Good Catholic books debunking modern philosophy

[Charlemagne_III]

Usually they just burn the authors in the courtroom.

Well, that too. As Charles Dickens put it: “Sir, the law is an arse.”

 

[Lucretius]

Hello, I’ve been meaning to ask this for sometime, I’m taking a course in philosophy at a secular college, and I was wondering if anyone can provide me with good books, Catholic or Protestant, debunking modern philosophy? I would especially like books that refute existentialism, that philosophy is extremely evil once you get a close look at it! And also the identity theory, I know there is a lot of good work proving the existence of the soul, but I would like work that addresses the identity theory in particular.

Glory to God
and
Hail Mary!

If you are looking for a good introduction to the Thomist critique of modern thought, I recommend Dr. Edward Feser’s *The Last Superstition *. You could also look into his blog, where he discusses much of the content of his thought: edwardfeser.blogspot.com/

Feser teaches intro classes and tends to respond to New Atheists, so he is often stuck dealing with introductory issues. This isn’t bad, because usually the most fertility and riches parts of philosophy are the simplest and most basic (I still am in awe at the distinction between the per see and the *per accidens ). Of course, when Dr. Feser gets more in depth, * it’s still really good.

I also really, really like James Chestek and his blog, which is much more in depth, and he looks more directly at the existentialists and Kant. Of course, if you aren’t familiar with the Thomist tradition, some posts might be hard to understand (which is why reading Feser first is helpful): thomism.wordpress.com

You could even go and look straight at the *Summa contra Gentiles * too, as many of the common questions regarding the faith are present in St. Thomas’ work: dhspriory.org/thomas/

Fulton Sheen’s writings and TV show are also insightful, I think, and a bunch of them are on YouTube: m.youtube.com/watch?v=-U3g1TzXgxM

Some thoughts though: your mindset looks like the sort that is looking to simply refute certain views. There is nothing inherently wrong in refuting error, but one thing I’ve learned from reading St. Paul and St. Thomas and Pascal and Chesterton and Sheen and Chestek is that even errors can provide a deep insight into the truth. I think it would be more fruitful to you, as a thinker and philosopher, to expand your perspective, look at and from other perspectives, and discover the ways in which even erroneous philosophy can illuminate and refine true philosophy. Don’t merely look at why a view or approach is wrong, look at why it is correct

And remember the advice of Fulton Sheen: don’t listen to just what a person says, listen to why they say it. Don’t just look at the letters, but the spirit that formed them. Look to the intentions or motivations behind a claim or statement or view: often times the statement might be incorrect in some way, but the intention from which it was formed notices something really true and insightful. Look to the heart, what the person actually means with his words. As Pascal says, everyone is usually correct, given their perspective.

Christi pax.