparison with His Sources.”
4:00: Concluding Open Discussion
5:30: dinner at a local restaurant.
* * * * *
Fall 2008 Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ Research Seminar Conference:
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 11-12, 2008
Organized by
the Marquette Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and
the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ Project
(http://web.mac.com/mistertea/Aquinas_%26_the_Arabs/Aquinas_%26_the_Arabs.html)
with financial support from
the Klinger College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette
and the Departments of Theology and Philosophy
Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’:
A Research Seminar Conference on the Role of Arabic Philosophy in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas in his Commentary on the Sentences.
Location: Marquette University Raynor Memorial Library
Beaumier Conference Center
SCHEDULE
Saturday October 11, 2008, 2-7 pm
2:00-3:30: Prof. R. E. Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St Thomas (Houston), “‘The Subtler Reasoning of Avicenna’: Aquinas’s ‘Short Course’ on the Principles of Avicennian Metaphysics included within Sacred Doctrine, Parisian Scriptum, 1. D. 8. Q. 1, Art. 1-3”
Commentator: Prof. Luis Xavier Lopez Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City.
Session Chair: Prof. E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
3:45-5:15: Prof. Jörg Tellkamp. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City. Topic: Teachings on the internal senses in the Commentary on the Sentences.
Commentator: Prof. Kevin White, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
Session Chair: Prof. David Twetten, Marquette University
5:30-7:00: SPECIAL GUEST: Dr. Adriano Oliva, O,P., President of the Commissio Leonina, Paris, “Philosophy in the Teaching of Theology by Thomas Aquinas”
(Regarding the work of the Commissio Leonina, see http://leonina.nerim.net/)
Session Chair: Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University
Reception in honor of Père Oliva with buffet dinner at the home of Prof. Taylor.
(If interested in attending for dinner, RSVP by email to Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu.)
Sunday October 12, 2008, 12-4 pm
12:00-1:30: Prof. Richard C. Taylor, Marquette University. “The Use and Critique of Models From the Arabic Philosophical Tradition in Conceptualizing the Beatific Vision in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences, 1, D. 49, Q. 2, Art. 1.”
Commentary by Prof. Mark Johnson, Marquette University
Session Chair: Prof. John Boyle, University of St Thomas, Minn.-St. Paul, MN
1:45: Presenter: Prof. E. M. Macierowski, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas, author of Thomas Aquinas’s Earliest Treatment of The Divine Essence: : Scriptum Super Sententiis, Book I, Distinction 8 (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Institute for Global Cultural Studies, 1998): “Remarks on Aquinas’s Use of Arabic Philosophical Sources in the Scriptum Super Sententias Book 1, Distinction 8.”
Session Chair: Prof. E. R. Houser, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Followed by: Concluding Open Discussion
