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3/03/2018 1:11 pm  #1


Thomists on Being and Analogy Book Recommendation

Not exactly sure this is the right arearea for this post...

Is there a standard book or text that goes fairly in-depth on analogy nd Being as thomists conceive of the two?  One question I'm particularly curious about is the role analogy would play as the basis of Christian symbolism.  Presumably a strong intellectual account of Christianity would take symbols seriously and not just write them off as subjective interpretations.  And presumably in accounting for this sort of symbolism, One would make use of analogy.   Maybe I'm wrong about this.  I suppose what I'm asking for is foundation of aesthetics and symbolism from a Thomist point of view.

But, even aside from questions of aesthetics and symbolism, I am curious to learn more about analogy generally.

Thanks,
Brian

 

3/03/2018 1:56 pm  #2


Re: Thomists on Being and Analogy Book Recommendation

Haven't read much secondary literature specifically on the topic of analogy.

James Ross wrote a book on analogy, but it is not (I understand) a straightforward exposition or defense of the Thomist account. He thinks the topic is important and there's something there, but that things are more complicated than Thomas understood. (That's typical Ross.)

Cajetan wrote a commentary on Aquinas on analogy. Joshua Hochschild wrote a book on Cajetan's book. Don't know much about them. Perhaps more sympathetic than Ross.

Ralph McInerny also wrote a book on analogy.

You might find some of John Haldane's writings helpful. He certainly makes scattered (and standard-for-a-Thomist) remarks about analogy all over the place. I don't know whether he connects analogy to aesthetics or symbolism. But he does write extensively on aesthetics and on the existentially engaging aspects of Christianity.

Another thought, albeit more of a stretch, would be John O'Callaghan's Thomist Realism and the Linguistic Turn. O'Callaghan is not directly writing on analogy or on symbolism at it figures in "Christian symbolism", and he certainly isn't writing on aesthetics.He is rather trying to articulate and defend Aquinas' account of language. In large part, it's an attempt to say how words can have meaning which are to some extent (obviously) conventional but still be rooted in the nature of things. It's a good book anyway.

Even more of a stretch, and perhaps a sledgehammer relative to your purposes, there is David Braine's Language and Human Understanding: The Roots of Creativity in Speech and Thought. The topic of analogy is treated explicitly, but the book is rather technical.

 

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