Connection of Nominalism to Modernism
“The Connections Between Nominalism and Modernism: and Consequent Epistemological Error Causing Moral Subjectivism”
https://aquinasforourtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/connection-of-nominalism-to-modernism.docx
I presented this paper at the American Catholic Philosophical Association annual conference 2019 in Minneapolis. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Fr. James V. Schall who was an eminent Aristotelian-Thomistic political philosophy professor at Georgetown University in DC. The paper traces the origins of modernity from nominalism and its effects on philosophical and theological approaches to the natural law and our contemporary society.
Is Society Composed of Individuals or Persons?
This essay answers the question “Is Society Composed of Individuals or Persons” in the context of the nominalist philosopher John Locke’s influence in the Founding Documents of the US and the US legal system. Locke’s influence results in an individualistic view of rights in the US without a corresponding balane of duties related to these rights and a decline in the influence of natural law thinking in decisions on rights in the courts and legislatation. Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon’s book Rights Talk is referenced extensively in the essay, especially regarding John Locke’s influence and the history of the understanding of rights in the US.
Aristotle’s search for the Causes of Being
http://aquinasforourtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/aristotle15thaporia2.docx
This essay is a summary of Aristoltle’s search for the causes of being in his Metaphysics and how he narrowed down his search to the cause of substance. The 15th aporia is the problem he percieved in reconciling the universal knowedge of things with the existence of particular things.
John Ghostley