Beginning Philosophy Textbooks for Catholics

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I would like some recommendations for beginning level Philosophy textbooks for Catholic students (high-school or college age).

I’m already familiar with Chervin/Kevane’s Christian Philosophy .

Any suggestions?
 
I meant to say Chervin & Kevane’s Christian Wisdom.

I’m looking for more of a “survey” that includes an overview of the history of Catholic philosophy.
 
Bernard Lonergan’s “Insight: A study in Human Understanding” is good for epistemology.
I am not sure as to American standards. However it is a brilliant book by a great Catholic scholar .Good luck. Also anything by Karl Popper on the Philosophy of science is good. It depends on the field you are advancing into first.
 
The late Msgr. Paul Glenn’s An Introduction To Philosophy, is what I would recommend but good luck finding it. It should long be in the public domain by now and you might find an e-copy somewhere on line. You will possibly find some introductory philosophy books as good, but you will not find any better introductory book than this one. Just keep in mind, Father Glenn uses some–not much but some–older philosophic terminology (which is expected as these are older books) but it is still very readable.

If you find a public domain e-copy of this, please post the web-address as many people would want to download this book for e-reading purposes. I lucked out one day and found the printed book online at a reasonable price.

An Introduction To Philosophy by Daniel J. Sullivan would also be good. You can easily get that one here.

A contemporary Filipino author, Dr. Paul Horrigan has some free ebooks out on the web which are also very good such as Introduction To Philosophy. Dr. Horrigan’s The Existence Of God gets more into advanced beginner territory. Dr. Horrigan is an excellent philosophy writer and teacher. To my knowledge, those are still available.

Dr. Horrigan’s printed books **Epistemology **and God’s Existence and Other Philosophical Essays are more advanced and would be very good for an advanced beginner or more, but not a beginner in philosophy.

Aquinas (A Beginner’s Guide) by Dr. Ed Feser is also quite good.

This starts to get out of beginner area again but I really enjoyed Dr. Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.

I hope this helps with your quest.

God bless.

Cathoholic
 
Cathoholic said:
The late Msgr. Paul Glenn’s An Introduction To Philosophy, is what I would recommend but good luck finding it. It should long be in the public domain by now and you might find an e-copy somewhere on line. You will possibly find some introductory philosophy books as good, but you will not find any better introductory book than this one. Just keep in mind, Father Glenn uses some–not much but some–older philosophic terminology (which is expected as these are older books) but it is still very readable.

If you find a public domain e-copy of this, please post the web-address as many people would want to download this book for e-reading purposes. I lucked out one day and found the printed book online at a reasonable price.

An Introduction To Philosophy by Daniel J. Sullivan would also be good. You can easily get that one here.

A contemporary Filipino author, Dr. Paul Horrigan has some free ebooks out on the web which are also very good such as Introduction To Philosophy. Dr. Horrigan’s The Existence Of God gets more into advanced beginner territory. Dr. Horrigan is an excellent philosophy writer and teacher. To my knowledge, those are still available.

Dr. Horrigan’s printed books **Epistemology **and God’s Existence and Other Philosophical Essays are more advanced and would be very good for an advanced beginner or more, but not a beginner in philosophy.

Aquinas (A Beginner’s Guide) by Dr. Ed Feser is also quite good.

This starts to get out of beginner area again but I really enjoyed Dr. Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.

I hope this helps with your quest.

God bless.

Cathoholic
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I would not recommend The Last Superstition.It has some graphic discriptions around pg 146 which are not suitable for the non-medical community, certainly not suitable for High School students.

Linus2nd
 
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut.

I’m also inerested in basic beginning books about Catholic views on Aesthetics. Anyone?
 
The book The Unintended Reformation is very dense but tackles Catholic vs. modern philosophy from a historical perspective.
opus101 said:
I’m also inerested in basic beginning books about Catholic views on Aesthetics. Anyone?
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I believe Jacques Maritain, though I’ve not read him, wrote about aesthetics.
 
polytropos said:
The book The Unintended Reformation is very dense but tackles Catholic vs. modern philosophy from a historical perspective.

I believe Jacques Maritain, though I’ve not read him, wrote about aesthetics.
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Thanks. Yes, I’ve read him and loved it. What I’m looking for would be more of a textbook with a survey of the history of Catholic aesthetics… more of an overview.
 
Another one that could prove useful for high school or college is Charles Coppens’ book “A brief textbook of logic and mental philosophy.” Charles Coppens was a Jesuit Priest in the late 1800’s early 1900’s and his book was published in 1891 I believe. It’s format follows somewhat in the vein of Aguinas’ Summa with questions, objections and answers to objections. Although it is much easier to study and understand.
It covers dialectics and critical logic=syllogisms, in the first part
in the second part it covers
-metaphysics/ontology= the nature of being
-Cosmology=origins of the world;
-psychology=the nature of man and the Soul
-and Natural Theology= the existence of God
all Thomistic

here’s the link:

amazon.com/Brief-Text-Book-Logic-Mental-Philosophy/dp/1596053046/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381333737&sr=8-2&keywords=charles+coppens+cosimo

Read it online here:

www3.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/lamp.htm
 
opus101 said:
Thank you, Linusthe2nd!
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You might also consider these two sources. Not specifically Thomistic/Aristotelian but it helps answer challenges to the Faith raised by interpretations of modern science.

magisreasonfaith.org/the_reason_series.html From the Magis Center of Reason and Faith and is specifically designed for High School and College age students.

iapweb.org/ from the Institute for Advanced Physics is designed for students and educators to help answer the same questions addressed by the Institute for Reason and Faith above. But it is more of a resource as opposed to classroom material.

Linus2nd
 
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