On Critical Editions

It has become commonplace for scholars to insist upon use only of the critical editions of manuscripts.  It is interesting, however, that in many cases these editions are not properly available to all those who need them; and, likewise, that no essential difference on pertinent speculative points may obtain between the critical edition and some earlier edition.  Accordingly, the question that must be raised at some juncture is why the speculative pursuit of inquiry should be impeded by being restricted to less available works when these do not vary in any essential facet from some earlier edition in terms of the particular speculative issue concerned. Certainly it would be ideal were the Leonine editions made available in the manner in which the University of Navarre has made Thomas’s work available on its Corpus Thomisticum site.  But in the absence of this, and where no significant textual difference affects the speculative issue pursued, there is no speculative basis for frowning on the use of earlier editions. A scholar should track the relation of the editions—if there is a significant difference with respect to the matter under examination, the edition judged to be better with respect to that matter should be used—but where there is no essential discrepancy, or only the most minor discrepancy, what matters is the authenticity and adequacy of the pertinent passages and not a wider comparison of editions.  It is one thing to prefer an edition.  It is another to suppose that for this reason correct texts in earlier editions cannot legitimately be cited; or to suppose that editions less available to students should be given universal preference over earlier editions even when these earlier editions do not vary significantly from the later edition and are more accessible.  Given that the Leonine Commission was given the task of making Thomas’s work accessible, the insistence on using a less accessible edition even where this is not mission-critical is ironic.  St. Dominic famously insisted that “grain that is horded, rots”.  It is past time for the Leonine Commission to make the entire critical edition of Thomas’s work available online to the world.  The original purpose of the Leonine Commission could not be better served.  And hard copies will always still be desired by libraries (as well as by individuals!).

Long on Analogy

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews published my review of Steven Long’s Analogia Entis:  http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/30849-analogia-entis-on-the-analogy-of-being-metaphysics-and-the-act-of-faith/.  I was thinking that people interested in the Cajetanian account might also profitably read James F. Anderson’s Bond of Being and especially Yves Simon’s “Order in Analogical Sets,” which is in Philosopher at Work.  Simon’s article is basically a paraphrase of or light commentary on Cajetan.

Grabmann Online

Several of Martin Grabmann’s works are available in digitized form via the Internet Archive including the English translation of his classic Thomas Aquinas: His Personality and Thought.

Here are the German texts that are available through the Internet Archive:

Die Lehre des Heiligen Thomas von Aquin von der Kirche als Gotteswerk: ihre Stellung im thomistischen System und in der Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Theologie

Der Gegenwartswert der geschichtlichen Erforschung der mittelalterlichen Philosophie: akademische Antrittsvorlesung

Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, Bd. 1*

Die philosophische und theologische Erkenntnislehre des Kardinals Matthaeus von Aquasparta: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Verhältnisses zwischen Augustinismus und Aristotelismus im mittelalterlichen Denken

Einführung in die Summa theologiae des heiligen Thomas von Aquin

Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristoteles-Übersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts

Neu aufgefundene lateinische Werke deutscher Mystiker

Studien zu Johannes Quidort von Paris, O. Pr.

Drei ungedruckte Teile der Summa de creaturis Alberts des Grossen

Unfortunately only the first volume of Grabmann’s history of the scholastic method is available. This volume covers the patristic period to the beginning of the 12th century. I cannot locate a digitized version of the second volume online, which covers the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th. Perhaps one of our readers could help us out here.

If you are looking for Thomas von Aquin, Personlichkeit und Gedankenwelt, the original German text of Thomas Aquinas: His Personality and Thought, you will not find it at the Internet Archive. You will not find it on Google Books either. But it is available here at the Hathi Trust Digital Library. While you can read and search the text online, you cannot download a PDF of the complete version unless you belong to a college or university that is a partner of the Hathi Trust Digital Library.

International Thomistic Philosophy Conference in Chile

This July 4-6 the Universidad Santo Tomás in Santiago, Chile is hosting the “1st International Congress on Thomistic Philosophy,” which is taking as its topic: “The Person: Divine, Angelic, Human.” The gathering will be held at the university’s main campus in Santiago.

Here is the list of invited speakers:

Eleonore Stump, University of Saint Louis

Eudaldo Forment, Universitat de Barcelona

Lluis Clavell, President of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas

Tomás Melendo, Universidad de Málaga

Enrique Alarcón, Universidad de Navarra

John Knasas, University of Saint Thomas (Houston)

Antonio Amado, Universidad de los Andes

Juan Antonio Widow, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

Félix Adolfo Lamas, Universidad Católica Argentina

Fernando Moreno, Universidad Gabriela Mistral

Vincenzo Benetollo, O.P., President of the Società Internazionale Tommaso d’Aquino (SITA)

The deadline for proposals for contributions is May 31. They can be sent to cet@santotomas.cl.

You can find out more information about the congress — in Spanish, Italian, and English — online at the congress’s webpage.

Dissertation on Analogy

Congratulations to the Center for Thomistic Studies’ most recent PhD, my student Domenic D’Ettore.  His dissertation is “Early Thomists on Demonstration with Analogous Terms.”  For more info, click here.

Midsummer Conference on Aquinas and the Mind/Body Problem

The Catholic and Dominican Institute of Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York and the Thomistic Institute of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. are sponsoring a conference entitled “Thomas Aquinas and the Mind/Body Problem” July 21-24 at Mount Saint Mary College.

The scheduled presenters at the conference are his excellency Charles Morerod, O.P., Candace Vogler, Alfred Freddoso, Thomas Hibbs, Michael Gorman, James Brent, O.P., and John O’Callaghan.

More information for those who wish to attend the conference can be found at the Catholic and Dominican Institute website. You can find a pdf file of the conference brochure/registration form here. You can also register for the conference online.

More volumes of the Leonine edition available in pdfs

Thomistica.net reported earlier on the possibility of downloading the first volumes of the Leonine edition. But thanks to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France more volumes are now available: vols. 22, 23, 26, 28, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47.

This means that the volumes containing the disputed questions ‘De veritate’ and ‘De malo’, his scriptural commentaries on Job and Isaiah, his commentaries on Aristotle’s Ethica and De Anima and many other works can now be consulted online, including the critical apparatus and the most valuable and comprehensive introductions by father Dondaine, Gauthier and others!

Here is the link!

Leonine Edition of the Summa Theologiae and Contra Gentiles Now Available as Reprints

A new micro-publishing project called Critical Reprints has made vols. 4-16 of the Leonine critical edition of the works of St. Thomas available once more. These volumes include the text of the Summa Theologiae (vols. 4-12), the Contra Gentiles (vols. 13-15), and the indices to both Summae (vol. 16). The volumes can be purchased individually online at the reprint service Lulu.com.

Critical Reprints is running a 10% off sale on the Leonine volumes during the Easter season, which I assume means that you can get the discount through Pentecost, which falls on May 27 this year. So, if you are interested, now would seem a good time to make your purchase.

You can find out more about the Leonine volumes and Critical Reprints itself at the project’s website. Here is the Critical Reprints’ “mission statement”:

Critical Reprints is a new endeavor, which aims to make out-of-print editions of scholarly works available at an affordable price. For decades, scholars of philosophy and theology, particularly those concerned with the Middle Ages, have had to search for a library or pay large sums in order to get scholarly editions of the works they study. By reprinting these works through Lulu.com, Critical Reprints aims to alleviate that burden, by making the works widely and inexpensively available.

Critical Reprints differs from other book printing services, because it does not simply feed online books into a printer. Each book is individually prepared for republication; there will not be any blank or missing pages (as sometimes happens with automatic reprints from Google Books, for example), and every effort is made to ensure consistent quality throughout each of the books reprinted.

The goal of Critical Reprints is to be of real service to the scholarly community. If there is something you want to see reprinted, let us know at info@criticalreprints.com.

Sounds like a noble undertaking. We wish Critical Reprints the best and look forward to seeing what other treasures of the past they place in our hands in the future.

The Theology of the Hypostatic Union

On July 27th, 2011 we published a notification on a new critical edition of Aquinas’ De unione verbi incarnati, edited with substantial commentary (500+ pages) by Dr. Klaus Obenauer. Dr. Obenauer has just released a new study on the theology of the hypostatic union, Hypostatische Union und Subjekt (Bonn: Nova et Vetera, 2012). This is a focused work (109 pages) engaging what the Germans call “Konstitutionschristologie.” Enjoy!

Call for Papers: Art and Faith

T H E  A M E R I C A N   M A R I T A I N   A S S O C I A T I O N

Announces Its

36^th Annual International Meeting

Thursday – Saturday, October 11-13, 2012 – PHILADELPHIA, PA.

“ART & FAITH”

SPONSORED BY: LA SALLE UNIVERSITY

AMA president: John G. Trapani, Jr.

Program Committee: Cornelia Tsakiridou (Local Chair), Gavin Colvert (Program Chair), Bill Haggerty, John Hittinger, and John G. Trapani, Jr.

The American Maritain Association issues a “Call for Papers” for its 36^th annual international conference to be held in Philadelphia, PA.  Thursday, October 11 – Saturday, October 13, 2012.

This year’s conference theme is “Art and Faith,” a reference to Jacques Maritain’s book of the same name (English translation edition, 1948; originally published in 1926).  This little book is a treasury of insights on the broad and interrelated topics of art and faith revealed in the correspondence of letters between Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau.  About these two topics Maritain writes, “We merely claim that these two can love each other and remain free.”  Well, be free then … and check out this rich little volume – the letters are stimulating, and they suggest a variety of topics and themes for very provocative papers and discussions.  Submitted abstracts/papers on any topic of philosophical merit are most welcome.

Paper presentations at the conference should be limited to 25 minutes reading time, with 15 minutes for discussion.  To submit an electronic proposal abstract of approximately 500 words, please visit:http://maritain.veritasprima.org.  In order to receive full consideration, proposals should be completed online by no later than Friday, July 6^th 2012. Questions regarding the submission of proposals should be directed to the Program Chair: Dr. Gavin Colvert, Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, Assumption College, 500 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609.  His email address is: gcolvert@assumption.edu.  In addition, the AMA extends an invitation to societies or individuals interested in organizing a satellite session for the 2012 conference.  Complete details regarding the submission of satellite session proposals are available at the web address indicated above.

A special invitation is extended to graduate students.  A stipend of $250.00 will be awarded to the outstanding graduate student paper selected by the Program Committee.  In order to be considered for this award, please indicate your interest when you submit your completed paper.  The award recipient must be present at the conference; the stipend will be awarded at the AMA Awards Banquet.

The conference location is in Philadelphia, PA., and at LaSalle University.  We have very comfortable and convenient accommodations at the Sheraton Society Hill hotel.  Philadelphia, PA is accessible from numerous highways and at the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).  Full conference details, including our special conference registration price, hotel information, and details of our exciting line-up of Plenary Speakers, will be announced in the summer.  In the meantime, mark your calendar now!

Edward A. Martin Prize for the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Paper in Medieval Philosophy

Prof. Mark  Henninger, S.J., Director of the Center for Medieval Philosophy of Georgetown University is pleased to announce the establishment of the Edward A. Martin Prize for the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Paper in Medieval Philosophy. The purpose of this prize is to recognize the best work currently being done in undergraduate medieval philosophy as well as to foster potential undergraduate scholars in the discipline of medieval philosophy.

Criteria

A paper or honors thesis focused on Western medieval philosophy from Augustine to Suarez of between 3,000 – 5,000 words, double-spaced, exclusive of bibliography or endnotes. The paper should have been written for an undergraduate course or as an honors thesis during the academic year 2011- 2012 and must not have been published in professional fora or student journals. Papers will be judged based on their quality of research, depth of philosophic inquiry and clarity.

Prize

$700.00 (US) for the winner and two $150.00 awards for Honorable Mentions

Requirements for Submission

• Cover letter with the name, address, email and phone number of the student and supervising professor. 
• The paper
• In addition to the paper, the student must submit a letter of recommendation from the supervising professor attesting to the superior quality of the work as well as its originality.
• Deadline: May 15, 2012
  
• Paper and a short letter of recommendation must be submitted together by either .pdf, .doc or .docx to the Center for Medieval Philosophy email address MedPhilGU@gmail.com or by mail to: Prof. Mark Henninger, S.J., Center for Medieval Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., 20057. If mailed, the package must be postmarked by May 15, 2012.
• Winners will be notified on June 30, 2012.

Klubertanz and Ramirez

Surveying the recent literature on analogy, I am curious about why so few people consult Santiago Ramirez’ four-volume De analogia.  I think that it is by far the best work on the subject. 

The neglect of Ramirez is not new.  I just this morning noticed that although Klubertanz, in St. Thomas on Analogy, mentions Ramirez’ earlier articles (Ramirez’ book was published later), he cites him as J (Iacobus) Ramirez for the 1921-1922 article, and S.M. (Santiago Maria) Ramirez for the 1953 article.  This 1953 article is reprinted at the end of vol. 4 of De analogia.   Ramirez never fully finished the De analogia, since he suffered from health problems.

For those intersted in the citations: Ramirez is listed on Klubertanz, p. 10, note 11, as someone who argues that Cajetan’s interpretation is that of Thomas.  On pp. 14-15, he is mentioned as supporting a position that “deprives the position of Cajetan and his followers of its claim to a textual basis in St. Thomas.”  In fairness to Klubertanz, it is the 1953 article in which Ramirez - to my mind convincingly but not conclusively - argues that the threefold division in I Sent, d. 19 is merely between inequality, intrinsic, and extrinsic attribution, and does not map on to the De Veritate, q. 2, art. 11. 

I don’t know if there is a clearer listing of Thomas’ texts than in Appendix One of Klubertanz.  But Ramirez mentions all of the texts, I think, and puts them in a more helpful order.