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THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY A Compendium for Philosophers and Theologians O.P. WILLIAM A. WALLACE, BD 5 i • W35 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Wallace, William A The elements of philosophy. Includes index. 1. Fhilosophy--Introductions. I. Title. BD21.W33 100 77-1527 ISBN 0-8139-0^5-7 Nihil Obstat: Daniel V. Flynn, J.C.D. Censor Librorum Imprimatur: ψ James P. Mahoney, D.D. Vicar General, Archdiocese of New York February 11, 1977 The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to he free from doctrinal or moral error. It Is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed. Designed, printed and bound in the United States of America by the Fathers and Brothers of the Society of St. Paul, 2187 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York, 10314, as part of their communications apostolate. . 6 7 8 9 (Current Printing: first digit). © Copyright 1977 by the Society of St. Paul ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Catholic University of America has extended permission _r the incorporation into the text of this book of parts of copy righted articles from the New Catholic Encyclopedia (15 vols. 2nd Supplement, New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 1967, Supplement, 1974). PREFACE Philosophy is among the oldest of intellectual disciplines, and it has undergone extensive development throughout the ages. So extensive has this development been, considering only its growth in the West, that it is exceedingly difficult to summarize in a systematic and historical way its knowledge content. Yet there would seem to be common agreement that certain elements go to make up philosophical knowledge, just as there would seem to be broad consensus that certain persons have figured most promin ently in its articulation. This book assumes that these premises are correct and addresses itself to the task of making a précis of such knowledge and its development, of presenting the content of philosophy and its history in concise and organized fashion. The work is projected to meet a twofold need and so is ad dressed to a twofold audience. The first need is that of philoso phers and of students of philosophy, who require a comprehensive view of the entire scope of their discipline and its history, but who frequently, because of specialization and the limited number of course offerings to which they have access, are unable to attain it. This need has always existed, but it has been exacerbated in recent years because of various factors that have affected both Catholic and non-Catholic education alike. In the case of the former, the years following Vatican II have seen a steady decline in the number and quality of philosophy courses taught in Cath olic colleges and seminaries. In many institutions the abandon ment of a philosophy requirement has forced philosophy depart ments to resort to a variety of methods to attract students. Un fortunately such methods, based as they are on the pragmatism of relevance, result in a dilution of course content and a lowering of the level of instruction. As a consequence difficult material is not being taught, nor are students expected to gain a comprehen sion of matters that previously would have been regarded as Preface THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY Vlll scientia debita in their discipline. A matching situation exists in non-Catholic institutions, except that here the inroads of analytical philosophy, preoccupied as it is with the piecemeal solution of problems tractable by its methods, have caused whole areas of systematic and historical knowledge to be dropped from the philosophy curriculum. In very few institutions, as a conse quence, can a student now obtain a complete education in phil osophy, and one might even venture to say that the philosophical community at large is currently in danger of losing its consider able heritage from limes past. Although fascinating in its own right, philosophy has been cultivated for centuries in the Western World because of the unique service it can render to Christian theology. Just as mathe matics is regarded as the “handmaiden of the sciences,” so phil osophy is rightfully called the “handmaiden of theology.” It is for this reason that the Church has insisted that candidates for the priesthood have a substantial foundation in philosophy before beginning their theological studies. In recent years, however, seminarians have encountered difficulties similar to those of phil osophy majors in their attempts to secure this requisite knowl edge. In neither case is the situation desirable, but for semin arians it has been made even less so by two factors that complicate theological education in the U.S. The first is the present tenden cy to relegate the philosophical education of future theologians to the four years of college that precede their entrance into a semin ary. For many students this means that the philosophy credits they bring to the seminary will not be from a Catholic college, incomplete as the instruction even there may be. Now philosophy in our day is a very diversified discipline, pursued in a variety of ways by its many practitioners. While throughout the centuries, moreover, philosophy has come to be regarded as the “hand maiden of theology,” not all recent philosophy can be so regarded. Indeed many types of philosophy that have come to predominate in non-Catholic institutions in the U.S. would be more a hin drance than a help for the study of Christian theology. A person might even have earned a Ph.D. in this discipline and still be poorly prepared philosophically to begin his theological studies. IX THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY Preface The other complicating factor is the more recent expectation that seminarians have a broad base of preparation in the be havioral and social sciences as part of their training for the priesthood. Although these sciences may have ministerial value, not infrequently they are taught in such a way as to impart a world-view that works against traditional philosophical positions of special importance for theology. The curriculum of a college student is limited, and the more time he devotes to psychology and sociology, say, the less time he inevitably has for philosophy. Add to this the distinct possibility that greater numbers of students may soon be coming to seminaries with undergraduate majors in the behavioral and social sciences than with majors in philosophy. In such circumstances the theology professors who address incoming students may well wonder what they can right fully expect by way of previous philosophical preparation, or what remedial courses should be provided to make up for defi ciencies that are clearly known to exist. This book is designed as a practical expedient to meet the needs of both situations just outlined, those respectively of the philosophy major and the prospective theologian. It is simply a primer, an elementary presentation of the main teachings of philosophy that can promote a competent grasp of that discipline, either for its own sake or as a preparation for theology. Beyond this it pretends to be little more than a syllabus, i.e., a listing of the more important matters on which students may be expected to have some convictions, or at least informed opinions, by die time they complete their studies. It is directed to students them selves, for use either while studying philosophy in a formal way or while otherwise engaged, perhaps already studying theology, in making up deficiencies in their previous formation. Hopefully it will be useful also to teachers and to administrators charged with providing courses for philosophy majors or for pre-theology students, by way of suggesting topics to be covered in lectures and in other teaching situations, and even for structuring exam inations, either as philosophy comprehensives or to test a student’s achievement level before beginning theology. A syllabus, of course, supplies a mere skeleton or outline of Preface THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY X knowledge. To put flesh on that skeleton or to fill out the outline it is necessary to refer the user to other reading materials and teaching aids. The author has sought to do this in the presentwork by relying on his long experience as editor and member of the editorial board of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. This encyclo pedia is widely available in the U.S., and it is relatively up-to- date: the first fifteen volumes were published in 1967, and a sixteenth supplementary volume was issued in 1974. More impor tant, it contains an extensive and authoritative treatment of all aspects of philosophy, its history, and its relations to other disci plines, written by acknowledged experts in their fields and with the needs of Catholic scholarship explicitly in mind. Most articles include a bibliography that features works in English, at an ele mentary level when available, where the student can find further exposition of the subject matter in which he is interested. Teach ers may supplement these bibliographies with their own preferred readings, to be sure, but it may be observed that, with the decline of Catholic publishing during the post-Vatican II period, rela tively few new textbooks have appeared, and thus such readings will generally have to be found in the periodical literature. References to fuller treatments in the New Catholic Encyclo pedia of materials discussed herein are given by parenthetical entries of the type Cl 1:292c). Here the first number Cl O is that of the volume, the second number C292) that of the page, and the letter CO that of the quadrant on the page where the treat ment begins Ca, b, c, and d indicate respectively the upper and lower halves of the left and right columns of the page). Usually only beginning references are given, although in some cases both beginning and ending references are indicated to specify a par ticular passage of interest. The user should refer to these refer enced articles and passages for a fuller explanation of the state ment here given. Generally he will find that the statement itself has been extracted from the fuller exposition in the encyclopedia, and in many instances he will discover not only how the matter of interest fits into the synthesis here proposed, but also how it relates to other, often diverse, systems of thought. After that he may wish to consult the bibliography and continue on with books XI THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY Preface or articles that are more expository in character, until he has answered all his questions or otherwise satisfied his curiosity. A teacher, it goes without saying, can be of inestimable help in this process, and a structured classroom situation will generally facilitate his acquisition of knowledge better than directed read ing alone. Should either of these aids be lacking, however, the situation is by no means hopeless, particularly for the student who is properly motivated and who sees his task as one of essential preparation for his life’s work. Apart from these references to the encyclopedia, the book also contains internal or cross references to materials treated elsewhere in its pages. This has been thought desirable because the fields into which philosophy is divided are interrelated, and one field frequently makes use of concepts developed in others. A system of cross reference also eliminates the need to repeat material that has been, or will be, explained better in other contexts. To facili tate such internal reference the chapters of the book have been divided into sections that are consecutively numbered from be ginning to end; the paragraphs within each section are also num bered with Arabic numerals, beginning with the number one in each section. Cross references are inserted directly into the text and enclosed in square brackets. A typical reference would be [§19.6]; this refers the reader to section 19 (the subdivision of Chapter 3 that deals with place and time) and to the sixth num bered paragraph within that section, which treats of individuation. The author is aware that the style he has here adopted is terse, even dense, and that his summary is so packed as to contain far more information than the average student can master in, say, two years of study. Such depth and range, however, actually give the resulting product a special flexibility as a pedagogical aid, particularly in view of its being keyed to the New Catholic Ency clopedia. With a minimum of guidance from a teacher it can prove helpful for general inquiry into the subject matter of phil osophy and its history, and at the same time it contains enough material to engage the serious student, and to serve as a reference guide against which he can check his comprehension of this diffi cult discipline as he advances in its mastery. Preface the elements of philosophy xii Philosophy, of course, is an intriguing and life-long study. It cannot be reduced to a finite number of propositions or con cepts, nor can it be circumscribed by any philosophical system. But one pan surely be introduced to its study by focusing on its knowledge content as expressed in more or less systematic form. This has always been the ideal behind the notion of the philoso phia perennis that has successfully been used by the Church to prepare its philosophers and theologians over the centuries. It is hoped that this simple compendium may serve a similar function in the decades that lie ahead, or at least until something better comes along that can meet the specific needs of philosophy majors and of students preparing for theology. The author claims no originality for this work, aware that he is more its redactor than its composer. As already noted, he has summarized many of the articles contained in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, and in so doing has had no scruples over incorpo rating verbatim into the text passages that suited his needs. The book has been constructed, in this fashion, largely from the work of others. The user can readily verify this by consulting the refer ences given to the encyclopedia, where, at the end of each article cited, he will discover the name of the original contributor. This feature should make the presentation more authoritative, involv ing as it does the collaboration of hundreds of authors with recog nized expertise on the topics treated. Still, the work of the redactor has been more than editorial, for to him must be ascribed the over all synthesis, the shades of interpretation involved in reshaping its components, and, unhappily, any errors that may have insinu ated themselves in the process. He is deeply aware, of course, of his indebtedness to many colleagues and friends, particularly thé collaborators just mentioned. He must express special debts of gratitude, finally, to Norman H. Fenton for his careful reading of the manuscript, and to The Catholic University of America, holder of the copyright of the encyclopedia, for permission to use materials that have already appeared in its pages. William A. Wallace Washington, D. C.