Summaries & Keywords

Andrew C. Helms, “Étienne Gilson, Duns Scotus, and Actual Existence: Weighing the Charge of ‘Essentialism’,” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 331–364:

SUMMARY: Étienne Gilson juxtaposes what he calls Aquinas’s “existentialism” to what he calls Scotus’s “essentialism.” For Gilson, “existentialism” is philosophical truth, the only view compatible with an authentically Christian metaphysic, while “essentialism” is a Hellenic mistake that seduces Christian philosophers by appealing to the idolatrous desire to reduce reality to what is intelligible. In this paper, the author attempts to describe the difference between “essentialism” and “existentialism” as understood by Gilson. Then, he assesses the case for attributing “essentialism” to Scotus, based on an assessment of Scotus texts and secondary scholarship.

KEYWORDS: existentialism, essentialism, actus essendi, Duns Scotus, essences.

Natalia Kunat, “Realizm filozoficzny w ujęciu Étienne Gilsona [Étienne Gilson’s Philosophical Realism],” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 365–379:

SUMMARY: This paper attempts to analyze realist philosophy as the way of knowing reality in the thought of Étienne Gilson. The French Philosopher was a defender of philosophical realism who rationally justified the thesis about knowing things existing in the world independently of the knowing subject. Philosophical inquiry, carried out in a realist way, should start with the being which really exists. The basic philosophical method aims to rationally understand reality as well as explain the multifaceted cognition of reality. Gilson’s contribution to the development of philosophical realism includes the promotion of a realist philosophical awareness and the opposition to idealistic philosophies (Cartesianism, Kantianism).

KEYWORDS: Étienne Gilson, realism, idealism, common sense, philosophy, reality, existence.

Wojciech Daszkiewicz, “Greek and Roman Roots of European Civilisation,” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 381–404:

SUMMARY: European countries share certain features, roots and, to a large extent, history. In the present article attention is paid to the Greek and Roman influence on European civilisation, or “Western Civilisation.” To this day Europeans refer to broadly understood models of ancient culture contained in the concept of polis as a community of equal citizens, in promoting representative bodies, appreciation of elements of merchant culture, rationality and emancipation, the concept of Roman Law that together represent the signa specifica of the Western civilisation. If one adds to this the contribution of Christianity and barbarian tribes, one may reconstruct an adequate representation of the “roots of Europe.”

KEYWORDS: Europe, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, civilisation, Western Civilisation, culture, polis, Roman law.

Mario Di Giacomo, “La plenitudo potestatis Papae según Egidio Romano [The plenitudo potestatis Papae according to Egidio Romano],” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 405–424:

SUMMARY: This article analyzes the relationship, according to Aegidius Romanus, between spiritual power and temporal power. From the point of view of the Augustinian author, the autonomy of the world or that of second causes, following St. Thomas Aquinas, must be respected, so that the motions of nature are not usually hampered by any extraordinary intervention. However, this intervention will always be possible in the form of a miracle and according to a special law. Similarly, temporal power normally follows its own goals, without interventions ab extra, nevertheless, the Pope’s plenitude of power can suspend, if necessary (in casu), the power of the secular princes.

KEYWORDS: theocracy, Pope’s plenitude of power, second causes, spiritual power, temporal power, state of exception.

Maria Joanna Gondek, “Ethos mówcy w ‘Gawędzie o gawędzeniu’ o. Jacka Woronieckiego [The Ethos of a Speaker in Fr. Jacek Woroniecki’s ‘Gawęda o gawędzeniu [A Tale of Telling Tales]’,” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 425–449:

SUMMARY: Woroniecki formulates his conception of the ethos of a speaker against the background of analyses of the conditions of telling tales understood as literary transcripts of living speech transmiting the wisdom of previous generations and addressed to a specific recipient. There is a close connection between the ethos of a speaker (his/her moral condition) and the ethos way of persuasion, a connection conditioned by the specificity of human nature. The way of revealing the speaker’s attitude, and the way in which the ethos reveals and interacts are inseparably connected with the speaker who is a man who cognizes and acts. The imitation or fabrication of the ethos, which is instrumental or detached from the speaker, are contrary to Woroniecki’s position. The specificity of the ethos persuasion (according to Woroniecki) consists in the fact that this persuasion is carried out in connection with the nature of a speaker who is capable of (moral) self-improvement, and of the creative presentation of his development to the auditorium.

KEYWORDS: ethos, tale, tale-telling, speaker, persuasion, character.

Fr. Rudolf Larenz, “Substance and Dynamics: Two Elements of Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy of Nature in the Foundation of Mathematics in Physics,” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 451–483:

SUMMARY: The article aims at proposing a way of solution to the problem why mathematics is efficient in physics. Its strategy consists in, first, identifying servere reductionisms performed on physical processes in order to have them correspond to mathematics. As this makes it impossible to understand the real relationship between matter and mathematics, a necessary step on the way to an understanding is to abandon the reductionisms from the very outset. Consequently, one is faced with the need of searching for mathematical elements in nature, as if there never had been any successful mathematics in physics. And for this search, one has to rely on experience alone. To this end, the article takes its inspiration from two pillars of Aristotelian philosophy of nature, the notions of ‘substance’ and ‘dynamics’, together with a careful examination of the treasure of accumulated experience in physics. Upon this basis, the hylomorphic structure of elementary particles, which are considered to be at the basis of all material substances, is the source for the most common features of the dynamical order of material things in general. This dynamical order, in turn, is quite likely to be reflected in mathematical terms.

This is a novel approach because, at present, the most common framework for dealing with the question of mathematics in physics is Scientific Realism. It addresses the question why the existent physico-mathematical theories are successful. In order to find an answer, it starts from these theories and some methodological considerations, but does not address the question of where these theories stem from. In particular, it does not consider the possibility that these theories might, at least in part, stem from the material things they are referring to. The latter approach is what is suggested here. It is that of Natural Realism, of which Aristotle is an eminent representative.

KEYWORDS: Aristotle, dynamics, elementary particles, experience, hylomorphism, mathematics, natural realism, physics, scientific realism, substance.

Krystyna Rojek, “Kultura europejska w stanie kryzysu: diagnoza Josepha Ratzingera [European Culture in a State of Crisis: Joseph Ratzinger’s Diagnosis],” Studia Gilsoniana 6:3 (July–September 2017): 485–501:

SUMMARY: European culture, according to Joseph Ratzinger, is seriously undermined by a modernist (rationalistic) and postmodernist (irrationalistic) way of thinking which deeply penetrates it. Europe undergoes a state of crisis which can be compared to the last, declining phase of the Roman Empire’s existence. Ratzinger does not lose hope, however, and points out a way out, and that is a return to the roots of the European culture, to the realistic philosophy that pursues the truth about God and the human person. This requires an “extension of the reason” which would recognize that, as reasonably constructed, it must have its rational cause—God.

KEYWORDS: scientific rationalism, Enlightenment, freedom, progress, relativism, personalism.