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Formal Distinction
In scholastic metaphysics, a formal distinction is a distinction intermediate between what is merely conceptual, and what is fully real or mind-independent—a logical distinction. It was made by some realist philosophers of the Scholastic period in the thirteenth century, and particularly by Duns Scotus. Background Many realist philosophers of the period (such as Aquinas and Henry of Ghent), recognised the need for an intermediate distinction that was not merely conceptual, such as a distinction of reason reasoned, but not fully real or mind-independent either, such as a major real distinction. Aquinas held that the difference between our concepts arises not just in the mind, but has a foundation in the thing (''fundamentum in re''), such as a distinction of reason reasoning. Henry held that there was an 'intentional' distinction (''distinctio intentionalis'') such that 'intentions' (i.e. concepts) that are distinct in the mind, correspond to things which are potentially d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of human understanding. Some philosophers, including Aristotle, designate metaphysics as first philosophy to suggest that it is more fundamental than other forms of philosophical inquiry. Metaphysics encompasses a wide range of general and abstract topics. It investigates the nature of existence, the features all entities have in common, and their division into categories of being. An influential division is between particulars and universals. Particulars are individual unique entities, like a specific apple. Universals are general features that different particulars have in common, like the color . Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary. Metaphysicians also explore the concepts of space, time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scholasticism
Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Catholic Christianity. The Scholastics, also known as Schoolmen, utilized dialectical reasoning predicated upon Aristotelianism and the categories (Aristotle), Ten Categories. Scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated medieval Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400), Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and "rediscovered" the Corpus Aristotelicum, collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize Aristotle's metaphysics (Aristotle), metaphysics and Latin Catholic theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval university, medieval universities, and thus became the bedrock for the development of History of science, modern science and Western philosophy, philosophy in the Western world. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duns Scotus
John Duns Scotus ( ; , "Duns the Scot"; – 8 November 1308) was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher and theologian. He is considered one of the four most important Christian philosopher-theologians of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages, together with Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure and William of Ockham. Duns Scotus has had considerable influence on both Catholic and secular thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the " univocity of being", that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different formalities of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual (i.e. a certain “thisness”). Duns Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The intellectual trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. A Doctor of the Church, he was from the county of Aquino, Italy, Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily. Thomas was a proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism. Central to his thought was the doctrine of natural law, which he argued was accessible to Reason, human reason and grounded in the very nature of human beings, providing a basis for understanding individual rights and Moral duty, moral duties. He argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith. He embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle and attempted to synthesize Aristotelianism, Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Of Ghent
Henry of Ghent ( 1217 – 29 June 1293), also known as Henricus de Gandavo and Henricus Gandavensis, was a scholastic philosopher who acquired the nickname of '' Doctor Solemnis'' (the "Solemn Doctor"). Life Henry was born in the district of Mude, near Ghent. He is supposed to have belonged to an Italian family named Bonicolli, in Dutch ''Goethals'', but the question of his name has been much discussed (see authorities below). He studied at Ghent and then at Cologne under Albertus Magnus. After obtaining the degree of doctor he returned to Ghent, and is said to have been the first to lecture there publicly on philosophy and theology. Attracted to Paris by the fame of the university, he took part in the many disputes between the orders and the secular priests, on the side of the latter. While Henry was a regent master at the University of Paris, the Condemnations of 1277 took place. The bishop of Paris, Stephen Tempier, promulgated a condemnation of some 219 propositions pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons ('' hypostases'') sharing one essence/substance/nature ('' homoousion''). As the Fourth Lateran Council declared, it is the Father who s, the Son who is , and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. In this context, one essence/nature defines God is, while the three persons define God is. This expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus, the entire process of creation and grace is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in the Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father", "through the Son", and "in the Holy Spirit". This doctrine is called Trinitarianism, and its adherents are called Trinitarians, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Of Ockham
William of Ockham or Occam ( ; ; 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and theologian, who was born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. He is commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics and theology. William is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration corresponding to the commonly ascribed date of his death on 10 April. Life William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey, around 1287. He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of OxfordSpade, Paul Vincent (ed.). ''The Cambridge Companion to Ockham''. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 20.He has long been claim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Kretzmann
Norman J. Kretzmann (4 November 1928 – 1 August 1998) was an American philosopher at Cornell University. He specialised in the history of medieval philosophy and the philosophy of religion. Biography Kretzmann joined Cornell's Department of Philosophy in 1966. His work as a teacher and scholar was recognized in 1970, when he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, and in 1977 when he was elected a Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy by the University Board of Trustees. In 1992, he received a Graduate Teaching Award from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Deans for his excellence and creativity in the teaching of graduate students. He became a Susan Linn Sage Professor Emeritus in 1995. He published numerous books, articles, essays, and editions of medieval texts. He served as the principal editor of ''The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy'' (1982), and as an editor of the '' Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy''.Cornell UniversitMemoria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Kenny
Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny (born 16 March 1931) is a British philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein of whose literary estate he is an executor. With Peter Geach, he has made a significant contribution to analytical Thomism, a movement whose aim is to present the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas in the style of analytic philosophy. He is a former president of the British Academy and the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Education and early career Kenny was born in Liverpool on 16 March 1931, the son of John and Margaret (Jones) Kenny. Kenny initially trained as a Roman Catholic priest at the Venerable English College, Rome, where he received a degree of Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL) degree. He was ordained in 1955 and served as a curate in Liverpool (1959–63). Having received his DPhil from the University of Oxford ( St Benet's Hall) in 1961, he also wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concepts In Metaphysics
A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach, cognitive science. In contemporary philosophy, three understandings of a concept prevail: * mental representations, such that a concept is an entity that exists in the mind (a mental object) * abilities peculiar to cognitive agents (mental states) * Fregean senses, abstract objects rather than a mental object or a mental state Concepts are classified into a hierarchy, higher levels of which are termed "superordinate" and lower levels termed "subordinate". Add ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotism
Scotism is the philosophical school and theological system named after John Duns Scotus, a 13th-century Scottish philosopher-theologian. The word comes from the name of its originator, whose ''Opus Oxoniense'' was one of the most important documents in medieval philosophy and Roman Catholic theology, defining what would later be declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in his constitution '' Ineffabilis Deus'' on 8 December 1854. Development Scotism developed out of the Old Franciscan School, which dominated theology during the Middle Ages. This school of thought initially followed Augustinism, which dominated theology at the time. Scotus found the ground already cleared for the conflict with the followers of Aquinas. He made very free use of Aristotelianism, but in its employment exercised sharp criticism, and in important points adhered to the teaching of the Older Franciscan School–especially with regard to the plurality of forms or of so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
