- Paperback: 704 pages
- Publisher: Scholarly Book Services Inc (Jun 27 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0813209838
- ISBN-13: 978-0813209838
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.6 x 3.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 943 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #535,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A useful work, but upside-down in at least one way.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas: From Finite Being to Uncreated Being (Paperback)
I enjoyed this work. In particular, Wippel's discussion of the three meanings of participation as found in Thomas' "Commentary on the Hebdomads of Boethius" is something which is not brought out often enough in discussions of metaphysics.I was, however, somewhat perplexed by Wippel's insistence on delaying so long the question of God's existence. This would have made some sense if the demonstration of God's existence somehow depended upon the "logical" participation that all created beings have in "esse," namely the "esse commune" of creatures. But since that is not the case, and we could equally prove the existence of God from one creature rather than all creatures in common, why spend so much time avoiding the issue of God's existence? And since creatures have their "to be" (esse) only by analogy with God's, and this is most certainly an analogy of attribution, not the internal analogy of proper proportion between "esse" and "essentia" in creatures, does not the very "logical" community of creaturely "esse" depend upon the existence of God as the ground of that community? Perhaps I am risking misunderstanding by saying this, but it strikes me as a somewhat Heideggerian move, rather than a Thomistic one. It raises Heidegger's "Sein" to a philosophic preeminence rather than ground "Sein" by analogy in God's transcendance. There is the real risk that God will indeed simply become the Highest Being (ens), rather than "Ipsum Esse Subsistens." Surely, this is not Wippel's intention, but by putting this forward in such an order, he seems to adopt a doctrine of analogy at variance with Thomas'. Perhaps this order of exposition is one of the things the previous reviewer objected to. Gilson maintained a theological order of exposition beginning with God and descending to creatures, the very pattern of the Summa. Perhaps the order can be inverted in a purely philosophical mode, but not lightly so, nor without investigating and defending explicitly the repercussions for a doctrine of participation and analogy. Certainly, in any exposition real relations and communities must precede logical ones, and I do not see that one can posit a real community of beings when the Prime Analogate is missing. To sum up then, this is a valuable book, but I have some reservations about the order of exposition.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A useful work, but upside-down in at least one way.,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas: From Finite Being to Uncreated Being (Paperback)
I enjoyed this work. In particular, Wippel's discussion of the three meanings of participation as found in Thomas' "Commentary on the Hebdomads of Boethius" is something which is not brought out often enough in discussions of metaphysics.
I was, however, somewhat perplexed by Wippel's insistence on delaying so long the question of God's existence. This would have made some sense if the demonstration of God's existence somehow depended upon the "logical" participation that all created beings have in "esse," namely the "esse commune" of creatures. But since that is not the case, and we could equally prove the existence of God from one creature rather than all creatures in common, why spend so much time avoiding the issue of God's existence? And since creatures have their "to be" (esse) only by analogy with God's, and this is most certainly an analogy of attribution, not the internal analogy of proper proportion between "esse" and "essentia" in creatures, does not the very "logical" community of creaturely "esse" depend upon the existence of God as the ground of that community? Perhaps I am risking misunderstanding by saying this, but it strikes me as a somewhat Heideggerian move, rather than a Thomistic one. It raises Heidegger's "Sein" to a philosophic preeminence rather than ground "Sein" by analogy in God's transcendance. There is the real risk that God will indeed simply become the Highest Being (ens), rather than "Ipsum Esse Subsistens." Surely, this is not Wippel's intention, but by putting this forward in such an order, he seems to adopt a doctrine of analogy at variance with Thomas'. Perhaps this order of exposition is one of the things the previous reviewer objected to. Gilson maintained a theological order of exposition beginning with God and descending to creatures, the very pattern of the Summa. Perhaps the order can be inverted in a purely philosophical mode, but not lightly so, nor without investigating and defending explicitly the repercussions for a doctrine of participation and analogy. Certainly, in any exposition real relations and communities must precede logical ones, and I do not see that one can posit a real community of beings when the Prime Analogate is missing, without making ens commune into another supposit. To sum up then, this is a valuable book, but I have some reservations about the order of exposition. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Balanced and Insightful Scholarship,
By Jim - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas: From Finite Being to Uncreated Being (Paperback)
I read the author's classic History of Philosophy book in 1971 (published in 1969) and that's what really got me fascinated with philosophy.
This book is no different - he begins with how Aquinas lays the foundation for metaphysics thru Epistemology in answering question 5 of the commentary of Boethius on Aristotle and then moves into Parminedes question of the One and the Many that Aquinas rewrites to prove the necessity of "Being". The "Being" Aquinas comes up with though isn't Parminedes unchanging material universe but pure spirit (GOD)that creates "intelligences" (angels) that are potency and form and then composite substances like man who are form and matter. 2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Definitive Work on Aqunas's Metaphysics,
By ApologiaPhoenix - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas: From Finite Being to Uncreated Being (Paperback)
This was one of the assigned texts for my course on Metaphysics and it is a worthwhile one. Wippel approaches every question from every angle. As others have said, it can be difficult to follow so I'd also recommend taking a course on the great Angelic Doctor and on metaphysics in general to go along with your reading of this text.
I'd also issue a caution. Unfortunately, the footnotes seem to be in Latin which is great if you're a Thomistic scholar who knows the language, but not so great if you're the average American. That says something however if that is my greatest concern. I do recommend this book. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
