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Title: An Elementary Christian Metaphysics by Joseph Owens ISBN: 0-268-00916-3 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: April, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent technical exploration...
Comment: Joseph Owens has written a superb technical study of ONTOLOGY, the study of "being qua being", from a Christian perspective. That is: Owens proceeds from supposition of Uncreated SUBSISTENT BEING(God)as the source of created, contingent "being" subtending existence and all existents. He further develops distinction between "being"(esse), the IS-ness most fundamentally "actualizing" an existent(an "ens"...thing...res...substance);and NATURE(essentia..."through which and in which a being has its act of existing" p.131).NATURE is not only characterizing(existential particularizing)WHAT-ness of a thing/existent, but is its "formal" cause as POTENTIAL for existence in Reality. That is to say, "Natures" potentially exist as things they may become when actualized by ESSE.(Thus: there is Human Nature that can be actualized/ inFORMED by "being qua being" to become a unique person...known individually as particular man or woman, and collectively(UNIVERSALLY)as Mankind.)
Additonally, Owens discusses notions of "real" being(existents); and cognitional being(ideas).The latter may or may not have NATURES:potency for existence.(Ideas: MAN; table; cars or Time Machines,can/may exist. "Square circles"; "snowballs in hell";or
Heideggerian/Sartrian NOTHING-ness, cannot "exist" outside clever verbal formulation.) Furthermore: It's not that GOD is NO-thing (Medievalists occasionally punned). HE is Ultimate Thing; the
Only Being who IS subsistent; whose being(Esse)and Nature (essentia)are Identical. Defense of valid--truthful and reliable--EPISTEMOLOGY is argued with the notion of INTENTIONAL being. Knowledge itself is Cause(esse)communicated to intellects then actualized as IDEAS in the mind. Intellect "judges" idea/concepts existentially and essentially in what comprises the reasoning process(cf: pp.236-247). This essay is fascinating exploration of fudamental metaphysics from classical(Christian, Aristotelian-influenced)perspective. Key chapters are 6 ...Subsistent Being as FIRST CAUSE...and 9; discussion of Essence(s)...the WHAT-ness...constituting REALITY.The book is highly recommended to students of philosophy and history of ideas,particularly as CONTRA to many nihilistic anti-Metaphysics (with solipsistic "knowledge" theories)comprising POST-MODERNISM.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great work, but not for beginners
Comment: Fr. Owens truly provides an outstanding work into Christian metaphysical thinking. While this book is titled an "Elementary" introduction and indeed it is, still the subject matter of metaphysics is not easy and hence this material is no cake walk. First time readers on metaphysics should probably read an easier primer, but after doing so they would do well to buy this work of Owens. It is very well done.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not all that elementary
Comment: If you are a Christian and interested in philosophy, then this book is for you. Owens does an excellent job of introducing the student to the science of 'being as being.' However, it is not elementary as the title might suggest. There is a lot to digest, but the Christian intellectual will find a lot of answers to how a theist ought to do philosophy. The best feature are the footnotes. Owens directs the reader to other interesting pursuits. I cannot not recommend this book enough.
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Title: Cognition: An Epistemological Inquiry by Joseph Owens ISBN: 0268007918 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: An Interpretation of Existence by Joseph Owens ISBN: 0268011575 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: December, 1987 List Price(USD): $9.50 |
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Title: The Unity of Philosophical Experience by Etienne Gilson ISBN: 089870748X Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism by Fergus Kerr ISBN: 0631213139 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Being and Some Philosophers by Etienne Gilson ISBN: 088844415X Publisher: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Pub. Date: June, 1952 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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