Thomistic commentators online

Huh? How did I not know about this?!? There’s an publishing house called the Alexander Street Press that has a website devoted to literature from the Catholic Reformation, on which you can find the works of classic Thomistic commentators such as Thomas de vio Cajetan, Domingo Báñez, Menchior Cano, Domingo de Soto and Francisco de Vitoria. The main page for Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation is publicly accessible, but further access seems to require some subscription (my access is possible through Marquette University’s subscription).

The site contains the Opuscula omnia of Cajetan, including his De nominum analogia, De conceptu entis and his commentary on Thomas’s De ente et essentia. Alas, it does not contain Cajetan’s commentary on the Summa theologiae. On the other hand, Báñez’s Scholastica commentaria for the Prima pars as well as the Secunda secundae is to be found there, as is Cano’s De locis theologicis, and Soto’s De natura et gratia. De Vitoria’s holdings are simply his Relectiones theologicae, but these contain interesting material on ecclesial politics and power, as well as discussions of war-making in the New World.

In keeping with the Reformation-focus, the Alexander Street Press also has a Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts, as well as a similar resource on Karl Barth.

Thomistic Scholarship and Plagiarism

Readers may be interested in the article “40 Cases of Plagiarism” appearing in Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale 51/2009 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 350-391, compiled by Pernille Harsting, Russell L. Friedman, and me. It presents evidence of plagiarism in a number of publications under the name of Martin W. F. Stone on mainly medieval and Renaissance philosophy.

That Martin W. F. Stone succeeded in publishing the words and research results of Fernand van Steenberghen, Ralph McInerny, Carlos Bazán, John Wippel, and Lawrence Feingold (among others) as his own, in academic journals and in books with reputable publishing houses, must surely cause scholars to take note. Arguably, the situation is especially pressing for Thomists; nine of Stone’s plagiarized pieces are currently listed in the Bibliographia Thomistica, and one piece is listed in Thomistica 2006: An International Yearbook of Thomistic Bibliography. The editor of the Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale, Kent Emery, Jr., highlights the relationship of Stone’s work to Thomistic scholarship in an editorial in the same issue of the Bulletin, observing:

Or how was it possible that the scrivener hugely plagiarized the essay of an eminent Thomist published in a volume bringing together “Thomistic doctrines and modern perspectives,” and then published his workmanship in a volume bringing together “Thomistic and Analytical Traditions,” edited by another eminent Thomist and crammed full of essays by yet other eminent Thomists (see Case 14, pp. 367-68)? One thing is clear: Eminent Thomists do not necessarily read the essays of other eminent Thomists, which, if they had, they might have been able to detect that someone was ripping-off another person’s essay. (p. xii)

Elsewhere, Emery argues forcefully that the situation demands reflection among members of the scholarly community:

That there are those who commit acts of plagiarism is one thing; that such acts can be repeated successfully, without detection, in 40 articles, over a period of at least 11 years, in the pages of the most “prestigious” journals and at the most “prestigious” presses, is quite another thing altogether, which exposes some pathology in the contemporary body academic that cries out for diagnosis (p. 348)

So far, retractions have been issued by:

• Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 76:2 (2009), pp. v-vi
• Tijdschrift voor Filosofie72:1 (2010) pp. 3 and 5
• Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 86 (2010)
• Springer
• The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

 Discussion and news reports on the issue include here, and here.

Allow me to repeat two requests made in the introduction to “40 Cases of Plagiarism.” First, as the great majority of Stone’s pieces examined in the article have not, at present, been retracted by the editors and publishers of these pieces, we encourage the many authors, editors, and publishers whose legal copyright and intellectual property rights have been infringed, to seek retractions of all the pieces plagiarizing their original work. Secondly, we caution that the evidence published in the Bulletin article is not exhaustive, and urge other readers to supplement our findings.

Michael Dougherty joins the Thomistica.net team

Michael V. Dougherty will begin contributing posts to our website. Currently in the Philosophy Department at Ohio Dominican University (faculty webpage), Dougherty earned his PhD in Philosophy from Marquette University, and is the author of a wide range of articles concerning Thomistic philosophy, and Christian philosophy generally (personal website). In addition (sotto voce) he’ll have a book coming out from Cambridge University Press. Welcome aboard, Michael, and thanks in advance for your efforts.

Michael’s first post will appear today. It concerns the plagiarism scandal surrounding M.W.F. Stone.

James F. Ross (1931-2010)

From the website of Edward Feser comes the news that philosopher, James F. Ross, has died (here, and here). Thomists will know of him for many reasons, one of which would surely be his work on analogy. Ross’s website has links to things that he has written, some of which are available online.

Three happy words: Lawrence. Dewan. iTunes.

Here are three words that made my day: Lawrence. Dewan. iTunes.

The Dominicans are hard at work bringing the recorded contents of their recent conference in Warsaw to iTunes. As of this writing at least three are available. To make sure that I get it all I’ve simply subscribed to the entire podcast feed for the Dominican House of Studies - Priory (Washington, DC, USA). This morning I discovered that the presentation at the conference of my teacher and mentor from PIMS in Toronto, Lawrence Dewan, O.P., has been inserted into the podcast stream. His paper was entitled “Saint Thomas and Philosophia perennis.”

While you’re at the iTunes podcast section don’t forget to subscribe to the equally informative Lectures in Dominican History podcast stream, which contains lectures given by Fr. John Frederick Hinnebusch, O.P.

Dominicans gather in Poland for conference: "Dominicans and the Challenge of Thomism"

As we speak, an international conference is taking place at The Thomistic Institute in Warsaw (Poland), entitled “Dominicans and the Challenge of Thomism.”

On invitation of the Polish Province of the Dominican Order, some 80 Dominican Thomists are gathered there to “discover the depth and diversity of Thomistic inquiry in our Order today, particularly for younger scholars immersed in the thought of St. Thomas.”

Take a look at the website to discover the impressive program but also listen to some of the talks. From what we can gather in reading the program, we cannot but eagerly await the proceedings of what looks like the single most important event in recent years in the ongoing “renaissance of Thomism” (A. Nichols).



Job in moral theology at Marquette

Hop over to my personal site to learn more about a job in moral theology at Marquette University’s Department of Theology (here).

English translation of Aquinas's Sermons

Mark-Robin Hoogland C.P. (1969), Passionist priest and member of the ‘Thomas Instituut’ in Utrecht has just published his English translation of twenty sermons of Thomas Aquinas at The Catholic University of America Press.

The critical edition of these sermons, prepared by the late Father Bataillon, is about to be published in the Editio Leonina.

Download here the PDF from the Catholic University of America Press.

We thank the Fathers Bataillon and Hoogland for this inestimable service to the Thomistic community!

Thomas Instituut (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Our friends of the ‘Thomas Instituut’ in Utrecht (The Netherlands) launched their new website. Have a look around here.

RIP Leonard Kennedy, CSB, former head of the Center for Thomistic Studies.

Thomas Osborne of the University of St. Thomas in Houston shared with me over the weekend the sad news that Leonard Kennedy, CSB, died at 9:30 a.m., on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Fr Kennedy made many contributions to medieval philosophy, edited some texts (including Aquinas’s short disputed question on the immortality of the soul) and left behind an especially useful Catalog of Thomists. Importantly, he was also the head of the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.

More news of his passing as it becomes available.

Job opening (moral theology) in Fribourg

In from the esteemed Fr Michael Sherwin, OP (in Fribourg): 

Mark,

I want to give you and your web readers a heads up about a post here in Thomistic moral theology. My colleague, Luc-Thomas Somme is returning to France and thus we are looking for his replacement. Ideally we would like a Dominican, but any qualified Thomist moral theologian who can speak French and English would be seriously considered and very much encouraged to apply.

Fr Sherwin included a PDF with more details.

The Witherspoon Institute's Fifth Thomistic Institute

This in, from Matthew O’Brien of the University of Texas:

The Thomistic Seminar is the Witherspoon Institute’s fifth-annual, week-long, intensive program for graduate students in philosophy. The seminar is devoted to exploring the intersection between analytic philosophy and the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition.

This year’s seminar, entitled “Aesthetics and Morality: Thomistic and Contemporary Philosophical Approaches,” will examine the relationship between aesthetics and morality, particularly with respect to the social aspects of human life. It will take place August 15 - 21, 2010 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Recent years have seen intense philosophical work on the nature and content of morality; addressing issues in normative ethics, moral theory and metaethics. There has also been a growth of serious work on nature and value of the arts, and on the role of the aesthetic as a constituent of human well-being. The seminar will draw together some of these themes and issues, bringing to bear both contemporary ideas and aspects of the theories of value and practice to be found in the writings of Aquinas.

It has been increasingly common to see Aquinas cited or discussed by contemporary moral philosophers outside the Thomistic tradition, such as Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Thomas Scanlon, Michael Thompson, and David Wiggins, but to date aestheticians in the analytical tradition have neglected ideas and figures from the pre-Kantian period. Yet there is in Aquinas the makings of theories of beauty, art and normative aesthetics that are of intrinsic interest and which also suggest ways in which aesthetics and ethics might be interwoven in a general account of value and practice, both personal and social.

Faculty

John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy, University of St. Andrews
Thomas Hibbs, Professor of Ethics and Culture, Baylor University
Anthony O’Hear, Professor of Philosophy, University of Buckingham
Candace Vogler, Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago

Past student participants in the seminar have hailed from top-tier graduate philosophy programs in North America and Europe. Past faculty participants have included Nicholas Rescher (Pittsburgh), Michael Gorman (Catholic University), John Haldane (St. Andrews), Candace Vogler (Chicago), John O’Callaghan (Notre Dame), Robert Koons (UT, Austin), Gavin Lawrence (UCLA), Mark Murphy (Georgetown), David Solomon (Notre Dame), Alexander Pruss (Baylor), David Oderberg (Reading), Gyula Klima (Fordham), Anselm Mueller (Trier), Jeff McDonough (Harvard) and Thomas Pink (King’s College, London).

Seminar Participants

This seminar is open to graduate students in philosophy. Applications from students in other disciplines (e.g. theology, political theory, and art history), who nonetheless have a background in philosophy, will also be considered.

Seminar Facilities

This seminar will take place on the campus of the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Seminar participants will be provided with room and board for the duration of the seminar.

Visit http://www.winst.org/ethics_and_university/seminars/philosophy/index.php for application information. The application deadline has been extended to April 15, 2010.