” Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis.” So responded the Marquis de la Place to Napoleon when the latter asked how he could write such a big book, his Méchanique Celeste, with no mention of God. .. Laplace’s statement typifies the position of God in modern science’s view of the universe. God is not being attacked. God is simply an hypothesis, duly considered and found uncompelling…The present book is intended, not to combat science, but to place science in perspective for those of us who have by faith one more encompassing view than that of science and who are in danger of forgetting it in society with a limited-by-science view…The present book is concerned with establishing that today’s science , while successfully the order of the universe, deductively proceeding from nonobjective hypotheses, still leaves open why the universe is orderly. Belief in the order of the physical universe calls for completion by initially belief, and ultimately of proof, of an Orderer.
+++
A trenchant analysis of modern psychology — an enterprise that Paul Vitz maintains has become a religion, a secular cult of self, now part of the problem of modern life rather than part of its resolution. Virtually rewritten, this second edition of the original 1977 text takes into account much of what has happened in the field of psychology during the past seventeen years. Two completely new chapters are also included — oneon education and “values clarification” and the other on New Age religion.
+++
The highly regarded French philosopher, Etienne Gilson, brilliantly plumbs the depths of Thomistic Realism, and false Thomisms as well, in this answer to Kantian modernism. The important work, exquisitely translated by Mark Wauck, brings the essential elements of philosophy into view as a cohesive, readily understandable, and erudite structure, and does so rigorously in the best tradition of St. Thomas.
Written as the definitive answer to those philosophers who sought to reconcile critical philosophy with scholastic realism, Gilson saw himself as an historian of philosophy whose main task was one of restoration, and principally the restoration of the wisdom of the Common Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas.
Gilson’s thesis was that realism was incompatible with the critical method and that realism, to the extent that it was reflective and aware of its guiding principles, was its own proper method. He gives a masterful account of the various forces that shaped the neo-scholastic revival, but Gilson is concerned with the past only as it sheds light on the present. In addition to his criticisms, Gilson presents a positive exposition of true Thomist realism, revealing the foundation of realism in the unity of the knowing subject.
Recommended Organizations
Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Doctor of the Church, is our touchstone.
+++
Society of Catholic Social Scientists
Bringing together Catholic social scientists to examine political, social, and economic reality in light of empirical data, the Church’s social teaching, and the natural law.
+++
Fellowship of Catholic Scholars
The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars came into existence “in order to serve Jesus Christ better by helping one another in our work and by putting our abilities more fully at the service of the Catholic faith.”
