•  3
    Is Nicanor Austriaco’s Reformulation of Hylomorphism in Terms of Systems Biology Successful?
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. forthcoming.
    The systems perspective, as applied to biology, involves regarding organisms as systems consisting of biological molecules in motion; its goal is to determine which interacting molecules make up the organism and how their interactions change over time. I argue here that Nicanor Austriaco’s attempt at reformulating Aristotelian-Thomistic hylomorphism in terms of the systems perspective fails because it looks to systems biology to answer questions that only natural philosophy can answer. These que…Read more
  • Review (review)
    The Thomist 65 323-326. 2001.
    Les anges et la philosophie: Subjectivité et fonction cosmologique de substances séparées à la fin du XIIIe siècle by Tiziana Suarez-Nani; Connaissance et langage des anges by Tiziana Suarez-Nani
  • Review (review)
    The Thomist 68 491-497. 2004.
    Les anges et la philosophie: Subjectivité et fonction cosmologique de substances séparées à la fin du XIIIe siècle by Tiziana Suarez-Nani; Connaissance et langage des anges by Tiziana Suarez-Nani.
  •  29
  •  18
  •  15
    A Defense of the Distinction Between Plants and Animals
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. forthcoming.
  •  13
    Does Knowing What Things Are Require Language (As a System of Physical or Imaginable Signs)?
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 95 (1): 131-144. 2021.
  •  11
    A Rambutan by Any Other Name Would Taste as Sweet
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 95 (1): 149-152. 2021.
  •  11
    Aquinas’s Teachings on Concepts and Words in His Commentary on John contra Nicanor Austriaco, OP
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94 (3): 357-378. 2020.
    In “Defending Adam After Darwin,” Nicanor Austriaco, OP, mounts a noteworthy defense of monogenism, part of which turns on the relationship between abstract thought and language. At a certain point, he turns to a passage from Aquinas’s Commentary on John to support two claims which he affirms without qualification: namely, that the capacity for forming abstract concepts corresponding to the quiddities of things presupposes the capacity for language and that we grasp concepts through words. In ad…Read more
  •  4
    A Critique of Richard Sorabji’s Interpretation of Aristotle
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 2 (2): 113-117. 2018.
    A correct understanding of experience is crucial for understanding the difference between human and non-human animals. Richard Sorabji interprets Aristotle to be affirming that experience in non-human animals is the same thing as a rudimentary universal, and that the individual who possesses experience achieves his goal by the application of low level univer-sals. I argue that this is neither a correct understanding of Aristotle’s statements in the Posterior Analytics, Metaphysics, and Nicomache…Read more
  •  2
    Aristotle on Paideia of Principles
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 3 140-145. 1998.
    Aristotle maintains that paideia enables one to judge the method used by a given speaker without judging the conclusions drawn as well. He contends that this "paideia of principles" requires three things: seeing that principles are not derived from one another; seeing that there is nothing before them within reason; and, seeing that they are the source of much knowledge. In order to grasp these principles, one must respectively learn to recognize what distinguishes the subject matters studied in…Read more
  •  9
    Is Eco-theologian Thomas Berry a Thomist?
    Scientia et Fides 7 (1): 47-71. 2019.
    I examine the views of the renowned Catholic environmentalist, Thomas Berry, C.P., by comparing them with those of Thomas Aquinas, an author Berry frequently references. I intend to show that while the two share a number of views in common, ultimately the two diverge on many foundational issues, resulting in differing conclusions as to how we should regard and treat the environment. Aquinas upholds divine transcendence, whereas Berry regards the notion of divine transcendence to lead to the expl…Read more
  • Review (review)
    The Thomist 62 493-497. 1998.
  •  41
    An Aristotelian-Thomist Responds to Edward Feser’s “Teleology”
    Philosophia Christi 12 (2): 441-449. 2010.
    I argue that Edward Feser misconstrues the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition on issues relevant to the arguments for God’s existence that proceed from finality in nature because he misapplies the A-T view that ordering to an end is inherent in natural things: (1) Feser speaks as if human action in no way serves as a model for understanding action for an end in nature; (2) he misreads, and ultimately undermines, the Fifth Way, by substituting intrinsic end-directedness in place of end-directedness…Read more
  •  24
    Evolution in Court. A Federal Judge Defines Science
    Scientia et Fides 4 (2): 397-415. 2016.
    This article highlights certain recurring themes in Mariano Artigas’s works by examining a judicial decision made in the United States in 1982 concerning the teaching of “creation-science” alongside “evolution-science” in public schools. These themes include: the proper delimitation of the boundaries of science, the importance of philosophy as a bridge between science and religion, and the misunderstandings concerning the limits of science inherent in scientism.
  •  5
    Aquinas on the Dangers of Natural Virtue and the Control of Natural Vice
    Tópicos: Revista de Filosofía 40 (1): 13-50. 2011.
    I investigate Aquinas’s position that natural virtue can pose dangers to living a moral life, dangers that include natural virtue’s inflexibility to circumstance, the opposing vices it may breed if blindly followed, and its aptitude for deceiving people into thinking they are genuinely virtuous. I also consider whether Aquinas regards these problems as remediable given that he sees natural virtue and natural vice as instances of nature being determined to one. He maintains that we can overcome t…Read more
  •  73
    The Wonder of the Poet; the Wonder of the Philosopher
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 65 191-202. 1991.
  •  11
    On the Occasion of Darwin’s Bicentennial
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 83 209-225. 2009.
    If Aquinas lived today, he would accept that Darwin was correct, at leastas to the broad lines of his theory, namely, that the unfit are differentially eliminatedand chance is involved in the origin of new species. Aquinas in fact offered a similarexplanation for what he believed were spontaneously generated organisms. I intendto show that extending this sort of explanation to all species in no way affects thekey steps in the Fifth Way (e.g., “those things which lack cognition do not tendto an e…Read more
  •  26
    On the Tenth Anniversary of Barrow and Tipler’s Anthropic Cosmological Principle
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 72 (1): 39-58. 1998.
  •  9
    ET Meets Jesus Christ
    Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 10 (2): 69-94. 2007.
  •  42
    The Notion of Paideia in Aristotle’s De Partibus Animalium
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 67 (3): 299-319. 1993.
  •  42
    Descartes’s Language Test for Rationality
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (1): 107-125. 2009.
    Contrary to Michael Miller, I maintain that Descartes’s language test adequately distinguishes humans from non-human animals, and that the bonobosKanzi and Panbanisha have not passed it. Miller accepts Descartes’s language test as a good test for true language usage, but denies that it is an adequate test for the presence or absence of reason. I argue that it is a good test for reason, for normal rational beings eventually recognize the desirableness of knowledge of the world for its own sake as…Read more
  •  22
    On the Occasion of Darwin’s Bicentennial
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 83 209-225. 2009.
    If Aquinas lived today, he would accept that Darwin was correct, at leastas to the broad lines of his theory, namely, that the unfit are differentially eliminatedand chance is involved in the origin of new species. Aquinas in fact offered a similarexplanation for what he believed were spontaneously generated organisms. I intendto show that extending this sort of explanation to all species in no way affects thekey steps in the Fifth Way (e.g., “those things which lack cognition do not tendto an e…Read more