An Introduction to Philosophy

includes index and biblioraphy

The Italians: Pythagoras The Eleatics: Parmenides The Sophists and Socrates Introduction The sophists Socrates (a) Ethics and knowledge (b) Irony, maieutic, dialectic (c) Moderate intellectualism Plato and Aristotle The minor Socratics Plato (a) His theory of ideas (b) His system of philosophy (c) Its limitations Aristotle (a) Corrections of Plato (b) The Aristotelian system (c) Aristotle`s works Aristotle and St. Thomas Philosophia perennis Definition of Philosophy Scientific knowledge Its material object Its formal object Conclusion I Further considerations Philosophy and the Special Sciences Philosophy judges the special sciences It governs them It defends them It is pre-eminently free Further observations Conclusion II 71 . Philosophy and Theology 72 Nature of theology 72 Theology j udges philosophy 7 3 Philosophy submits to theology its conclusions, not its premises 74 Philosophia ancilla theologiae 75 Further considerations 76 Conclusion III 77 Philosophy and Common Sense 78 Unscientific knowledge 78 Philosophy is derived from common sense, understood as the natural apprehension of first principles 79 Common sense may accidentally judge philosophy 81 83 The method of philosophy 84 The Classification of Philosophy The Main Divisions of Philosophy 89 Logic. Theoretical philosophy. Practical philosophy 89 Their objects 91 Conclusion V 93 Logic 94 Correct reasoning 94 Ideas and images 94 Individual and universal 96 The problems of universals Nominalism Realism Moderate Realism The Philosophy of Mathematics and the Philosophy of Nature The term body The philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of nature (a) Mechanism (b) Dynamism (c) Hylomorphism Psychology Problem of the origin of ideas Abstraction: Problem of human nature Conflicting schools Criticism (Epistemology) Being qua being Criticism Problem of truth Conflicting schools Scepticism Rationalism Moderate intellectualism Problem of the object of the intellect Being and intelligibility Ontology: Essence Problems of ontology Essence In the wide sense In the strict sense Characteristics of this essence Further observations Our intellect can apprehend essence Further observations Essence is universal in the mind Individual nature and matter Individual nature First matter Archetypal being Nature, essence, and quiddity Ontology: Substance and Accident Origin of these notions Substance Further observations Accident Further observations Conflicting schools The individuality of substance Substantia prima, substantia secunda Ontology: Act and Potentiality Origin of these notions Identity and change Their apparent incompatibility Solved by the concept potentiality Potency or potentiality Act The nature of change Act and potentiality in things Axioms i-vii Conflicting schools Terminology Material and formal Virtual and formal (actual) Implicit and explicit In express act, in accomplished act Theodicy (Natural Theology) Subsistent being itself The Philosophy of Art Ethics Introduction The philosophy of art Ethics Divisions of ethics Conflicting schools Classification of philosophy