This paper argues that Aquinas's conception of the human soul and intellect offers a consistent alternative to the dilemma of materialism and post-Cartesian dualism. It also argues that in their own theoretical context, Aquinas' arguments for the materiality of the human soul and immateriality of the intellect provide a strong justification of his position. However, that theoretical context is rather "alien" to ours in contemporary philosophy. The conclusion of the paper will point in the direction of what can be done (...) to render Aquinas's position more palatable to contemporary philosophers. (shrink)

El artículo analiza críticamente la propuesta contenida en el libro Aquinas’s Ontology of the Material World. Change, Hylomorphism, and Material Objects de Jeffrey E. Brower. Se sintetizan algunos de los puntos principales de la obra ero, particularmente, se evalúa el núcleo de su propuesta, consistente en poner en diálogo las ideas tomasinas acerca del mundo natural con las propuestas de la ontología contemporánea. Se evidencia que, más allá de las intenciones, el autor no consigue cumplir con lo proyectado en tanto (...) parece ejercer en algunos puntos cierta violencia interpretativa contra conceptos centrales de la filosofía del Aquinate. Se concluye que dicha violencia es consecuencia de pretender circunscribir tales conceptos dentro de un contexto epistemológico radicalmente distinto como es el de la ontología contemporánea. (shrink)

This article seeks to advance a Thomistic metaphysics of creation in light of certain claims made by Stephen Hawking on the beginninglessness of the universe. I start with an exploration of Hawking's proposal that a beginningless universe entails an uncreated universe. This propels me into Aquinas's contention that a created beginningless universe is indeed possible, and thence I consider the metaphysics behind Thomas's position in this regard. Given this metaphysics of creation, I contend that there follow some interesting conclusions with (...) regard to our notion of a creator God and the means for establishing the existence of such. (shrink)