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Analytical Thomism is a philosophical movement which promotes the interchange of ideas between the thought of
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
(including the philosophy carried on in relation to his thinking, called '
Thomism Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions ...
'), and modern
analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United ...
. Scottish philosopher John Haldane first coined the term in the early 1990s and has since been one of the movement's leading proponents. According to Haldane, "analytical Thomism involves the bringing into mutual relationship of the styles and preoccupations of recent English-speaking philosophy and the ideas and concerns shared by St Thomas and his followers".


History 19th century—World War

The modern revival of Aquinas's thought can be traced to the work of mid-19th Century thomists, such as Tommaso Maria Zigliara, Josef Kleutgen, Gaetano Sanseverino, and Giovanni Maria Cornoldi. This movement received an enormous impetus by
Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-ol ...
's
encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...
''
Aeterni Patris ''Aeterni Patris'' (English: Of the Eternal Father) was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in August 1879, (not to be confused with the apostolic letter of the same name written by Pope Pius IX in 1868 calling the First Vatican Council). It ...
'' of 1879. In the first half of the twentieth century, Edouard Hugon,
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange (; 21 February 1877 – 15 February 1964) was a French Catholic philosopher, theologian and Dominican friar. He has been noted as a leading neo-Thomist of the 20th century, along with Édouard Hugon and Mart ...
,
Étienne Gilson Étienne Henri Gilson (; 13 June 1884 – 19 September 1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes; he also philosophized in the tradition ...
, and
Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aquinas fo ...
, among others, carried on Leo's call for a Thomist revival. Gilson and Maritain in particular taught and lectured throughout Europe and North America, influencing a generation of English-speaking Catholic philosophers. Some of the latter then began to harmonize Thomism with broader contemporary philosophical trends. Similarly, the Kraków Circle in Poland used
mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of forma ...
in presenting Thomism, which the Circle judged to have "a structured body of propositions connected in meaning and subject matter, and linked by logical relations of compatibility and incompatibility, entailment, etc." The Circle has been said to be "the most significant expression of Catholic thought between the two World Wars".


Postwar philosophical reception of Aquinas

By the middle of the 20th century Aquinas's thought came into dialogue with the analytical tradition through the work of
G. E. M. Anscombe Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action ...
,
Peter Geach Peter Thomas Geach (29 March 1916 – 21 December 2013) was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. His areas of interest were philosophical logic, ethics, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion and ...
, and
Anthony Kenny Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny (born 16 March 1931) is a British philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein of whose literary ...
. Anscombe was
Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
's student, and his successor at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
; she was married to Geach, himself an accomplished logician and
philosopher of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
. Geach had converted to Roman Catholicism while studying at Oxford, Anscombe had converted before she came up, and both were instructed in the Faith in Oxford by the Dominican Richard Kehoe, who received them both into the Church before they met one another. Kenny, an erstwhile priest and former Catholic, became a prominent philosopher at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
and an editor and executor of Wittgenstein's literary estate, and is still portrayed by some as a promoter of Aquinas (Paterson & Pugh, xiii-xxiii), though his denial of some basic Thomist doctrines (e.g. divine timelessness) casts doubt on this. Anscombe, and other Aristotelians such as
Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (; born 12 January 1929) is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of the mos ...
,
Philippa Foot Philippa Ruth Foot (; née Bosanquet; 3 October 1920 – 3 October 2010) was an English philosopher and one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics, who was inspired by the ethics of Aristotle. Along with Judith Jarvis Thomson, she is c ...
, Mortimer Adler, and
John Finnis John Mitchell Finnis, , (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at Notre Dame Law School and a ...
, can largely be credited with the revival of "
virtue ethics Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, from Greek ἀρετή arete_(moral_virtue).html"_;"title="'arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''_is_an_approach_to_ethics_that_treats_the_concept_of_virtue.html" ;"title="arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''.html" ; ...
" in analytic moral theory and "
natural law theory Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...
" in
jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...
. Both movements draw significantly upon Aquinas.


Notable analytical Thomists

Philosophers and theologians working in the intersection of Thomism and analytic philosophy include:


See also

* Józef Maria Bocheński (
Cracow Circle Thomism Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questio ...
) *
Meta-ethics In metaphilosophy and ethics, meta-ethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ou ...
*
Philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning p ...
* Neo-scholasticism


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * , reprinted in Edgar Morscher, Otto Neumaier, and Peter Simons (2011), ''Ein Philosoph mit "Bodenhaftung": Zu Leben und Werk von Joseph M. Bocheński'', Sankt Augustin: Academia, pp. 61-79.


Further reading

* Alfred Freddoso
Two Roles for Catholic Philosophers
* Brian J Shanley, OP, ''The Thomist Tradition'' (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer, 2002). * Entries by Stephen Theron in Haldane (ed.) (1997) and Paterson & Pugh (eds.) (2006). * Entries by Shanley and John Knasas in Paterson & Pugh (eds.) (2006). * * John C. Cahalan, ''Causal Realism: An Essay on Philosophical Method and the Foundations of Knowledge'' (Routledge, 1985) * * John Finnis, ''Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory'' (Oxford, 1998). * John Haldane (ed.), "Analytical Thomism" volume of ''Monist'' 80 (4) October, 1997. * * * Anthony J Lisska,''Aquinas's Theory of Natural Law: An Analytic Reconstruction'' (Oxford: New York, 1996). * Pérez de Laborda, Miguel, "El tomismo analítico", ''Philosophica: Enciclopedia filosófica on line'' 2007 * Bruce D. Marshall, ''Trinity and Truth'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). * Roger Pouivet, ''Après Wittgenstein, saint Thomas'' (PUF, 1997). * T. Adam Van Wart, ''Neither Nature nor Grace: Aquinas, Barth, and Garrigou-Lagrange on the Epistemic Use of God's Effects'' (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2020). * {{Thomas Aquinas Philosophical movements