Dynamic transcendentals : truth, goodness, and beauty from a Thomistic perspective

274 Pages·2012·1.28 MB·English

by  Aquinas Saint. Thomas

Dynamic TranscenDenTals

al ice m. ramos
DynamicTranscendentals
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty from a
Thomistic Perspective
The caTholic UniversiTy of america Press
WashingTon, D.c.
Copyright © 2012
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standards for
Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ansi Z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ramos, Alice, date
Dynamic transcendentals : truth, goodness, and beauty
from a Thomistic perspective / Alice M. Ramos.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isBn 978-0-8132-1965-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274.
2. Transcendentals. I. Title.
B765.T54R24 2012
111'.8—dc23
2011040543
co nTenTs
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
ParT i TrUTh, measUre, anD virTUe
1 A Metaphysics of the Truth of Creation:
Foundation of the Desire for God 11
2 Aquinas on Measure 27
3 The Affections and the Life of the Mind 47
ParT ii BeaUTy, orDer, anD Teleology: The
PerfecTion of man anD The Universe
4 Beauty and the Perfection of Being 71
5 Evil, Order, and Providence 94
6 The Experience of Vulnerability and Shame 108
7 On the Good and Glory 122
8 Human Life and the World Transfigured 133
vi conTenTs
vi BeaUTy, orDer, anD Teleology
ParT iii gooDness anD BeaUTy: hUman reason
anD The TrUe gooD
9 The Good and the Beautiful: Why the
Nonvirtuous Person Can See the Beauty of
a Good Act 147
10 Moral Beauty and Affective Knowledge
in Aquinas 181
11 Art, Truth, and Morality: Aesthetic
Self-forgetfulness versus Recognition 205
Conclusion 227
Bibliography 235
Index 245
acknoWleDgmenTs
During the first year of my graduate studies in philosophy at the
University of Navarra in Spain, Alejandro Llano, who was to be
my dissertation director, suggested that I read the first question of
Aquinas’s De Veritate. That suggestion, for which I am so grateful,
sparked my interest in the transcendentals and especially in the
transcendentality of truth. I saw in Aquinas’s thought the resour-
ces I needed to develop what I then called a metaphysics of the
sign, a dissertation project that enabled me to make sense of some
of my previous studies in contemporary semiotics. Since my re-
turn from Spain I have been fortunate to receive encouragement
for my work from a number of philosophers. Ralph McInerny,
whose Thomistic Institutes at the University of Notre Dame were
always a source of inspiration, was especially supportive when he
learned of my intention to write a book dealing with a dynam-
ic interpretation of the transcendentals. The way I initially con-
ceived of the book is somewhat different from the form it has tak-
en here; the interpretation, however, remains the same.
In the past fifteen years my work on the transcendentals and
on other themes in Aquinas and the Thomistic tradition has ap-
peared in a number of publications. Some of the essays in this
book are from previously published articles that have under-
vii
viii acknoWleDgmenTs
viii BeaUTy, orDer, anD Teleology
gone either slight or significant revision. I am grateful for the
permission to publish parts or the whole of the following arti-
cles: “A Metaphysics of the Truth of Creation: Foundation of the
Desire for God,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical
Association 69 (1995): 237–48; “Beauty and the Perfection of Be-
ing,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 71
(1997): 255–68; “Beauty, Mind, and the Universe,” in Beauty, Art,
and the Polis, ed. Alice Ramos (American Maritain Association,
2000, distributed by The Catholic University of America Press),
70–84; “The Dignity of Man and Human Action,” Acta Philo-
sophica 10, no. 2 (2001): 315–21; “Evil and Providence: Toward
a New Moral Order,” in Faith, Scholarship, and Culture in the 21st
Century, ed. Alice Ramos and Marie I. George (American Mari-
tain Association, 2002, distributed by The Catholic University
of America Press), 269–79; “Moral Beauty and Affective Knowl-
edge in Aquinas,” Acta Philosophica 13, no. 2 (2004): 321–37; “The
Human Person as Image and Sign,” Proceedings of the International
Congress on Christian Humanism in the Third Millennium: The Per-
spective of St. Thomas Aquinas: September 21–25, 2003, vol. 2 (Vat-
ican City: Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, 2005):
101–10; “Art, Truth, and Morality: Aesthetic Self-forgetfulness
versus Recognition,” in Mimesi, Verità, Fiction, ed. Rafael Jimé-
nez Cataño and Ignacio Yarza (Rome: EDUSC, 2009), 89–106;
“Transcending Bodily Existence and Vulnerability,” in Maritain
and America, ed. Christopher M. Cullen, S.J., and Joseph Allan
Clair (American Maritain Association, 2009, distributed by The
Catholic University of America Press), 179–91; “Toward the Re-
covery of the Moral Sense,” in The Renewal of Civilization, ed.
Gavin T. Colvert (American Maritain Association Publication,
2010, distributed by The Catholic University of America Press),
99–109; book review of Beauty by Roger Scruton, Quaestiones
Disputatae 1 (Fall 2010): 261–63. In addition, I would like to ac-
knowledge the use of previously published material in Spanish:
“Mensura: Un Concepto neoplatónico en Tomás de Aquino,” in
acknoWleDgmenTs ix
Metafísica y Antropología en el Siglo XII, ed. María Jesús Soto (Pam-
plona, Spain: EUNSA, 2005), 349–64; and “La Confrontación
entre el amor y la incapacidad de amar,” in Identidad cristiana, ed.
Antonio Aranda (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 2007), 117–28.
I wish to note here that my collaboration in a research proj-
ect funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation,
under the direction of María Jesús Soto at the University of Na-
varra, was in part instrumental in my decision to seek the publi-
cation of this volume of essays. I am grateful to Dr. Soto for her
interest in my work and for her friendship, which has remained
firm throughout the years and despite the distance. There are
many others both in the United States and abroad to whom I
am indebted; some will find their work quoted in the pages that
follow or duly acknowledged in a note; others whose names
do not appear but with whom I have intellectual ties, or ties of
friendship, should know that their understanding and kindness
have been a great help to me.
My gratitude extends in a special way to the two reviewers
of my initial manuscript: Tracey Rowland and Jonathan San-
ford. Without their positive feedback the publication of this
book would have been significantly delayed. I am also grateful
to James Kruggel, acquisitions editor at the Catholic University
of America Press, for his kind consideration of my initial idea
for this book and for the formal invitation to submit a complet-
ed manuscript; he has been very supportive throughout the re-
view and publication process. My thanks go as well to Theresa
Walker, managing editor of the press, and to Philip Holthaus,
copyeditor, for their helpful suggestions and diligent work in
the final preparation of my manuscript. Of course, any substan-
tive or stylistic errors are solely my own.
Lastly, this book honors the memory of my beloved moth-
er, Dominga Méndez de Ramos. I am also indebted in a special
way to my father, Alejandro Ramos Jr., for his constant encour-
agement and moral support.