Creighton Rosental

In order to preserve and ensure the vitality of freedom and democracy in democratic societies, it is important that citizens reflect deeply on the meaning of freedom and the conditions necessary to sustain it. The idea for this volume arose from discussions at the February 2019 annual meeting of the Georgia Philosophical Society held at Mercer University on the theme of "Freedom and Society," and drafts of many of the chapters were first presented there. Including contributions from both early-career and well-known scholars, the chapters are tied together by questions about the nature of political freedom and autonomy in democratic societies and about the ways in which the enactment of democratic freedom depends on awareness of and engagement with freedom's underlying conditions. These conditions include social responsibility, creative innovation, and strong democratic institutions. Other recurring themes in the volume include the pitfalls of atomistic models of autonomy and the importance of giving due consideration to intersubjectivity, embodiment, and plurality as integral elements of a free society. Countering models centered exclusively on negative freedom, (i.e. freedom from constraints imposed by others), several chapters highlight the crucial roles of social responsibility and creativity in confronting obstructions to freedom, such as systemic racism and other challenges currently facing democracies. Finally, several chapters emphasize the fundamental importance of strong and just democratic institutions as the primary means of reliably expressing the will of the people.

Thomas Aquinas has long been understood to have reconciled faith and reason. Typically, he is understood as having provided justification for faith by means of proof, particularly, that the Five Ways prove the existence of God. Under this interpretation, faith becomes a species of justified belief, and the justification for faith rests upon the success of the Five Ways (or, alternatively, on the success of other justificatory evidence). In this book, Creighton Rosental argues that Aquinas¿s account of faith is not one of justified belief, at least as it is understood in contemporary philosophy. Instead, Rosental argues, faith has its own basis for epistemic ¿reasonableness¿ ¿ a reasonableness that does not derive from ordinary evidence or proof. Rather than requiring evidence accessible to the natural light of reason, Aquinas holds that faith has its own sort of ¿evidence¿¿that which results from the light of faith. Aquinas ¿Aristotelianizes¿ faith and argues that faith has the Aristotelian epistemic virtue of certitude, and in so doing reconciles faith and Aristotelian reason, at least as Aristotle was understood by Medieval philosophers. This reconciliation resolves important tensions between Aristotelian science and Christian doctrine. Further, Rosental examines three contemporary accounts of what counts as an epistemically ¿responsible¿ belief (namely, justified belief, practical rationality, and warrant) and argue that under Aquinas¿s account, faith should be counted as rational, and in an important, though modified sense, as justified. Rosental¿s book is an erudite and accessible reading of this most fundamental issue in Thomistic studies.

Thomas Aquinas has long been understood to have reconciled faith and reason. Typically, he is understood as having provided justification for faith by means of proof, particularly, that the Five Ways prove the existence of God. Under this interpretation, faith becomes a species of justified belief, and the justification for faith rests upon the success of the Five Ways . In this dissertation, I argue that Aquinas' account of faith is not one of justified belief, at least as it is understood in contemporary philosophy. Instead, I argue, faith has its own basis for epistemic "reasonableness"---a reasonableness that does not derive from ordinary evidence nor proof. Rather than requiring evidence accessible to the natural light of reason, Aquinas holds that faith has its own sort of "evidence"---that which results from the light of faith. Aquinas "Aristotelianizes" faith and argues that faith has the Aristotelian epistemic virtue of certitude, and in so doing reconciles faith and Aristotelian reason, at least as Aristotle was understood by Medieval philosophers. This reconciliation resolves important tensions between Aristotelian science and Christian doctrine. Further, I examine three contemporary accounts of what counts as an epistemically "responsible" belief and argue that under Aquinas' account, faith should be counted as rational, and in an important, though modified sense, as justified