Alliteration always amuses me a lot. Sorry about that. I’ve got it out of my system now. I have written about St. Thomas’ commentary on De Anima before. I am going to do it again. Seriously: if you have any…
I have said it before, and I will say it again now, and I am quite certain that I will repeat myself more than once after this: to limit one’s reading of Aquinas to the Summa Theologiae is like reading…
There are two ways in which living creatures have powers for preservation: preservation of self, and preservation of their kind or species. Just as suicide is a moral evil (destruction of self is contrary to nature), in the same way…
Unabashed Aquinas fanboy here. I could prattle on and on about the triumph that is the Summa Theologiae, a massive work that is astonishing for its lucidity, erudition, coherence, and comprehensiveness, or about the sheer brilliance of the Summa Contra…
Aristotle has this trenchant comment to make in the Physics: That nature exists, it would be absurd to try to prove; for it is obvious that there are many things of this kind, and to prove what is obvious by…
To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute. (De Cælo I.10)
Aristotle has this to say about question-begging with respect to the allegedly self-evident: [W]henever a man tries to prove what is not self-evident by means of itself, then he begs the original question. (Prior Analytics, II.16) For a theological example,…
Love for others comes of love for oneself. — Aristotle Yes, I know that I wrote about this not too long ago. But I just found this in my notes and I decided to repeat myself. At first blush this…
Aristotle QOTD to love is to wish good to someone. (Rhetoric, ii.4) The only thing I would add is that love includes actually doing good for someone that is proportionate to the circumstances. As St. James points out it is…
It is difficult to be aware of whether one knows or not. [Aristotle, Posterior Analytics I.9 (around 76a26)] Examples are hardly necessary. And yet we all tend to be tremendously confident about the accuracy of our opinions, and tremendously reluctant…
Aquinas, Etc. 