​But, but Thomists don't ever interact with other traditions. . .

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Posted by John West
1/02/2017 4:10 pm
#1

I've been seeing the following line around the web lately:

But, but, Thomists don't ever interact with other traditions—continentals, absolute idealists, antirealists, naturalists, bodybuilders—and their objections.

Guys, if you have objections, post them. No one can reply to an objection unless it's made.

 
Posted by Proclus
1/03/2017 10:24 am
#2

It's also just flat untrue.  It seems like I find Thomists standing up and saying interesting things in the Q and A at every lecture I attend at every conference in both continental and analytic contexts.  If anyone is taking seriously the claims made by other traditions it's Thomists.  They have an infuriating habit of referring every possible difficulty to some precious distinction, yes, but they are listening.  Heideggerians or Hegelians or Humeans on the other hand? Not so much.

 
Posted by Karl3125
1/03/2017 7:53 pm
#3

Just throw something by Gilson or Josef Pieper at them.


K. Roland Heintz, B.A.
Economics, U.C. Santa Cruz 2017
Blog | Website
 
Posted by iwpoe
1/04/2017 10:53 pm
#4

Well, I've seen a lot of different things and I can kind of get the idea. While I have seen a lot of Thomist and Catholic interaction with phenomenology and Heidegger sometimes one wonders why one spent time on Heidegger if Thomas was going to win by default.

In the other hand, Caputo is an interesting case until he got ahold of Derrida, though I suspect one could hardly count him a Thomist of the strict observance (OTSO?).


Fighting to the death "the noonday demon" of Acedia.
My Books
It is precisely “values” that are the powerless and threadbare mask of the objectification of beings, an objectification that has become flat and devoid of background. No one dies for mere values.
~Martin Heidegger
 
Posted by Karl3125
1/05/2017 5:28 pm
#5

iwpoe wrote:

Well, I've seen a lot of different things and I can kind of get the idea. While I have seen a lot of Thomist and Catholic interaction with phenomenology and Heidegger sometimes one wonders why one spent time on Heidegger if Thomas was going to win by default..

The only excellent case I can think of is Edith Stein, who studied under Husserl and alongside Heidegger before translating one of  Aquinas' works at the suggestion of Fr. Erich Przywara.


K. Roland Heintz, B.A.
Economics, U.C. Santa Cruz 2017
Blog | Website
 
Posted by iwpoe
1/05/2017 7:11 pm
#6

Stein is a great case. Heidegger himself is a great case, and I think everyone who cares should see S. J. McGrath's book on him.

The worst "why bother" offender I've seen is Caitlin Smith Gilson's "The Metaphysical Presuppositions of Being-in-the-World: A Confrontation Between St. Thomas Aquinas and Martin Heidegger". It's fine, but you know ole Thomas is coming out unscathed because Heidegger didn't quite get the pre-modern understanding (ie *Thomas' understanding) of man right.

I've seen a bad tendency to Aquinasize Aristotle and Plato, but I forgive them more than I do moderns who do this since his reading is very deep.


Fighting to the death "the noonday demon" of Acedia.
My Books
It is precisely “values” that are the powerless and threadbare mask of the objectification of beings, an objectification that has become flat and devoid of background. No one dies for mere values.
~Martin Heidegger
 
Posted by John West
1/06/2017 1:19 pm
#7

In the spirit of this thread, here is a reply to an objection someone reminded me I owed one to yesterday.

 


 
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