-
67Frege's Hyperbolic ObjectivismProceedings, Seventh World Conference on Metaphysics, Pontifical University of Salamanca, 7 615-618. 2021.
-
25The Philosophy of Being in the Analytic, Continental, and Thomistic Traditions: Divergence and DialogueBloomsbury Academic. 2020.This book provides a discussion of the philosophy of being according to three major traditions in Western philosophy, the Analytic, the Continental, and the Thomistic. The origin of the point of view of each of these traditions is associated with a seminal figure, Gottlob Frege, Immanuel Kant, and Thomas Aquinas, respectively. The questions addressed in this book are constitutional for the philosophy of being, considering the meaning of being, the relationship between thinking and being, and the…Read more
-
64Logical Objectivity and Second IntentionsAngelicum 91 (4): 795-812. 2014.The Fregean tradition promotes a conception of logic as being independent from all psychological acts of the knowing subject. Without questioning logic's status as a paradigm of objectivity the present essay rejects this conception, both on logical grounds and in light of the scholastic theory of intentionality. Finding fault with two key doctrines of the analytic movement, the linguistic turn and anti-psychologism, it reinterprets them to exclude only psychological acts that engender subjective…Read more
-
2Aquinas on the Matter of MindAngelicum 87 (2): 371-382. 2010.A fruitful comparison of Aquinas and contemporary philosophy on the nature of human consciousness ought to take stock of the different ontological and epistemological presuppositions of the theories compared. Thomists of an analytic bent such as Richard Cross and John O'Callaghan often forgo an adequate account of the epistemic motivation of Aquinas’ hylomorphism, and of its impact on his theory of consciousness. In the spirit of identifying systemic obstacles to reconciling Aquinas and contem…Read more
-
184Quine and Aquinas: On What There IsModern Schoolman 85 (3): 207-223. 2008.In this article Quine's program for reducing ontology to the semantic level is compared to Aquinas' metaphysical ontology. Some internal inconsistencies of Quine's quantificational account of existence are discussed. Aquinas' account of existence is explicated in response to Quine' mischaracterization of Scholastic ontology. The general nature of an amended logical account of existence incorporating Aquinas' ontological categories is indicated. Finally, recent attempts to harmonize Thomism a…Read more
-
101Analogical Deduction via a Calculus of PredicablesPhilo 13 (1): 53-66. 2010.This article identifies and formalizes the logical features of analogous terms that justify their use in deduction. After a survey of doctrines in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Cajetan, the criteria of “analogy of proper proportionality” are symbolized in first-order predicate logic. A common genus justifies use of a common term, but does not provide the inferential link required for deduction. Rather, the respective differentiae foster this link through their identical proportion. A natural-language …Read more
-
74Analogical Deduction via a Calculus of PredicablesLogik, Naturphilosophie, Dialektik, Zur Modernen Deutung der Aristotelischen Logik, 10. 2014.The deductive validity of arguments from analogy is formally demonstrable. After a brief survey of the historical development of doctrines relevant to this claim the present article analyzes the “analogy of proper proportionality”, which meets two requirements of valid deduction. First, the referents of analogues by proportionality must belong to a common genus. Here it must be cautioned, however, that the common genus does not constitute the basis of the deductive inference. Rather, it is a…Read more
Akron, Ohio, United States of America