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743Synchronic Contingency, Instants of Nature, and Libertarian Freedom: Comments on 'The Background to Scotus's Theory of Will'Modern Schookman 72 (2-3): 169-74. 1995.
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203How can one search for God?: The paradox of inquiry in Augustine's confessionsMetaphilosophy 39 (1). 2008.The Confessions recounts Augustine 's successful search for God. But Augustine worries that one cannot search for God if one does not already know God. That version of the paradox of inquiry dominates and structures Confessions 1–10. I draw connections between the dramatic opening lines of book 1 and the climactic discussion in book 10.26–38 and argue that the latter discussion contains Augustine 's resolution of the paradox of inquiry as it applies to the special case of searching for God. I cl…Read more
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174Ultimate ends in practical reasoning: Aquinas's aristotelian moral psychology and Anscombe's fallacyPhilosophical Review 100 (1): 31-66. 1991.
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150Petit larceny, the beginning of all sin: Augustine’s theft of the PearsFaith and Philosophy 20 (4): 393-414. 2003.In his reflections on his adolescent theft of a neighbor’s pears, Augustine first claims that he did it just because it was wicked. But he then worries that there is something unacceptable in that claim. Some readers have found in this account Augustine’s rejection of the principle that all voluntary action is done for the sake of some perceived good. I argue that Augustine intends his case to call the principle into question, but that he does not ultimately reject it. His careful and resourcefu…Read more
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149The Esse/Essentia Argument in Aquinas's De ente et essentiaJournal of the History of Philosophy 22 (2): 157-72. 1984.The purpose of the article is to offer a detailed exegetical analysis of the argument in chapter four of "de ente et essentia" in which aquinas argues for a distinction between "esse" and essence and to develop an interpretation of it on the basis of the analysis. I argue that the reconstructed argument shows that aquinas argues for a real distinction and that he establishes it earlier in the argument than some commentators have thought. I criticize a rival interpretation of the argument defende…Read more
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140Goodness as transcendental: The early thirteenth-century recovery of an aristotelian ideaTopoi 11 (2): 173-186. 1992.In this paper I investigate the philosophical developments at the heart of what appears to be the earliest systematic formulation of the doctrine of the transcendentals by comparing the first questions of Philip the Chancellor''sSumma de bono (the so-called first treatise on the transcendentals — ca. 1230) with its immediate ancestor, a small group of questions from William of Auxerre''sSumma aurea (ca. 1220). I argue that Philip''s innovative position on the relation between being and goodness,…Read more
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114Being and goodness: the concept of the good in metaphysics and philosophical theology (edited book)Cornell University Press. 1991.In exploring this tradition of philosophical reflection on the nature of goodness, the twelve essays in this book (all but two published here for the first time) present some of the best recent historical scholarship in...
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83Aristotle and the Homonymy of the GoodArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 71 (2): 150-74. 1989.
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82Foundations in Aquinas's ethicsSocial Philosophy and Policy 25 (1): 350-367. 2008.Aquinas argues that practical reasoning requires foundations: first practical principles (ultimate ends) grasped by us per se from which deliberation proceeds. Contrary to the thesis of an important paper of Terence Irwin's, I deny that Aquinas advances two inconsistent conceptions of the scope of deliberation and, correspondingly, two inconsistent accounts of the content of the first practical principles presupposed by deliberation. On my account, Aquinas consistently takes first practical prin…Read more
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71Theory of KnowledgeIn Norman Kretzman & Eleonore Stump (eds.), Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, Cambridge University Press. pp. 160. 1993.
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58Egoistic Rationalism: Aquinas's Basis for Christian MoralityIn Michael Beaty (ed.), Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Press. 1990.
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51Aquinas's moral theory: essays in honor of Norman KretzmannCornell University Press. 1998.This volume explores the ethical dimensions of a wide selection of philosophical and theological topics in Aquinas's texts.
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50Christian FaithIn Eleonore Stump & Norman Kretzmann (eds.), Reasoned faith: essays in philosophical theology in honor of Norman Kretzmann, Cornell University Press. 1993.
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44Aquina's Ultimate Ends: A Reply to GrisezAmerican Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (1): 37-49. 2001.A large part of the ambitious project that Grisez sketches in his paper can reasonably be thought of as developing and extending in interesting ways ideas of Thomas Aquinas. But in Part IV of the paper Grisez dramatically parts company with Aquinas on what might seem a fundamental issue. Aquinas famously holds that human beings find their ultimate fulfillment in beatific vision of God. Grisez tells us that, as he understands that claim, it is false.
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41Practical Reasoning and Reasons-Explanations: Aquinas's Account of Reasons Role in ActionIn Scott MacDonald & Eleonore Stump (eds.), Aquinas's Moral Theory, Cornell University Press. 1999.
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41The Metaphysics of Goodness and the Doctrine of the TranscendentalsIn Being and Goodness, Cornell University Press. 1991.
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41Christian Theology and the Mind-World RelationshipAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 84 (1): 1-23. 2010.In this article, I explore how orthodox Christian theology informs a philosophical understanding of the mind-world relationship. First, I contend that the Christian doctrine of creation entails that the world possesses an intrinsic rationality and intelligibility. I then go on to show how three different views of the mind-world relationship are compatible with this fact about the world: (a) realism, (b) idealism, and (c) fallibilism. I also delineate the strengths of each view, in terms of how w…Read more
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40On a Complex Theory of a Simple God: An Investigation in Aquinas' Philosophical Theology (review)Philosophical Review 101 (4): 956. 1992.
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40Boethius’s Claim that all Substances are GoodArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 70 (3): 245-79. 1988.
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34Editor’s IntroductionJournal of Nietzsche Studies 9 (2): 3-5. 2000.This issue of MedievalPhilosophyandTheology is atypical in that it contains a single work by a single philosopher and scholar. Norman Kretzmann, the author of the work here presented, was one of the founders of this journal and served as the chair of its editorial board from the journal’s inception until his untimely death in 1998. His intimate association with MedievalPhilosophyandTheology and his dedication to its mission makes the journal an entirely appropriate vehicle for the publication of…Read more
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31A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy (review)Review of Metaphysics 43 (1): 154-155. 1989.This volume is an important supplement to the two volumes in the series of Cambridge Histories covering the philosophy of the Middle Ages. Dronke's book, which adopts the format of the latter volume, is intended to fill the gap between them. It contains sixteen contributions by fifteen scholars. The contributions are arranged in four parts. The four essays in part 1, "Background," provide useful summaries of the intellectual inheritance that provides the cultural environment for what has been ca…Read more
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30Synchronic Contingency, Instants of Nature, and Libertarian FreedomModern Schoolman 72 (2-3): 169-174. 1995.
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29Primal SinIn Gareth B. Matthews (ed.), The Augustinian Tradition, University of California Press. 1998.
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27Augustine and neo-platonismIn Jorge J. E. Gracia & Jiyuan Yu (eds.), Uses and abuses of the classics: Western interpretations of Greek philosophy, Ashgate. 2004.From very early on, Western philosophers have been obsessed with the understanding of a relatively few works of philosophy which have played a disproportionately large and fundamental role in developing the Western philosophical canon, dominating the curriculum in the past and in the present; there is no indication that they will not do so in the future.Uses and Abuses of the Classics examines the various ways in which the different periods of the history of philosophy have approached these text…Read more
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