Philosophy

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Crusading_Canuk

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This has little to do with actual Catholic theology, however I have always hod a great intrest in the Romans and ancient Greeks ( my ancestors!) and have started to look into their philosophy. I know the Helenistic world was pagan until the Emperor Constantine. So which philosophers would be suitable to read about as I am Catholic?
 
Crusading_Canuk said:
This has little to do with actual Catholic theology, however I have always hod a great intrest in the Romans and ancient Greeks ( my ancestors!) and have started to look into their philosophy. I know the Helenistic world was pagan until the Emperor Constantine. So which philosophers would be suitable to read about as I am Catholic?
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Any educated Catholic would be schooled in all the ancient philosophy, particularly Plato and Aristotle, and to a lesser extent the minor Greeks and a few Romans, who generally did not add anything but, like Cicero, can be worth reading on their own.

My recommendations among Christian-era philosophers, other than the obvious (Augustine and Aquinas) are Boethius and Spinoza, and less so Duns Scotus, who are not much read nowadays outside of college classes but were extremely influential in the development of Catholic theology (especially Boethius).

Let me emphasize again that it is simply impossible to be a philosopher without a thorough grounding in Plato and Aristotle.
 
Crusading_Canuk said:
This has little to do with actual Catholic theology, however I have always hod a great intrest in the Romans and ancient Greeks ( my ancestors!) and have started to look into their philosophy. I know the Helenistic world was pagan until the Emperor Constantine. So which philosophers would be suitable to read about as I am Catholic?
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All of them.
 
Wesley7 said:
Philosophy is the science of explaining the natural world.
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No, that’s science. To the credit of your statement, several hundred years ago what we call “science” was indeed generally termed “natural philosophy.” Nevertheless they are pretty much utterly different fields.
 
Crusading_Canuk said:
This has little to do with actual Catholic theology, however I have always hod a great intrest in the Romans and ancient Greeks ( my ancestors!) and have started to look into their philosophy. I know the Helenistic world was pagan until the Emperor Constantine. So which philosophers would be suitable to read about as I am Catholic?
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Read in Plato:
Apology (Socrates’ defense speech at his capital trial)
Symposium
Republic

Read in Aristotle:
Categories chapters 1-5
Physics book 2
On the Soul books 2-3
Nicomachean Ethics

You might also look at Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (a Roman Emperor but he wrote in Greek and was a follower of the Stoics, though he persecuted Christians) and The Enchiridion of Epictetus.

Those are the best pagans to start with.

Of course, the Fathers of the Church are always good to read! But for philosophy, yes, get a good foundation in Plato and Aristotle.
 
Originally Posted by Wesley7
Philosophy is the science of explaining the natural world.
MarkThompson
No, that’s science.
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I suggest that we look at reality as Msgr John F McCarthy explains:
rtforum.org/lt/lt123.html
If “science” is defined merely to coincide with empirical science, there results a false concept of science and an impoverished idea of reality. Technical science, as distinguished from common sense, is “certified knowledge,” and some assume that only the knowledge gained from empirical science is really certified, into which they might throw historical knowledge in a broader sense. But there are other areas and levels of technical science that also give certified knowledge. Not only is there true historical science, but, in the midst of the widespread confusion and misunderstanding in the field known today as “modern philosophy,” there is still an area of true philosophical science, if one can manage to find it, and it resides in Scholastic philosophy. Again, there is still an area of theological science, and it resides today especially in Scholastic theology, and the knowledge presented in these latter two sciences is also objectively true and real.
 
Crusading_Canuk said:
This has little to do with actual Catholic theology, however I have always hod a great intrest in the Romans and ancient Greeks ( my ancestors!) and have started to look into their philosophy. I know the Helenistic world was pagan until the Emperor Constantine. So which philosophers would be suitable to read about as I am Catholic?
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all of them.
 
You should read all of them, even the ones that were wrong. However, the ones that would most be within the same line as Catholic philosophy would be Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch and Plotinus. Seriously though, you can’t go wrong with pretty much any ancient philosophy.
 
Also, the main Catholic philosophers would be people like Saint Boethius, Saint Augustine, Saint John of Damascus, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Blessed Duns Scotus. Also definitely read the Jewish philosopher Maimonides and the Muslim philosophers Avicenna, Averroes, and Alkindi.

There are many many more I could list. I didn’t even touch on the later Scholastic, early modern, or contemporary philosophers. But it seems like you’re just beginning and this list might already be overwhelming. If you’re interested in anything else let me know and I’d be happy to help.
 
Here is a list which contains most of the important philosophers in chronological order; starting of course with Plato; The most important of which have been emboldened:

**Plato **(Republic)
**Aristotle **(Organon; Prior Analytics; Posterior Analytics)
Epictetus (Discourses)
St Ambrose (De sacramento regenerationis sive de philosophia)
St Augustine (Confessions; City of God)
Proclus (Elements of Theology)
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy)
St Isidore of Seville (De differentiis verborum)
St John of Damascus (Fountain of Knowledge)
**Avicenna **(Kitab al-Najat)
St Peter Damian (Divine Omnipotence)
Peter Abelard (Logica ingredientibus)
Peter Lombard (Sentances)
Averroes (Commentaries)
Alexander of Hales (Summa Frateris)
St Bonaventure (Commentaries on Sentances)
St Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica)
Henry of Ghent (Quodlibetal Discourses)
Bl. Duns Scotus (Opus Oxoniense, Tractatus de Primo Principio)
William of Ockham (Summa logicae)
William of Alnwick (Additiones magnae)
Francis Mayron (Scripta super libros Sententiarum)
Albert of Saxony (Quaestiones logicales, De quadratura circuli)
Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (De hominis dignitate)

👍
 
May I thank you too, John Damian!
You have provided a list which I will find very useful in my ongoing reading. As an adjunct to the OP, can I ask you if there is controversy surrounding interpretation of said major philosophers within Catholic academia?
God Bless,
Colmcille1.🙂
 
colmcille1 said:
May I thank you too, John Damian!
You have provided a list which I will find very useful in my ongoing reading. As an adjunct to the OP, can I ask you if there is controversy surrounding interpretation of said major philosophers within Catholic academia?
God Bless,
Colmcille1.🙂
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There is generally no philosophical controversy; although:

Avicenna, Averroes, Epictetus, Aristotle and Plato were not Catholics.

Theologically speaking; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola had a few of his arguments ordered to be destroyed which where heretical; which was complied with; Aquinas was posthumously declared against on the matter of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX, William of Ockham was excommunicated for disobedience; but his work never condemned; Scotus was charged by some commentators with damaging theology with his ideas on univocity.

But philosophically all of these prove interesting reading; even though they often disagree.
 
JohnDamian said:
There is generally no philosophical controversy; although:

Avicenna, Averroes, Epictetus, Aristotle and Plato were not Catholics.

Theologically speaking; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola had a few of his arguments ordered to be destroyed which where heretical; which was complied with; Aquinas was posthumously declared against on the matter of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX, William of Ockham was excommunicated for disobedience; but his work never condemned; Scotus was charged by some commentators with damaging theology with his ideas on univocity.

But philosophically all of these prove interesting reading; even though they often disagree.
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Thank you again, sir!
I notice in your list, you include a St. Peter Damian (Divine Omnipotence). Any relation?😃
God Bless,
Colmcille1.🙂
 
colmcille1 said:
Thank you again, sir!
I notice in your list, you include a St. Peter Damian (Divine Omnipotence). Any relation?😃
God Bless,
Colmcille1.🙂
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Yes; I took my screen name from the combination of John Duns Scotus and St. Peter Damian. Both very inspirational.
 
JohnDamian said:
Yes; I took my screen name from the combination of John Duns Scotus and St. Peter Damian. Both very inspirational.
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Very good! I will use your post of the great philosophers as a kind of “bucket list” on my voyage to the hopeful attainment of philosophical wisdom!
God Bless,
Colmcille1.🙂
 
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