Call for Papers: International Congress on Medieval Studies

/

The general call for papers is out for the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI. This year’s conference will be held May 12-15, 2011. Planned sessions on Aquinas include:

  • Know Thyself: Memory and Self-Knowledge in Augustine and Aquinas
  • The Theological Methodologies of Thomas Aquinas and Other Scholastic Theologians
  • Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Thomas Aquinas

Also of note are:

  • The Philosophy and Theology of Nicolas of Cusa
  • Robert Grosseteste and Natural Philosophy
  • Robert Grosseteste and the Cura Pastoralis
  • Nature and Word in Medieval Philosophy
  • Natural Law and Moral Philosophy
  • Natural Law and Political Philosophy

Another installment of the annual session How to Get Published: Advice from Editors and Insiders sponsored by La corónica is also planned. Past sessions have been wonderful and the advice offered is quite good.

Call for papers: Fordham conference on the Metaphysics of Aquinas (March 26-27, 2011)

/

From the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, a call for papers for their 31st Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies (Lincoln Center Campus, March 26-27, 2011), entitled “The Metaphysics of Aquinas and Its Modern Interpreters: Theological and Philosophical Perspectives.” Their description:

Fordham University’s Center for Medieval Studies invites scholars from different disciplines and scholarly methodologies to explore Aquinas’s metaphysics and how it relates to various aspects of his philosophy and theology and/or to modern retrievals of his thought.

The Conference seeks to capitalize on the pluralism of Thomistic studies by inviting papers from a wide range of areas within the disciplines of philosophy and theology. Conference organizers welcome papers that may approach the topic from various branches of philosophy (such as the philosophy of religion, ontology, or natural theology), or various fields of theology, such as historical, fundamental, or systematic theology (including such areas as Trinitarian theology, Christology, or theological anthropology). Conference organizers also seek a representative variety of approaches to Aquinas and to Thomism, including those of the Dominican commentators, Transcendental Thomism, Existential Thomism, analytic philosophy, and postmodernism. 

The Conference will include a special strand of sessions on what many regard as one of the central problems in the contemporary retrieval of Aquinas?s thought, namely, how to account for the mind?s knowledge of being qua being, or as this issue is often referred to, the discovery of the being of metaphysics.

If you are interested in speaking at this conference, please send a cover letter with contact information and an abstract of your paper to the Conference Committee at medievals@fordham.edu, or by regular mail to Fordham Center for Medieval Studies, Faculty Memorial Hall 405B, Bronx, New York 10458. The deadline for submissions is September 10, 2010.

Participants include:

Christopher Cullen, S.J
Brian Davies, O.P.
Lawrence Dewan, O.P.
Stephen Fields, S.J.
Paul Gondreau
Franklin T. Harkins
Gyula Klima
John Knasas
R. James Long
Steven Long
Giorgio Pini
Eleonore Stump
Rudi te Velde
Joseph Wawrykow
John Wippel

There is a PDF of the conference announcement here.

The UofT Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy 2010 (September 24-25 2010)

/

Here’s the line-up for this fall’s Colloquium on Mediaeval Philosophy at the University of Toronto:

Friday, September 24

Session I (4:30 - 6:30)
Chair:  Julie Allen (York University)
Speaker:  John Marenbon (Cambridge University): “Abelard’s Semantics”
Commentator:  Andrew Arlig (Brooklyn College) 

Saturday, September 25

Session II (10:00 - 12:00)
Chair:  Michael Barnwell (Niagara University)
Speaker:  Katherin Rogers (University of Delaware): “Anselm on the Ontological Status of Choice”
Commentator:  Scott MacDonald (Cornell University)

Session III (2:00 - 4:00)
Chair: Simona Vucu (University of Toronto)
Eduardo Záchia (University of Ottawa): “Thomistic Dualism and Compatibility Theory”
Ian Drummond (University of Toronto): “Duns Scotus on the Role of the Moral Virtues”
Sydney Penner (Cornell University): “Francisco Suárez on Intending an End”

Session IV (4:15 - 6:15)
Chair:  Jorge J.E. Gracia (University of Buffalo)
Speaker:  Mark Henninger (Georgetown University): “Realism and Anti-Realism on Relations”
Commentator:  Charles Bolyard (James Madison University)

For more information see the website.

 

Steven Long's book on Pure Nature

/

My friend from many years back, and Ave Maria University publishing fiend, Steven Long, has published his book on natura pura at Fordham University Press (link). Here is a scrape from the Fordham University Press site:

From speculative theology to the exegesis of Aquinas, to contemporary North American philosophy and Catholic social and ethical thought, to the thought of Benedict XVI, this work argues the crucial importance of the proportionate natural end within the context of grace and supernatural beatitude.

In two initial chapters, the book argues that Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar erred by negating the proportionate natural end for man within the doctrine of grace. Given the loss of natura within theological method, its recovery requires philosophic instrumentalities. In its third chapter, this book argues that the analytic thought so widespread in Anglophone circles cannot replace the role of classical Thomism within theology. The fourth chapter argues against those who construe affirmation of a proportionate natural end as equivalent to social Pelagianism, engaging the work of Jacques Maritain, Jean Porter, and David Schindler, Sr. In an appendix, the author examines the early thought of Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI, and its development toward the Regensburg Lecture.

The late Ralph McInerny thought highly of it, and it’s been mentioned on an Italian blog! Long has another book coming out through ND Press.

Medieval Jewish Moral and Political Philosophy

/

I have met Jonathan Jacobs (Colgate University [Faculty Page]) a few times at Liberty Fund symposia, and very much enjoyed his interventions at those gatherings. He recently shared the news that his book on Medieval Jewish moral and political philosophy is now published by Oxford University Press. Jon says:

Please pardon the self-promotion; my Law, Reason, and Morality in Medieval Jewish Philosophy was very recently published by Oxford. It is currently available in the U.K. and will be available in the U.S. in several weeks. Like many books these days, it is quite expensive but you might consider asking your library to purchase a copy. It is mainly a study of the moral psychology and moral epistemology of some medieval Jewish philosophers [Maimonides, Saadia, and Bahya]… thinkers supplying resources and insights of enduring relevance. It also includes discussion of their conceptions of free will, the virtues, the relation between the rational justification of practical requirements and revelation, and also the differences and the overlap between their moral epistemology and that of natural law theorizing and approaches through practical wisdom. I’m trying to help make some of these thinkers ‘more people’s business.’

You can see the OUP page devoted to the book here.

Editor change at The Thomist

/

Via Greg LaNave, assistant professor at the Dominican House of Studies (faculty page) and managing editor of The Thomist, comes news that the journal has a new Editor: Rev. Timothy Bellamah, O.P. (faculty page), replaces Rev. Joseph Torchia, O.P.

Publishing on Aquinas

/

Which good academic presses might be interested in publishing a book manuscript in philosophy about Aquinas?

The question arose among my colleagues. Admittedly, the expression “good press” could be understood in a variety of ways. Notions of prestige, editorial services offered to authors, or even royalty terms might be deciding factors.

The evaluation of prospective presses is not just important to potential authors. Rank and tenure committees need to make judgments too. The European Science Foundation ranked journals in philosophy and theology/religious studies in 2007, but it has not yet published its next phase: a ranking of academic book publishers. No doubt this second venture will be as controversial as the first. We’ve all seen that side comments about presses occasionally creep up in book reviews (one might think of this example). Moreover, at least one publisher seeks to forestall problems by requiring its authors to provide a letter from a departmental dean or chair testifying that publication with the press will count for promotion at the author’s university.

The question about where to publish a philosophy monograph on Aquinas overlaps with a more general one: which presses publish books on the history of philosophy? Some outlets have ceased to accept manuscripts (see here and here), and it is not difficult to identify presses that have published great books in the past but haven’t been active in the area in recent years. The good news is that many academic presses continue to publish exegetical works in philosophy. The Association of American University Presses identifies 36 presses with active lists in the history of philosophy, and this count omits overseas university presses and all commercial academic publishers.

For me, the first English-language presses that immediately come to mind for shopping a manuscript on some aspect of Aquinas’s philosophy include:

  • The Catholic University of America Press
  • Brill Academic Publishers
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Oxford University Press
  • The University of Notre Dame Press

There are, of course, other good publishers that publish widely in the history of philosophy with some books on medieval philosophy. Examples of commercial presses are: Routledge, Springer, Peeters, and Continuum. Examples of university presses are: Penn State, SUNY, Georgetown, Fordham, Marquette, and Edinburgh. Also, I’ll note that I’ve heard rumors of one press of former glory planning to reconstitute its publishing program in philosophy.

I’m sure there are presses that I have missed from the listings above. Those writing in theology might have other options than the ones I have identified. So, I invite readers to offer suggestions in the comments section below.

Follow-ups to Thomistic Commentators on-line

/

The post on “Thomistic Commentators online” drew some cheerful, immediate response. First, Fr Nicholas Austin, SJ, sent the following:

Following your post on the Thomistic commentators online, you and your readers may be interested to know that most of the Leonine edition of St Thomas’ Opera Omnia is online.  All of the Summa Theologiae volumes except one are present, together, of course, with Cardinal Cajetan’s famous commentary.  Some of the other volumes are also there.

To access the volumes, simply go to the following website http://www.archive.org/ and type into the search engine the words “opera omnia iussu leonis”.

Thanks, Father, for this helpful contribution; not having online access to Cajetan’s commentary would have been a loss, indeed.

Second, Meg Keller of Alexander Street Press (the people I mentioned in that early post), wrote me with a special offers for visitors to Thomistica.net:

Many thanks for the mention of Alexander Street’s theology resources. We’re happy to offer your readers free access to all three online theology collections through the month of August at the following URLs (see username and password below): 

USERNAME: thomistica

PASSWORD: alexanderstreet

Inquires from libraries regarding pricing or trial access should go to: sales@alexanderstreet.com.

It’s great to have such an informed and responsive readership!

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:

 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.