The rise of the neo-scholastic and neo-Thomist epistemology (1840–1920)

Authors

  • Rodion V. Savinov Saint-Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine (Russia)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21146/2072-0726-2019-12-2-64-77

Keywords:

neo-scholasticism, neo-Thomism, epistemology, metaphysics, Aquinas, Aristotle, Modern

Abstract

The author analyzes the rise of the theory of knowledge in the Catholic intellectual culture of the period between 1840s and 1920s. This period can be divided into two stages of comparable significance: the stage of the Neo-Scholasticism (1840-1870) and the stage of a proper Neo-Thomism (1870-1920). It is further possible to distinguish three forms in the development of these stages, which are examined from an epistemological perspective. The first form of epistemology, characteristic of the 1840s-1870s, and associated with the names of G. Sanseverino, M. Liberatore, J. Balmes, J. Kleutgen, is characterized by a traditional scholastic model of understanding as unity of the three intellectual operations. However, this model is complicated by a differentiated analysis of individual functions and moments of understanding, associated with Wolffianism. The next form of epistemology was formed in 1880s-1910s and was characterized by an attempt to return «back to Aquinas», as well as by the formation of the Neo-Thomism, enshrined in the “24 Thomistic theses”. In the doctrine of cardinal D. Mercier, the realistic epistemology of Acquinas came into contact with modern philosophy and psychology. The third stage was associated with J. Marechal and his predecessors (1910-1920), who proposed a new understanding of the theory of knowledge. This new approach inherited the Kantian view of cognition but proposed a revision of the critical method itself (in the writings of J. Marechal’s). The critical method underwent a reconstruction on the basis of the doctrine of the four causes of Aristotle and Aquinas.

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Published

2019-05-23

Issue

Section

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

How to Cite

[1]
2019. The rise of the neo-scholastic and neo-Thomist epistemology (1840–1920). Filosofskii zhurnal | Philosophy Journal. 12, 2 (May 2019), 64–77. DOI:https://doi.org/10.21146/2072-0726-2019-12-2-64-77.