Thomism

By Haldane, John J.

Deriving from Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, Thomism is a body of philosophical and theological ideas that seeks to articulate the intellectual content of Catholic Christianity. In ...

Poland, philosophy in

By Czerkawski, Jan; Stepien, Antoni B.; Wielgus, Stanislaw

Philosophy in Poland has developed largely along the same lines as its Western European counterpart. Yet it also has many aspects which are peculiar to itself. Historically, the ...

South Slavs, philosophy of

By Lazovic, Zivan; Pavkovic, Aleksandar

Philosophy as a distinct intellectual activity emerged in the coastal towns of the Adriatic during the Renaissance. Philosophers from this area wrote in Latin and taught philosophy in ...

Institutionalism in law

By Pintore, Anna
Translated by MacCormick, Neil

‘Institutionalism’ is the name for an approach to the theory of law worked out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by a number of scholars from ...

Maritain, Jacques (1882–1973)

By McInerny, Ralph

Maritain was one of the most influential twentieth-century interpreters of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. His interests spanned many aspects of philosophy, including aesthetics, political theory, philosophy of ...

Rahner, Karl (1904–84)

By Bonsor, Jack A.

Rahner sought to offer an account of the Christian faith that would be credible to the modern mind. His early philosophical works lay the foundation for this theological ...

Religion and political philosophy

By Weithman, Paul J.

Political philosophy began in Athens, but the large-scale impact of religion upon it had to await Christianity. Biblical Christianity portrays human beings as subjects of a kingdom of ...

Renaissance philosophy

By Ashworth, E.J.

The term ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, and was originally used to designate a rebirth of the arts and literature that began in mid-fourteenth century Italy (see Humanism, Renaissance). Here ...

Stein, Edith (1891–1942)

By Borden Sharkey, Sarah

Edith Stein was among the first women to earn a doctorate in philosophy in Germany, defending her dissertation in 1916. She worked as Edmund Husserl’s assistant and was ...

Aristotelianism in the 17th century

By Ariew, Roger

Aristotelians in the seventeenth century comprised a group of mostly anonymous textbook writers whose chief claim to fame is that their philosophy was opposed by such as Descartes ...

Garrigou-Lagrange, Réginald (1887–1964)

By McInerny, Ralph

Garrigou-Lagrange was a French Dominican who for decades adorned the Angelicum in Rome, where in his courses he commented closely on the Summa theologiae. The spiritual life was ...

John of St Thomas (1589–1644)

By Doyle, John P.

The seventeenth-century Portuguese Dominican, John of St Thomas or John Poinsot, was a major figure in late scholastic philosophy and theology. Educated at Coimbra and Louvain, he taught ...

Suárez, Francisco (1548–1617)

By Doyle, John P.

Francisco Suárez was the main channel through which medieval philosophy flowed into the modern world. He was educated first in law and, after his entry into the Jesuits, ...

Aristotelianism in the 17th century

Aristotelians in the seventeenth century comprised a group of mostly anonymous textbook writers whose chief claim to fame is that their philosophy was opposed by such early moderns ...

Aristotelianism, Renaissance

By Mahoney, Edward P.; South, James B.

By the Renaissance here is meant the period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries during which there was a deliberate attempt, especially in Italy, to pattern cultural activities ...

Ortega y Gasset, José (1883–1955)

By Orringer, Nelson R.

The Spanish philosopher Ortega borrowed themes from early twentieth-century German philosophy and applied them with new breadth and urgency to his own context. Calling his philosophy ‘vital reason’ ...

Rawls, John (1921–2002)

By Freeman, Samuel

Rawls’ main work, A Theory of Justice (1971), presents a liberal, egalitarian, moral conception – ‘justice as fairness’ – designed to explicate and justify the institutions of a ...

Political philosophy, history of

By Hampsher-Monk, Iain

The history of political philosophy attempts to yield a connected account of past speculation on the character of human association at its most inclusive level. ‘History’ or ‘philosophy’ ...

Vanini, Giulio Cesare (1585–1619)

By Shelford, April G.

Although he wrote little, Giulio Cesare Vanini occupies a secure place in European intellectual history. His philosophical atheism connects the developments in late Italian Renaissance thought with the ...

Analytical philosophy in Latin America

By Martí, Oscar R.

In Latin America, philosophical analysis has been portrayed as an intellectual revolution. Its avowed goal has been to replace the abstruseness and obscurantism of scholastic and metaphysical jargon ...

Sexuality, philosophy of

By Soble, Alan

The philosophy of sexuality, like the philosophy of science, art or law, is the study of the concepts and propositions surrounding its central protagonist, in this case ‘sex’. ...

Soto, Domingo de (1494–1560)

By Doyle, John P.

The sixteenth-century Spanish Dominican, Domingo de Soto, was a mainstay of the Thomistic revival begun at Salamanca by Vitoria. After study at Paris (where he was taught by ...

South Africa, philosophy in

By Duvenage, Pieter

Although it is incorrect to refer to an independent South African philosophical tradition, South Africa is nevertheless the location of an interesting history of philosophical institutionalization. This institutionalization ...

Villey, Michel (1914–88)

By MacCormick, Neil

Michel Villey was France’s leading post-war philosopher of law in the ‘natural law’ mode. He aimed to rediscover a distinctively philosophical approach to law rooted in the history ...

MacIntyre, Alasdair (1929–)

Alasdair MacIntyre has contributed to the diverse fields of social, moral and political philosophy. He is one of the leading proponents of a virtue ethical approach in moral ...