Summaries & Keywords

José Ángel García Cuadrado, “Gilson y Báñez: Luces y sombras de un encuentro tardío [Gilson and Báñez: Lights and Shadows of a Late Encounter],” Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 579–618:

SUMMARY: Gilson came across Báñez’s commentary on the Summa Theologiae in 1952, and since then he saw in Báñez the confirmation of his own understanding of the act of being against the background of deviant interpretations made by other Thomists, especially Cajetan. In this paper, Gilson’s claims about the metaphysics of Báñez, including the actus essendi, the immortality of the soul, the relation between philosophy and theology, etc., are discussed. Although Gilson rectifies Báñez’s interpretations of Thomas’ ways and the act of being of the accidents, Gilson’s ultimate assessment of Báñez is positive to such an extent that for the French medievalist the Dominican of Salamanca will remain “the most Thomistic of all the Thomists that I have had the privilege of knowing.”

KEYWORDS: actus essendi, immortality of the soul, faith and reason, Thomistic five ways, accidents, Thomas Aquinas, Cajetan, Thomism, school of Salamanca.

Eleni Procopiou, “The Concept of Relation in the Thomistic Perception of a Person,” Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 619–632:

SUMMARY: The article aims to show that the connection of the metaphysics of being with Aristotle’s philosophy of nature allows for the composition of anthropology per se which involves the concept of a person as it emerges from the two fundamental issues: the metaphysical approach to a person ontologically connected with nature, and the concept of a person as relation. The article concludes with the claim that, in Thomistic anthropology, the supernatural world of persons coexists with the natural world of persons who are subject to cosmic order and legal relations. Thus, a person’s inclusion in the framework of legal relations and its ontological liberation in the supernatural field open up the way for the social acknowledgement of the human person.

KEYWORDS: relation, person, Thomism, nature, anthropology, metaphysics, God, society.

Sr. Mary Angela Woelkers, SCTJM, “Freedom for Responsibility: Responsibility and Human Nature in the Philosophical Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla,” Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 633–647:

SUMMARY: This article considers the essential connection between human nature and responsibility within the philosophical thought of Karol Wojtyla, focusing on his works The Acting Person and Love and Responsibility. The study begins by examining the freedom as characteristic of the human person according to the order of being, and then turns its attention to the authentic understanding of freedom precisely as freedom for the good. The freedom of the human person is finally considered as the foundation of responsibility.

KEYWORDS: Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II, personalism, philosophical anthropology, freedom, responsibility, ontology, Acting Person, Love and Responsibility, self-determination, human nature, human person, efficacy, intentionality.

Andrzej Maryniarczyk, S.D.B., “The Discovery of the Existence of the Absolute in Existential Metaphysics,” trans. Hugh McDonald, Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 649–672:

SUMMARY: The article shows the way in which the discovery of the existence of the Absolute is made in existential metaphysics. This existential metaphysics provides us with knowledge about reality. It shows the content of the experience of being, the content given to us in the transcendentals. It also unveils the foundation of the rational order, which is given to us in the discovery of the first principles of the existence of being and of cognition. Metaphysics provides us also with knowledge concerning the structure of being. It shows us being as composite and plural; being which is “insufficient” in its structure and calls for an explanation. That being—that is problematized in existence, given to us in experience, and incompletely intelligible in itself—lifts us toward its ultimate “complement” and understanding, to the Absolute.

KEYWORDS: Absolute, existence, reality, being, metaphysics, cognition, why, curiosity, gods, mental state, intellect, reason.

Andrzej Maryniarczyk, S.D.B., “Participation: A Descending Road of the Metaphysical Cognition of Being,” trans. Hugh McDonald, Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 673–688:

SUMMARY: When we see in the world the fact that there are many beings, and we indicate that the particular beings exist in a compositional way, we face the task of learning about a new problem: how can we define and determine the relations between beings and between the elements within a being? Although the theory of participation has roots that go back to Plato, and so to a philosophy in which the pluralism of being was rejected and which accepted an identity-based conception of being, participation finds its ontological rational justification only (and ultimately) in the pluralistic and compositional conception of being. With the description of participation as a “descending road” in the cognition of being, we are restricting ourselves to the presentation of how participation is understood in realistic metaphysics (while we shall leave aside the history of the question). We will show the aspects of participation that provide a foundation for wisdom-oriented cognition, and we will show the specific character of participation-oriented cognition as a “descending road.”

KEYWORDS: participation, Absolute, cognition, being, transcendentals, metaphysics.

Berthold Wald, “Klugheit. Grundbegriff des Praktischen bei Aristoteles [Prudence.The Basic Concept of the Practical in Aristotle],” Studia Gilsoniana 5:4 (October–December 2016): 689–707:

SUMMARY: The article begins by recalling the most important understandings associated with the term prudence in the history of philosophy.Then it introduces the Aristotelian concept of prudence linked to practical truth—prudence seen in contrast to wisdom and knowledge of manufacturing. The article discusses various forms of rational knowledge associated with the right will, and proves the need of linking prudence to all the other ethical virtues based on moral principles. It emphasizes the problem of how to relate general principles to specific actions which involve particular goods. For resolving this problem, the article refers to Aristotle who sees the solution in political ethics which has a significant impact on individual behavior; consequently, good law and proper education are considered to be necessary conditions which allow to form the moral judgment skills for providing a morally good life. The article concludes with the claim that the proper field to capture the specificity of prudence includes the theory of human action and that of human morality.

KEYWORDS: prudence, Aristotle, truth, wisdom, knowledge, will, virtue, morality, action, ethics, judgment, skill.