Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism (S.M.A.R.T.)

The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism (S.M.A.R.T.) is planning a session for the 2014 meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C., 9-12 October 2014.  It is accepting papers on all aspects of Thomism from 1274 to the publication of the Carmelite Cursus Theologiae (1631-1701), with a preference for the period from John Capreolus (d. 1444) to John of St. Thomas (1589-1644).  Please send papers and direct enquiries to Thomas Osborne at osborntm[at]stthom[dot]edu.

Perfect Hatred? Aquinas Lecture in Berkeley

The 24th Annual Aquinas Lecture at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA, will be given by Dr. Diana Fritz-Cates, Associate Professor of Religious Ethics at The University of Iowa, on Wednesday, March 12, at 7:30 pm PST (10:30 pm EST). Entitled “Hatred in the Light of Love: A Thomistic Analysis,” the live-streamed presentation will present a conceptual and ethical analysis of hatred, based on the moral psychology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

D.Q. and Ralph McInerny

Here is a new interview with D.Q. McInerny on his brother Ralph McInerny and other topics: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/remembering-ralph-mcinerny 

New Book from David Braine

I missed the recent publication of David Braine's "The Roots of Creativity in Speech and Thought" from CUA Press.  I have been waiting for it.  His "The Human Person: Animal & Spirit" seems to me one of the best contemporary books on Philosophy of MInd.  In this earlier book on the human person, he uses the peculiar features of human language to argue that linguistic understanding and thinking have no bodily organ, and uses this material in his argument for the further positions that human persons transcend the body.  I wish that more people would read his work.

Registration Open for Berkeley Colloquium

Registration is now open for "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?", a colloquium concerning the intersection between philosophy and theology, July 16-20, 2014, in Berkeley, California. Hosted by The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, the event will gather scholars from academia and from the Dominican Order throughout the world, putting Thomism and other traditions into dialogue with more recent schools of thought. Plenary session presenters include Fr. Michael Dodds, OP, Edward Feser, Alfred Freddoso, John O’Callaghan, Fr. Michał Paluch, OP, John Searle, Msgr. Robert Sokolowski, and Linda Zagzebski. This is to be the first of a triennial series (Dominican Colloquia in Berkeley). Details, including the call for papers (deadline, Feb. 7) and registration page, may be found at www.dspt.edu/conversation2014.

More from the Aquinas and 'the Arabs' Project

From Richard Taylor (Marquette University):

I direct the Aquinas and 'the Arabs' Project and its Aquinas and 'the Arabs' International Working Group and It seems suitable that we might find a way to share information and research results. The Project is described at www.AquinasAndTheArabs.org where there is also a list of project members in the Working Group. As you may know, members of the Working Group in 2012 presented some of its work in The Thomist (76.4 October 2012), an issue subtitled, Aquinas and The Arabs. We have also published sets of papers in the Recherches de Theologie et Philosophie Medievale (Cologne & Leuven). Other collections have come out in other journals and three sets of papers (invited) are in progress for the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly and other journals. We are also editing a set of papers from a 2012 conference at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. For some years now we have held annual conferences in the summer in Paris and in the Fall in various locales such as Marquette University, the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, and the University of St Thomas (Center for Thomistic Studies) in Houston. For now I just want to make contact and let you know we will send you information on our activities.

Regards, Richard Taylor, Prof. of Philosophy, Marquette University & annual visiting Professor, KU Leuven.

Latin Spell Check

For the first time I have found a workable Latin spell check.  I take a lot of notes in Latin and type very poorly.  This tool seems to do the trick.  In Word, you need to make sure that it is an option, and then select the text for the language by hitting control-a.  But then it works marvelously.  You need to go into the program to make it deal correctly with I, j, v, u, etc.  The link is here:  http://drouizig.org/index.php/en/binviou-en/correttore-ortografico-di-latino/250-en-col-latin-spellchecker

The Veritas et Amor Contest in Italy

From Tommaso di Ruzza comes the announcement:

The 4th ed. of the Veritas et Amor Contest has been launched by the Circolo San Tommaso d’Aquino. The Contest is open to young people within the age of 35 years. It is divided into two sections – Culture and Art –, for the award of two scholarships of € 2,000: the first one for a thesis – degree or PhD – or a monograph relating to the thought of Thomas Aquinas, even in non-strictly philosophical or theological fields – e.g. Politics, Law etc. –, the second one for a work of art inspired by the figure or the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

The Regulations are available at www.circolosantommaso.it.

Do not hesttate to ask for further information.

RIP Peter Geach

As many of you probably already know, Peter Geach died December 21. There is an obituary by Jane O’Grady in The Guardian and a blog post by Francis Phillips at The Catholic Herald.