History of Philosophy and Education - Gilson

Aquinas Lecture 1947, PÛ
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL
EDUCATION
Under
the Auspices of the Aristotelian Society
of Marquette University
BY
fiTIENNE GILSON
of
the
Academie
frangaise,
Professor
of
the
History of Mediaeval Philosophy, Pontifical

Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY MILWAUKEE

1948
PRESS
Gerard Smith,
S.J.,
censor deputatus
Milwaukiae, die 24 Decembris, 1947
imprimatur
IjlMoyses E. Kiley
Archiepiscopus Milwaukiensis
Milwaukiae, die
mensis Januarii, 1948
COPYRIGHT 1948
BY THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY OF MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
To
A. C. Pegis
Who Knows Why
PREFATORY
The
Aristotelian Society of Marquette
University each year invites a scholar to deliver
a lecture in honor of
St.
Thomas
Aquinas. Customarily delivered on the Sun-
day nearest March

Society's
7th, the feast
day of the
are
patron
saint,
these
lectures
called the
Aquinas
lectures.
In 1947, after Dr.

livered
a
lecture,
Vernon Bourke
de-
"St.
Thomas and
whose
duties
the
Greek Moralists," on March 9 the Society

invited another scholar,
do
not permit him to come to the University
on the customary
date,
to
give another
It
Aquinas lecture in the
fall.
now
has the
pleasure of recording that lecture, given

Oct. 26, by Etienne Gilson of the Franâise.
Academie
Etienne Henri
13,
Gilson was
bom
June
1884
at Paris.
He
received his Agrege in
1907 and became Docteur-es-Lettres in 1913.
At
the Sorbonne he
was
a pupil of Lucien
Levy-Bruhi
who
taught him historical meth-
od and suggested the study of Descartes'

borrowings
from Scholasticism,
to St.
work
which led him
Thomas Aquinas and
the middle ages, the principal concern of

his scholarly career.
at the
He was
also a pupil,
College de France, of Henri Bergson,

lectures" he recently said "still re-
"whose main
in
my memory
as so
many hours
and
of
intellectual transfiguration,"
calls
whom
he
"the only living master in philosophy"
he ever had.
In 1913 he taught at the University of
Lille.
During the
first
world war he was a

in
machine-gunnery
captain
the
French
army, was captured at Verdun and spent

his time in a
German
prisoner of war
camp
writing and studying. After the war, in
1919, he joined the faculty of the University
of Strasbourg.
In 1921 he returned to
the Sorbonne, this time to teach,
and
re-
mained there
until 1932
when he was
elect-
ed to the College de France.
He
is
now
Pro-
fessor of the Philosophy of the

at the
Middle Ages
College de France. In 1929 he also
became Director of Studies and Professor

of the History of Mediaeval Philosophy at
the newly established Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada, of
is
which he
1939 was
a co-founder
and which
in
raised to a Pontifical Institute by Pius XII.
He
continues in those positions now. Ordi-
narily,
he teaches in Toronto during the

to Paris at Christmas time.
fall
and returns
Professor Gilson has held notable

tureships. In 1930
lec-
and 1931 he gave the
Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland; in 1936-37 he gave the Wil-
liam James lectures at Harvard; in 1937,

the Richards lectures at the University of
Virginia,
and
in 1940, the
Mahlon Powell
lectures at the University of Indiana.
He
is
founder and director of Archives
d'Htstoire Doctrinale et Litteraire
du Moyen-
age (with R.P.G. Thery) of which 16 vol-
umes have been published

de Philosophie
since 1925; Etudes
Me die vale,
35 volumes since
1921; Etudes de Tbeologie et d'Histoire de

la Spiritualite,
9 volumes since 1934, and

at the Pontifical
founder (with colleagues

Institute of
Mediaeval Studies) of Mediaeval
Studies, of
which 9 volumes have been pub-
lished since 1939-
Professor Gilson
is
member
of the
French Academy, the Royal Academy of

Holland, the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the
Pontifical
at
Academy of
St.
Thomas Aquinas
Rome.
He
has
received
many honorary
de-
grees: Doctor
of Letters (D.Litt.)
from Ox-
ford University; Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)
from the University of Aberdeen, Harvard

University and the University of Pennsylvania; Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
from
Rome, University of Milan and the University
of Montreal.
He
lic
is
president of the Franco-Canadian
Institute, president
of the Society of Catho-
Authors
at Paris, a
member
of the Se-
cours Catholique International and of Pax
Romana, before which he has
lectured in
Rome.
Professor Gilson entered the Conseil de
la
Republique, the upper house or senate
of the present French government in 1946.
He was
same
technical adviser to the French dele-
gation to the San Francisco Conference that

year,
composing the French
text of
the Charter of the United Nations.

also a French delegate to
He was UNESCO, the

Scientific
United Nations Educational,
and
Cultural Organization, for which he also
wrote the French
text.
Professor Gilson has published the
fol-
lowing volumes up to December 1947:

hidex
scolastico-cartesien,
Paris,
print.
Alcan,
1913, ix and 355 pages.
Out of
La Liberte chez Descartes

Paris, Alcan, 1913,
et la theologie,
453 pages. Out of
print.
Etudes de philosophie medievale.

lection des travaux
Col-
de
la Faculte des lettres
de Strasbourg, Strasbourg,
291 pages. Out of print.
1921,
v'm and
La
'Philosophie
de Saint Bonaventure,
Paris, Vrin, 1st edition, 1924,
420 pages; 2nd
edition, 1943,
483 pages;
1st edition translat-
ed under the
title
of The Philosophy of Saint
Bonaventure, Sheed
1938,
xiii
&
Ward,
New
York,
and 551 pages.
Discours de la Methode (Descartes) edited
with commentary, Paris, Vrin,
1st edi-
tion 1925,
2nd edition 1939,
text 78,
com-
mentary 490 pages.
Saint
Thomas d'Aquin, (Les

and coinmentary,
moralists
Paris,
Chretiens) texts
Ga-
balda, 6th edition 1941, 380 pages, translat-
ed under the
title
St.
of Moral Values and the
Moral
Life,
Louis
&
London, Herder,
1931, 329 pages.
Etudes sur
le role
de la pensee medtevale
cartesien, Paris,
dans la formation de systeme

Vrin, 1930, 345 pages.
UEsprit de la philosophie medievale (the

Gifford lectures of 1930-31) Paris, Vrin, 1st
edition, 2 vols.,
1932; 2nd edition,
vol.,
1944, 447 pages; translated under the
title
of
The
Spirit of Aiediaeval Philosophy,

1 vol.,
New
York, Scribners, 1936,
484 pages.
Paris,
Les Idees
et
les
Lettres,
Vrin,
1932, 300 pages.
Pour un ordre catholique,

de Brouv^êr, 1934, 237 pages.
Paris,
Desclee
La Theologie mystique de
Paris, Vrin, 1934,
Saint Bernard,
251 pages; translated un-
der the
title
of The Mystical Theology of
St.
Bernard,
New
York, Sheed
&
Ward,
1940,
264 pages.
Saint
Thomas Aquinas, from
Proceed-
ings of the British Academy, Vol.
XXI, Lon-
don,
Humphrey
Milford, 1935, 19 pages.

Paris, P. Tequi,
Le Realisme methodique,
1936, 101 pages.
Christianisme et philosophie, Paris, Vrin,

1936, 168 pages, out of print; translated un-
der the
title
of Christianity and Philosophy,
New York,
Sheed
& Ward,
1939, 134 pages.
The Unity of Philosophical Experience

(the William James lectures of 1937)
New
York, Scribners, 1937, 331 pages.

Mediaeval Universalism and
Value
1936)
pages.
Its
Present
(Harvard Tercentenary Conference
New
York, Sheed
&
Ward,
1937, 22
Reason and Revelation
in
the Middle
Ages (the Richards
lectures of 1937)
New
York, Scribners, 1938, 110 pages.
Helo'ise
et
Abelard, Paris, Vrin, 1938,
252 pages.
Realisme thomiste
et critique
de la con-
naissance, Paris, Vrin, 1939,
239 pages; soon
to be translated into English.
Dante
et
la
philosophie,
Paris,
Vrin,
1939, X and 341 pages.
God and
tures of 1940)
Press,
Philosophy (the Powell
lec-
New
Haven, Yale University

Press,
and Oxford, Oxford University
1941, 144 pages.
Introduction a
Paris,
l'
etude de Saint Augustin,

1929,
ii
Vrin,
1st
edition,
and 352
pages; 2nd edition 1943, 352 pages; soon

to
be translated into English.
La Philosophie an moyen-age,
Payot, 2nd
edition, 1944,
Paris,
763 pages, soon to
be translated into English. Theologie

et histoire
de
la spiritualite,
Paris, Vrin, 1943,
27 pages.
Le Thomisme,
Paris, Vrin,
5th edition
1945, 523 pages; 3rd edition translated under

the
title
of The Philosophy of
St.
St.
Thomas
Aquinas,
Louis, Herder, 1941; 362 pages;
5th edition soon to be translated into English.
Philosophic
et
Incarnation selon Saint
Augustin
(Conference
Albert
le
Grand,
1947), Montreal, Institut D'Etudes Medievales Universite
de Montreal, 1947, 55 pages.

of
L'P.tre et I'essence is in the process
being published by Vrin, Paris, 1948.
Being and Some Philosophers
is
sched-
uled to be published by MacMullen,
New
York, in 1948.
To
these the Aristotelian Society takes
pleasure in adding History of Philosophy
and Philosophical Education.
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION
History of Philosophy and

Philosophical Education
THE
the
entails
very
name
of philosophy means
love
is
of wisdom.
to
To
philoso-
phize, then,
pursue wisdom through
a consistent effort of reflexion, which itself

definite
ethical
requirements;
for
indeed no
time,
man
can, at
one and the same
both philosophize and indulge in

life as are
such ways of
incompatible with
philosophical thinking.
Yet even suppossatis-
ing that these moral conditions are

fied,
the fact remains that, by

is
its
very nature,
a philosopher's life
a constant effort to
acquire wisdom.
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND

But what
is
wisdom? According
it
to
its
classical definition,
is
the
knowledge of
first
the
first
principles
it
and of the
causes.
Of
course,
includes the knowledge of
many
other things as well; but in so far as he

is
using his wisdom, a wise
man knows
first
all
the rest as included in, or at least, related

to the first principles
and the
causes.
as to
We
are not without

this
some experience
what
means. There are things which

because
we know
we remember
them, and
there are things
which we know, not because
we remember
them, but because
some other things
we know through which we can

if
always find them again
need be, without
burdening our memory with cumbersome
and unnecessary
tellect thus
details.
Every time our
in-
succeeds in substituting some
principles
and causes of knowledge for

itself, it is
knowledge
on the right road

fact,
it
to
wisdom. As a matter of
has already
PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION
found wisdom,
at least in part,
while await-
ing the day when, fully aware of what the

absolutely
truly are,
first
it
principles
and the
first
causes
begins to see everything else in
their light.
If
this
be
true,
philosophy
is
less
knowledge than
suit
ly,
a life dedicated to the pur-
of a definite type of knowledge, name-
wisdom.
It is a
rather peculiar sort of

is
occupation and a life-long one. This

there are so
why
I
few philosophers, by which

entire lives are
to
mean men whose
wholly
task
and ultimately dedicated
the
of
achieving wisdom. True enough, most

are fond of saying,
men
from time
to time, that
they too are philosophers.

their
And
they are, in
own
way, inasmuch
as,
through a long
experience of things and men, plus a certain
amount of
reflexion,
they
have reached
some general conclusions which they call

their philosophy.
Yet they are not philoso-
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
AND
phers, precisely because their so-called phi-
losophy has grown spontaneously out of

their lives,
whereas a philosopher's
life is
completely dedicated to the conquest of wis-
dom.
If
one
is
a philosopher,
he can do
or,
it
nothing else than philosophize;

does something
else,
if
he
he will do
with a
view
to securing the
I
freedom he needs for

I
philosophizing.
if,
hope
will not startle
you
the better to
I
make
clear
what
have in
mind,
say that even professors of philos-
ophy are not philosophers. Some of them
may
be, but not all,
nor always. For indeed,
teaching philosophy and philosophizing are

far
from being one and the same

If it is
thing.
thinking aloud, the teaching of
philosophy
ion; but
reer
is
it
may help
philosophical reflexif
will not help
one's teaching ca-
spent in repeating by rote the very

philosophical
same
formulas,
and
this
sometimes for twenty years or more.
To
truly great philosopher, teaching
is
a nui-
sance, or, at least, a lesser evil. His professorial position is to
him, of
all positions,
the
one that enables him

the slightest possible
to earn a living
with
damage
to his true
is
philosophical
life.
While he
teaching,
he
is
perhaps not philosophizing, but, at
least,
he
is
talking about philosophy.
Such
an avocation takes him away from philos-
ophy
as
little
as
possible.
calls
This
is
what
aliis
Thomas Aquinas
tradere.
contemplata
Yet,
to act,
when
all is said
and done,
is
to to
teach
is
whereas
to philosophize
contemplate, and though, in this one instance, the active life of a
man
is
but the
these
their
overflowing of his contemplative
life,
two
lives
are not the same.

different.
Even
It is
proximate objects are
one
thing, for instance, to speculate about the
relations of being to becoming,
and
it
is
quite another thing to prepare twenty pu-
AND
pils for their final
examination at the end of
the year.
At the very same time when Bergfirst-year
son was teaching

college,
philosophy in
his cele-
he was engaged in writing

Essay
brated
on the Immediate Data of

Yet, had he attempted to
Consciousness.
teach his pupils
what he himself was
perall
sonally then interested in, they
would
have failed
their examinations, and,
how-
ever great a philosopher he might have
been, he
may
very well have lost his job. In

those of us
point of
who have seen copy-books of his college lectures, know that his course was pretty much the same as
fact,
that of
any ordinary professor of philoscontained sound and well ordered
ophy.
It
information about psychology, methodology, ethics and -metaphysics, in accord with

the
requirements
official
and the order of the
French
program.
Now such as it was,
Bergson's course v/as a very good introduc-
tion to philosophy indeed; but there
were
many
other teachers, at the very same time,

exactly the
who were doing

course under his
losopher,- he
same
thing. It
would be betraying him
to publish such a
since, as a phi-
own name,
had very
little to
do with
it. I
once met a captain in the French army
who
had been a pupil of Bergson's

early courses. Naturally,
sort of professor
I
in
those
asked him what
Bergson was.
"A wonderafter a
ful one,"
came the answer. Then,
brief pause, the captain
added with a smile:
"But, of course,
we
is
did not
know he was
to
Bergson." That
why, even though your
professor of philosophy
also a philosopher,
may happen
as such in
be
you do not know him

your
and you do not meet him

classrooms.
He
is
a philosopher, not
when
he
is
speaking to you but during those hours
of solitude
when he
is
speaking to himself
meditation.
in the quietness of his
own
This
raises a rather
AND
puzzling problem
for those
who want
still
it.
to study philosophy
and perhaps
it is
more
for those
is
whose work
the occupa-
to teach
If
philosophy
tion of a life time,
how
can
it
be learned or
taught within three or four or five years?
Should
we
not even ask:

all ?
how
can
it
be
learned or taught at
According to what
we
said a
is
moment
ago, the quest of wis-
dom
a personal affair. If
wisdom
its
is
to
be your
own wisdom, own

knows
quest.
then
quest must
that
be your
teacher
it is
The
and
fact
tells
your
truth
you what
it
does not mean that you

it
know
too;
but however long
takes you to realize
the meaning of his words,
when you
do,
you know truth exactly

truth
is
as
he does, and that

is his. It
yours exactly as his truth
may be
knows
the same truth, but every one

it,
who
intel-
knows
it
through his
own
lect,
so
that,
ultimately,
he
is
his
own
teacher.
Such
is,
as
believe, the
meaning of
St.
Augustine's
clusion
is
De
Magistro, a
work whose
conelse
that
no one teaches any one
anything.
Yet, all over the world, pupils

bitter experience
and students know from

that this
is
too
good
to
be
at
true. If
it
were
true, all teachers

jobs.
would
once lose their
They
don't, or, at least,

is
when one
of
them does, he
one;
so
that,
at
once replaced by another
on the whole, everything

in fact,
happens
as
though teachers were,
doing something.
And what
what
they do can
be learned from Thomas Aquinas who,

happily
completing
St.
Augustine
has said on this point, observes that teachers,
though they cannot think for
us,
can
yet
make
us think for ourselves, or, at
least,
se-
help us in so doing. Through carefully

lected words,
which are the signs of
his
10
concepts and his
AND
own
own
judgments, a
rise to similar
competent teacher can give

concepts
and
similar
judgments
in
the
minds of
his pupils.
is
What
pupils learn
from
their teachers
not necessarily what

it is
their teachers think; rather,
what they
say.
understand from what their teachers
This
is
where
St.
Augustine was right: no

his
one can know anything except through
own
may
mind. Yet the misunderstandings that

arise
can be avoided, corrected, and
finally eliminated.
When
in
a teacher has at
his his
length
succeeded
to
making
thought clear
pupils,
one or several of
his
own own
intel-
he has not substituted
own
lect for theirs,
but he has certainly taught
some one something.
How,
then,
is
the teacher going to teach

are not here concerned
philosophy?
We
with the technical details of philosophical
pedagogy. Obviously, there are as many
good ways of teaching philosophy
are
11
as there
good professors of philosophy, and

different their
however
are
ways may
be, if they
all
is
good
professors, their
at the
ways are
good.
Our main concern
moment
is
with a
much wider problem: what
the best apit
proach to philosophy? Here, again,
can
be said that there are several good ones, and

that
what
is
good
for
some students may

dif-
not be quite as good for students of a

ferent kind.
But,
in
the end,
and even
to try
though a professor were successively

different
approaches
try
to
philosophy,
at a time;
he
could
still
them only one
and
the only justification he could feel in try-
ing any one of them
is
that
it is,
or at least
might be, the best approach
to philosophy.
Our
question, therefore, remains:
what
is
this best
approach to philosophy going to

shall
.^
be,
it
and for what reasons
we
consider
as better than
any other
12
One
of Descartes' friends once asked

to him, his
him how, according
own
son
should be taught philosophy.

tion
To
a
this ques-
the
philosopher
made
let
surprising
answer.
He
did not say:

let
him read my
own
works; he said:
it
your son learn
philosophy as
is
being taught in the

is,
schools of the Jesuits, that

the
by taking
whole course
in
philosophy from bevery well
ginning to end.
Now we know
what such philosophical courses usually

are.
Cursus
philosophiae,
Compendium
philosophiae, Elementa philosophiae, philosophiae,
Summa
such
a
whatever
its
name,
book
is
supposed to give us a general survey
of philosophical problems as well as of their

possible solutions.
When
written from the

it
point of view of
Thomas Aquinas,
becomes
a Cursus philosophiae Thomisticae, a
Com-
pendium philosophiae ad mentem Ihomae

Aquinatis, or something of the sort. In
all
cases,
13
works of
this
kind purport to be so
or,
many
if
"Introductions to Philosophy,"
they are both
more
clear sighted
and more
ambitious, they are so
many
"Initiations to
the Philosophical Life."
The
striking suc-
cess of this sort of philosophical literature
would be
unintelligible
if it
did not answer

it
a genuine need. In point of fact
does.
When
try,
person asks us to describe a counis
the best answer to give

is
to
show him
map. This
it is
not the best ultimate answer,

first
but
the best
one; and in so far as
introductions to philosophy are concerned,

their greatest merit
is
to be
still
is
both maps
of,
and guides
the
to,
what
for beginners
unknown country
It
of philosophy.
folly to act otherwise.
would be sheer
first
In the
place, not all those

will
who
study
philosophy
become
if
philosophers.
What
else
do they need
it
not to be
in-
formed, be
in a superficial
way, about
14
nature,
its
AND
their cor-
its
main problems and
rect
solution? But even those beginners,
to
whom
way
on
such an introduction will open
the
to the true philosophical life, will

feel thankful for
later
it
having entered
in the
same way.
start
No
beginner should be
asked to
from
scratch, as
though phi-
losophy had not begun to exist twenty-four

centuries ago,
and nothing had ever been

it.
said or written about
True enough, our
problem may appear somewhat more simple

if
what we want
to
do
is
to teach philosit
ophy ad mentem Thomae Aqutnatis; but

actually
is
not.
No work
of
Thomas
in
Aquinas has been written for beginners

philosophy, and
when he wrote
from being
is
his philo-
sophical treatises or commentaries, he himself
was very
far
a beginner so true that,

to
writing for beginners. This
from the thirteenth century down
our
own
day,
innumerable commentaries on
St.
15
Thomas have been

many
written which are
intended as so
introductions to the
personal reading of his

are probably the reasons
at
least
own
works.
Such
similar
oneswhich
or, if
not these,
prompted
scholastic
Descartes, the sworn
enemy of
a
philosophy
to
recommend
complete
course in scholastic philosophy as the best

introduction to philosophical knowledge.
This was a very sound piece of advice, and
one that
today.
it
would be very wise
to give even
Let us suppose, now, that such advice has
been wisely given and wisely accepted.
Where
does
this lead
us? After receiving

philosophy, some
this first introduction to
beginners will quit, and they will be by far

in the majority
;
a few others will wish to go
on, and these are the only ones in
whom
they to
we should now be
interested.
Were
16
AND
we answer
ask us what to do,
how
should
them?
A first way to answer their question might

be to suggest another introduction to philosophy.
For introductions are plentiful,

identical.
Still bet-
and no two of them are

ter,
after a truly elementary one,
we might
the time
a
suggest a series of progressively more and
more
difficult introductions, until
comes for the student, by now no longer

beginner,
to
apply
to
those
specialized
books that deal with the particular problems which interest him.
far
Now
am
very
from finding
fault with such a peda-
gogical method.
The only
question which
concerns
me
is,
what notion of philosophy
such a method entails.

I
And
the only answer
can imagine
is
that, for those
who hold
such a
way of
learning philosophy as wholly

practically
self-sufiicient,
satisfactory
and
philosophy probably appears as a science
essentially
17
similar
to
other
sciences
and
hence capable of being taught in exactly the
same way.
Is
not a science a body of cogni-
tions related to the
same
object, rationally
demonstrable and therefore communicable
by means of teaching? Such
are,
for in-
stance, mathematics, physics, chemistry
and
rea-
biology.
And one
fails to see for
what
son philosophy,
if it is
a science,
should not
likewise be taught and learned as are the
other sciences, that
is
to say,
through introits
ducing beginners to
ods and
its
its
problems,
meth-
present conclusions.
The
better to answer this question, let
us ask another one. In
what sense
the
is
such a
pedagogical method
teach the sciences?
proper way to
is:
The ready answer

is
to
the full extent to which a science
made up
of already acquired results.
You
can learn
physics from oral lectures or from printed

text books; but even after personally check-
18
ing your thus acquired learning by conducting suitable experiments in the laboratory,
what are you
fitted to
become? Perhaps
useful engineer, or a
good professor of
physics; but a physicist, no.
learned
man
a
conversant with science, yes. But a

no. Professors of history
scientist,
may may
well
know
great deal of history, they
all
be scholars,
So,
yet very few of them are historians.

too,
we may come
to
know
a great deal
about the physics or the philosophy of our time without necessarily being either
physicists or philosophers.
As with
intro-
ductions to the other sciences, so in the case
of philosophy: where philosophy begins,

introductions to philosophy should
come
to
an end.
at all,
is
What
then begins,
if it is
to begin
a really
new
experience, something
as radically different
from what went
be-
fore
it
as being a great professor of English

is
literature
different
from being a Shake-
speare.
to
19
Not merely
to learn philosophy, but

this is
become a philosopher,
what
is
now
at stake. It
does not involve giving up phiit
losophy as a science;
rather involves aim-
ing at possessing philosophy in a different
and more exalted way
as included in wisin the
dom
itself, to
which
it is
same
rela-
tion as a
body
to its soul.
Then
also does the

its
philosophical life truly begin, and
begin-
ning does not consist in any addition to

already acquired learning;
like falling in love, like
it
rather looks
call
answering the
of a vocation, or undergoing the transform-
ing experience of a conversion.

I
am
not here describing the self-revelagenius, nor the birth
tion of
some powerful
of a great philosopher, whose writings will

later
field
be considered as a landmark in the

of philosophy.
One cannot
create in
philosophy unless he be a true philosopher;

but one can live and die a true philosopher
20
AND
without having created anything philosophical.
"Without his creative genius, a great
philosopher would remain at least a philosopher.
The
difference,
however, which
to
am
trying to describe
is less
be found
in
some
in
its
exceptional quality of the
mind than
desire to achieve an active
and personal
truth.
appropriation
the
of philosophical
In
mind of
man born
to the philosophi-
cal life, ideas
do not merely follow one anin
other, be
it
logical
sequence, as they
first
do when we read them for the

a
time in
book; they are not simply associated by
the process of reasoning and the
demands
fall
of demonstration; they do not merely

into place as so
many
pieces of a cleverly
contrived puzzle, but one

that
would
rather say
they blend into
an organic whole,
life
quickened from within by a single
and
able spontaneously to assimilate or reject
the spiritual food offered to the laws of
its
it,
21
according to
own
inner development.
destined to be great or
Whether he be
to
remain unknown within the rank and

a
file,
philosopher
once born has
still
to
grow.
this
He
still
needs to be taught,
not
time philosophy, but to philosocan help him in his need,
phize.
if
And who
not another philosopher
who
a
will
be
for
him both a master and

life?
is
companion
of
during his whole

all
The most urgent

to find such a
problems, then,
this
is
man,
and
far
from
easy; for in order to be
a master, a philosopher should be great,
and
great philosophers are scarce.

countries, like Russia,
Very large
have never seen one;
and how many have been born, since the

discovery of America, between Alaska and
Patagonia ?
his
Not
every Plato can hope to find
own Socrates, nor every Aristotle his own Plato. During the whole French eigh-
22
AND
teenth century, the so-called "century of
philosophers," there was not a single great
philosopher.
Nor
does the problem stop here.

affinity
Is
not a certain spiritual
required be-
tween master and disciple?

learn
If in
order to
how
to walk,
we need
to
follow some-
one, at least for a time,

to find a guide
it is
useless for us
who
can show us
how
to
do
the
to
it,
unless both of us wish to walk

find
it
down
hard
same road. Some persons

discover a
religious
director
cases
of con-
science, yet there are
no
where the
thing cannot be done. Finding
among our
contemporaries a philosophical director of

conscience
so
that,
is
infinitely
harder
still
so
much
however anxiously a man may
search, there are
many
places and times

is
when, for him, such

lutely impossible.
a discovery
abso-
23
Yet, on second thought, such advisers

are
many and always
at
hand,
if
not in the
present, at least in the past;
and since
we
Of
are dealing with philosophy,
what
diflfer-
ence
is
there between past and present ?
their very nature,
metaphysics and ethics
deal with problems that wholly escape time.
Twenty-four centuries ago,

been said that being
that
is
it
had already
is
and non-being
not;
what undergoes becoming and change
does not truly deserve to be said to be; that

the two foundations of society are justice
and
friendship,
is
because
without
justice
friendship
ship justice
blind, just as without friend-
is sterile.
Of
these three prop-
ositions, is there a single
one which, during
the last twenty-four centuries, has for a single
moment
ceased to be true? If our

fail us, therefore, let
own
contemporaries
us look
need.
into the past for the master that
we
Perhaps he
is
there, patiently waiting for
24
tell
AND
we
us to
him our own troubles and ask

questions.
him our own

hesitate?
Why
should
No
it is
intelligible relation
between
any two terms ever belongs

every time
ent.
in the past;
understood,
it is
in the pres-
This
is
also the point at
which the
his-
tory of philosophy enters the picture as part
and parcel of philosophical education

that
is,
provided the professors of philoshistory to
ophy allow
not,
come
in.
Many do
and not without some appearance of

have heard some say that the
is,
justification. I
goal of a truly philosophical education
not to
know
what other
men have thought
in the past, but
what
man
should think
will say
now. And there are others who

that the history of philosophy
is
but the
common
and
graveyard of dead philosophies,
that living philosophers should let the

their dead.
dead bury
Yet there
is
more
serious objection. It
is
25
many
centuries
is
now
said
since Cicero said that there
nothing so
foolish
and so vain which has not been
by some philosopher. Descartes,

history under all
its
who
hated
forms, was fond of
quoting
this saying;
whence many profes-
sors of philosophy conclude that teaching
the history of philosophy
amounts
to noth-
ing more than teaching a comprehensive

collection of all possible errors.
Now,
to
teach philosophy
is,
or at least should be,

it
something very
different;
should be noth-
ing less than the teaching of philosophical

truth.
Perhaps
it
might be useful
to
quote
erroneous positions in order to refute them,

but
why should we invite
a young and inex-
perienced mind to lose

est of errors
?
itself in
such a for-
we know that Spinoza and Hegel were wrong, why should we let the
If
young student read Spinoza and Hegel ?

might
as well feed
We
him poison. However
26
this
AND
is
may
it is
be,
one thing
at least
certain,
and
not
that the history of philosophy can-
but
breed philosophical
scepticism.
Thus
tossed without sail or wheel
on a
sea
of conflicting opinions, a well-made
mind
can do but one thing with philosophy, and

that
I is
to give
it
up
as a
bad
job.
have no intention of dismissing these
objections as
weak
or irrelevant.
They
are
strong and very

theirs,
much
to the point, but to

all
not
ours.
They
derive
their
strength from the same notion of philos-
ophy, conceived as a ready-made science,
whose
results
have to be taught. Now, as

is
has already been said, there
such a science,
and since
it
should be both learned and
taught, the only
way
to
do
it
is
the
way
that befits any science, namely, the dog-
matic way.
If a
is
man
does not think he

is
knows what
true
and what
not true in
it.
philosophy, he has no business to teach
As
a matter of fact,
I
27
many
do, but they
should not; and
suppose
we would
is
all
agree that just as to teach physics
to teach
is
true physics, so to teach philosophy
to
teach true philosophy.

foolish thing indeed
It
would be a very
introduce young
to
minds
to
philosophy through the indiscrim-
inate reading of texts
which they cannot un-
derstand or,
if
they do, against which they
are defenseless
as
we
all
are in those dis-
cussions in which, wholly ignorant of the
business at hand,
we
experience the uneasy

is
feeling that .the last speaker
always right.
But
this is
not at
all
our problem.
is
What
we
are
now
looking for
a master, a com-
panion and a guide in our

cal quest of
own
philosophi-
wisdom, and because
we
fail to
find
one
in the present
we have
to turn to
the past.
Thus did once the Alttssimo
poeta,
when
seeing himself without any one
who
could teach him to become a poet, he went
28
back more than a thousand years and found

Vergil.
We
do not need
to
go
as far
back
as that in order to find
Thomas Aquinas.
at
Yet,
when we meet him

if
long
last,
where
do we find him
can
tory
not in history?
And how
his-
we approach
?
him, except through
Here, as
believe,
is
the very root of
most of our misunderstandings concerning

the proper approach to philosophy. Let us
consider this simplest of
all
cases.
After
looking for help, some one reaches the conclusion that the best thing to do
is
apply to
Thomas Aquinas. He
ciple of
tent a Thomist.
thus becomes a disto that ex-
Thomas Aquinas, and
So far so good. But
how
does he
know
that
he
is
Thomist?
his first
Should we ask him the question,

answer might be:
because
I
"I
know
am
Thomist
is is
am
in
agreement with what

in
written in a
book
which philosophy
taught ad
29
mentem Divi Thomae
Aquinatis."
And
then,
the answer
may happen
to
be right, but
his
how
does he
know
that
what
of
book
describes as
the philosophy
Thomas
Thomas'
Aquinas
is
a faithful rendering of
own thought?
make
sure
is
Obviously, the only
way
to
to
compare such a work with

himself. But just
this,
those of
as
Thomas Aquinas
soon as you undertake to do
you find
yourself engaged in straight historical work.
True enough,
history
is
not here your goal.

to
"What you ultimately want
know
is
truth,
is
but since your immediate problem
to
know
if
what Thomas Aquinas

first
says
is
true,
what you
must know
says.
is
what Thomas
it
Aquinas actually
Nor would
what
is
do
to
object that, so long as

is
in the
book
true,
you don't care whether Thomas

it
Aquinas said
simply
or
not;
for
this
would
mean
that
you are not a
disciple of
Thomas Aquinas, but
of some one else free-
30
ly
using his name.
that he
is
AND
No
philosopher can
know
a Thomist unless he also
be an historian.
This
first
conclusion
it
is
rich in
many
imto
plications,
which
would be tedious
man who can tell us exactly what Thomas Aquinas has said, is Thomas Aquinas himself. In order to know what he said we must read
enumerate. For indeed, the only
his works.
But what works has he actually
written? "Where are the best manuscripts?

In these best manuscripts, what are, accord-
ing to
all probabilities,
the safest readings ?
Once v/e
feel reasonably sure of his text,
what
does that text
mean ? Many and voluminous

but they do not always
cases, they seriously dis-
commentaries have been written on the

Thomistic
texts,
agree, and, in agree.

that
to
some
Now,
if
we have made up
our minds
Thomas Aquinas found the true road wisdom, we need to know where his
road
lies.
31
We
in a
are like people following
some one
that
crowd because they know
he
is
going where they wish to go, and
yet always
wondering where he
still
is.
It is
hard task
to find him, a
harder one not
to lose him,
and
it is
the historian's task.
No
wonder
to
that so
many philosophers
it.
decline
have anything to do with
Why should
is
they?
Perhaps they need no master, no
companion, no guide.
My
only point
that
unless they resort to history, they have

right to say they are following a guide
that the
no
and
name
of their guide
is
Thomas
Aquinas.
But these are minor points because,

all,
after
they are mainly material and, so to
speak, external to our problem.
That probis
lem
to
is
to
know why,
if
Thomas Aquinas
it
be our guide, he alone can do

else in his place.
and no
one
Now
let
us see what
may
actually
happen when works ad mentem
32

are substituted for those of the
I
Dhi Thomae
Angelic Doctor.
am not here planning to deit; I
bate any issue and take sides in
rather
want
to
show
that there
may be
very big
issues involved,
and
that unless
we walk
away
carefully
we may
find ourselves miles
from our chosen guide and

ing another one
actually follow-
who
is
taking us where
we
do not wish
to go.
If there is a
fundamental notion in any

that of being.
philosophy,
it is
As one con-
ceives being, so
physics.
one will conceive metais
Now
there
a very simple experieasily
ment which anyone can
perform, pro-
vided only that some good philosophical

library
be at hand. All you need
to
do
is
to
take off the library shelves
some textbooks
Divt
of philosophy ad mentem
Thomae.
You
then open these books, one by one, to
the chapter that deals with the relation be-
tween essence and existence.
It
will not take
you very much time
books
fall into
33
to discover that these

classes,
is
two
namely, those
which affirm that there

essence and existence in
a distinction of
re,
and those which
deny
it.
In other words, according to

is
some
of these text books, the world
made up
is
of real essences, whose existence
either a
mode
or
some other determination, while,

rest,
according to the
the world
is
made up
which
of essences actualized by a higher

is
act,
the act of existing.
Here are two philo-
sophically different worlds, for indeed beings cannot, at one and the
same time be
essences actualized by distinct acts of existing,
and essences not so

is
actualized.
What,
then,
supreme
is
in reality, essence or existit is,
ence ?
is?
What
supreme, what
or that
it
Obviously, a philosopher
is
here bound
is
to
make
a choice; the only thing that

is
not
possible
to
maintain that there
is
a phi-
losophy in which both of these views are
34

and the same time. In point of
true at one
fact,
the authors of philosophies ad
mentem
Divi Thomae have no hesitation in making

their
dict
all
own
choices, but these choices contra-
one another
and yet
I
their authors are
Thomists.
Now
shall
not here
tell
you
what
my own choice would be, or, rather, what my own choice is. I could not possibly
do so because
to state
it,
it
would be sheer
it
arbitrariness
while to justify
would involve
us in endless historical demonstrations. But
one thing,
at least,
is
sure. It is this:
whichis
ever of the two parties to this discussion

right, the other
one
is
wrong.
Through
philos-
their wilful neglect of history,
many
ophers profess publicly to follow a certain

leader and then actually follow another
one; which
is
a refreshing spectacle, well
suited to bringing
solation.
poor historians some con-
35
This slightly ludicrous confusion, however,
would not mean very much

names which
it
if
the mis-
take about
implies did not
presuppose a more serious mistake about

things.
ror,
Whoever
is
here committing an
is
er-
it is
a fact that he
mistaken about
the very nature of philosophy itself; and,
strangely enough, his mistake has,

again, something to
once
do with the
practical
requirements of teaching in schools.

torical
his-
example
will perhaps
make
clearer
what
have in mind. In the early decades of

century,
the nineteenth
official
there
existed
an
government program for French
faculties of philosophy. It
was a very simple
one: the doctrine to be taught by them was

that of Locke, with all suitable corrections.
Now my
sense
large
it
.'*
question very
is
this:
does this
make
am
much
afraid that, to a very
number of professors of philosophy
does
make
sense,
and
almost despair of
36

clear
making
ter
why
it
does not. For, as a mat-
of
if
fact, that is
is
what everybody has
to
do
he
called
on
to give a course in phi-
losophy.
Whether
the philosopher
whom
he
is
following be Thomas Aquinas, Duns
Scotus, Locke,
Kant or Royce does not make
much
difference as concerns our

is that,
own
prob-
lem. For the trouble

sors of philosophy,
being profesto extract lec-
we have
ture courses in general philosophy out of
the works of philosophers,
who have
work of
is
them-
selves never written any such thing.
The
Aris-
nearest approach to
totle,
it is
the
whose encyclopedic nature

reasons why, at
all
one of
all
the
many
times and in
places, his philosophy has been so highly
prized by university professors. Yet even

to Aristotle,
just as
philosophy was his philosophy,
to
Locke philosophical truth was
identical with the views laid
down
in his
Essay on
Human
Understanding.
As an
ex-
37
pression of a single organic thought, a philosopher's personal philosophy enjoys an
organic unity of
ficult,
its
own, which makes
it
dif-
not to say impossible, to expand or

it,
to curtail
to correct or to
it
remodel
to date
it,
with
to
a view to bringing
up
and
adapting
it
to the requirements of
If,
modern
classroom teaching.
in Locke's philos-
ophy, you correct any one of those conse-
quences which follow necessarily from his

principles,
you
are,
in
fact,
denying his
philosophy.
principles
and rejecting
his
When,
in the early thirteenth century, the
teaching of Aristotle's writings was forbid-
den donee corrigantur,
it
soon became ap-
parent that they would never be corrected.
They could not
be. It
was then
that
it
Thomas
was pos-
Aquinas did the only thing that

sible to do:
he created a new philosophy,
which would have staggered Aristotle had
38

it,
he known
since
it
was no longer
his phi-
losophy but that of
Thomas Aquinas.
it,
Such
is,
as
see
the fundamental dis-
tinction that
we
should always observe bein philosophy
tween a text book
and a
philosophical treatise. Each of them serves

its
own
purpose, but their purposes are not
the same.
text
book
in philosophy, or
even any course of lectures written as a

text book, is
bound
to lack that organic
unity
and continuity of thought which
marks the works of authentic philosophical

reflexion.
Wondering about
the difference
between genius and talent
in music,
Robert
Schumann once came

in all
to the conclusion that

is
works of genius there
a golden
thread running throughout the whole and
holding
reason
it
together. This,
no doubt,
is
the
why
another musician, Igor Stra-
vinski, does not like to
be called a "com-
poser," nor his works "compositions."
And
so
it is
39
also with philosophy.
Even when
they are not compiled, textbooks are com-
posed, whereas philosophies are born.
There
is
only one
it
way
to
prove
this,
but
no one can prove

proof
lies in a
to
anyone
else,
for the
personal experience which
history alone can give.

life
The proof
lies in a
spent in personal and intimate contact
with great philosophers.
Of
all
those
who
have learned philosophy only
in schools or
I
from books written only for schools
am
sorry to say that they have not the slightest
idea of
what the philosophical
life really is.
Not
unlike the innumerable students
who
spend years in learning Latin and never use

it
to read Vergil,
our students in philosophy
are introduced to a philosophical life which
very few of them will ever enter.
cannot
help wondering, however,

ber
if
a larger
num-
among them would not

life,
enjoy living a
if
genuinely philosophical
they were
40
in
AND
warned
them
but a
due time that what we must teach

is
as philosophy
not yet philosophy,
way
to
it,
and that the only true masare, are the great
ters in
philosophy there
philosophers ?
For those
at least
among our
students
who have heard
the call of philosophy and

it,
are eager to answer
how
could
we have
the slightest hesitation?

fessors of philosophy,
if
What
are we, pro-
not students older
than our
own
students ?
We cannot be their
When
let
is
masters, since
we
are not masters.
our work with them has been completed,

us take them directly to him
who
our
own
master. Let us, henceforth, teach them
to learn with him,
and under him, not with
us and under us. True enough,
we
can
still
help them, but not as before.

is
Our new
task
to teach
them
to learn
from one greater

to
as
than ourselves, to read
Thomas Aquinas,
him
assimilate his thought, to think with
a true philosopher does, that
is
41
with the
same standard of
scientific objectivity
and
accuracy, until the time
comes when the

appear to
its first
whole body of
his doctrine will
them shot through with the

principles.
light of
When
will that time
come?
No
to
one can
tell,
but certainly not before

is
many
and
years of study, for there

riches in philosophy.
no short road
it
Yet come
will,
when
it
does philosophy will shine before
their eyes in the purity of its essence.
And
because a greater than

abled them to share in
fail to
we
are will have en-
its life,
they shall not

its
recognize in
it
the true source of
intelligible beauty,
Wisdom
that "reacheth
all
from end
to
end mightily and ordereth
things sv/eetly." (Wis. VIII, 1)
That
taken,
is
why, unless
be greatly mis-
the history
of philosophy should
be recognized everywhere as an essential

part of a complete philosophical education.
42
this I
is,
AND
ultimate
By
mean an education whose
goal
not to teach philosophy but to form
full-fledged philosophers.
And
is
just as in the
case of everything else that

is
good, there
a price that
we must
pay, so, too, here;

rate,
but the price

that price
is
is
worth paying. At any

it is
not what
said to be
by those
ill-
professors of philosophy who, in their
advised zeal for pure abstract speculation,

seek to frighten us
studies.
away from
historical
Even supposing, dato non concesso,
that all their intentions are always wholly
pure, their reasons
would
still
not be valid,
since they completely miss the point.
The
history of philosophy cannot be a graveyard
for dead philosophers, because in philos-
ophy there are no dead. Owing

all
to history,
alive,
great philosophers are

is
still
and
none of them
vitality
showing signs of greater
than our master, companion and
guide,
St.
Thomas Aquinas. Nor
is
the his-
43
tory of philosophy a school for scepticism.
Quite the contrary.
If there
is
a source of
philosophical scepticism to be found any-
where,
would
rather look for
it
in the
fatal illusion shared in
and widely spread
by
us, the professors
of philosophy, that our
introductions to the life of
wisdom
of
are
is
themselves wisdom.
The
life
wisdom
not to be found in them, the golden thread

of true philosophical thinking does not run,
unbroken, through their many parts, and

those of our students
life as
who
carry
them
into
dearly cherished treasures should be
ready for a distressing experience. Under

the
first
serious shock, the roughly
sown
parts of their philosophical patchquilt are
bound
to pull asunder.
The
very best thing

despairing
that can then
happen
is
that, in
of philosophy, they remember that
God
loss.
did
not choose to save

physics, so that
its
men through
be not their
meta-
loss
44
AND
Would
it
not be more simple to clear

all,
up, once and for
the misunderstandings
that are here the source of so
many
probis
lems? Neither as science nor as wisdom
philosophy to be found outside some mind

of which
it is
a perfection, but
which
is its
cause. Philosophy has
no existence of
its
own
outside philosophers, and even that
superhuman wisdom which transcends time

is
given to us in time. Such also

in so far as
is
our
own wisdom
of
we have
one; such
were the wisdoms of Plato, of Aristotle and
Thomas Aquinas.
By
Like
men
themselves,
philosophies pass away, going the

all flesh.
way
of
a curious illusion,
is
we
like to
imagine that there
somewhere
in
this
world a philosophy subsisting

for
itself,
in itself
and
of which
all
philosophers are
equally invited to partake and in which they

freely share.
Why
not, then,
it
go a
little far-
ther
and imagine
as laid
down
in such
books
as
45
contain, not the philosophy of
Plato, of Aristotle, or of
Thomas Aquinas,
that
is,
not someone's philosophy, but phi-
losophy pure and simple?
We may try,
but the trouble

is
is
that phi-
losophy pure and simple
a pure
and sim-
ple essence, not a being. If ens means habens

esse, a
philosopher
is
is
a being,
whereas philos-
ophy
not. Exactly, the only actual being

is
which philosophy may have
that of the
philosopher, so that the anonymity of phi-
losophy points
less to its universality
than
to its lack of actual entity.
What makes
is
philosophical truth to be universal
some-
thing quite different. For each and every
one of
us, the root
of what
is
universal in
him
is
identical with the very core of his
own personality. Through his intellect, every man is a person and through the same
intellect
he can see exactly the same truth
as
any other
man
can
see,
provided they
46
intellects in the
else, lies
AND
both use their
proper way.
Here, and nowhere
the foundation
for the very possibility of a philosophta per-
ennis; for
it is,
not a perennial cloud floating
through the ages in some metaphysical

stratosphere, but the
permanent
possibility
for each and every
human being
to actualize
an essence through his

is
own
existence, that
to experience
again the same truth in the

intellect.
light of his
itself is
pwn
And
that truth
not an anonymous one. Even taken

absolute
in
its
and
self-subsisting
Its
form,
is
truth in itself bears a name.
name
God.
Once
is
these fantasies are dispelled, there
room
for a solid, consistent
and consoling
if
reality.
We
should, no doubt, grant that
there
is
no ready-made philosophy
to teach
and
to learn,
wisdom
is
the prize, not only
of a quest, but also of a conquest.
We
all
have to win
it
the hard way. Yet, in our
47
common effort, none of us is alone. At the moment when we give up the mirage of a self-subsisting philosophy, we find
very
ourselves surrounded by the friendly com-
pany of the philosophers. They are

this
all
here,
very day, around us, ready to assist us

task,
in
our
provided only that
we
apply to
them for
there
is
help. In all that they have said,
nothing that cannot be of assistance
including, as
Thomas Aquinas
their
himself once
failures.
expressly
observed,
very
What
in
a historian of philosophy looks for

is
the history
not philosophy, but

it
its
source,
and because he cannot find

else than
any-
where
where
it is,
being himself
it
an existing man, the historian finds
in the
minds of other existing men.

friends with
ber,
He may make
their
them and, among
num-
choose to himself a particularly befirst
loved one because he
feels
and soon
comes
to
know
that the philosopher of his
48
AND
many
Then
cen-
choice embarked before him,

turies ago,
upon the only path
that leads also

its
whither he himself wishes to go.
does the history of philosophy reach
own end and find its own philosophical reward. A new philosophical life has been
kindled by another philosophical
is
life.
There
nothing here to suggest the giving of

gift; rather,
some
an act answers an act and
an existence echoes another existence. In

such a spiritual birth, everything
is
both old
and new,
in time
is
and out of time.
What
ence ?
there for us to lose in lending
ourselves to such a transforming experiIt is
beyond the power of any human
master to add an inch to the stature of his

disciples.
But he can make even the smallest

fulfill at least their
among them
ness, just as
own
small-
he can help the greatest among
them
to achieve their
own
greatness. Is an
example necessary ?
Do
but remember
how
49
much
time and
toil
Thomas Aquinas
has
spent in commenting
Aristotle.
upon the writings of

at
That work was,
one and the
same
time, history of philosophy pure
and
simple, as well as the effort of a disciple
asking guidance from his master. Aristotle
was the master,
for
every
time he said
The Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas meant

Aristotle.
Yet so
little
did his apprenticeship

disciple,
hamper the personal genius of the

that
were we asked today:
Who
is
the Phi-
losopher.?
we would
unhesitatingly answer:
Thomas Aquinas.
THE AQUINAS LECTURES

Published by the Marquette University Press,
Milwaukee
3,
Wisconsin
St.
Thomas and
late
the Life of Learning (1937) by the

F.
Fr.
John
at
McCormick,
S.J.,
professor of
philosophy
Loyola University.
St.
Thomas and
the Gentiles (1938) by Mortimer
J.
Adier, Ph.D., associate professor of the philos-
ophy of law, University of Chicago.

St.
Thomas and
the
Greeks (1939)
by Anton C.
Pegis, Ph.D., president of the Pontifical Institute
of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
The
attire
and Functions of Authority (1940) by

Ph.D.,
professor
Yves
Simon,
of
philosophy,
University of Notre
Dame.
Fr.
St.
Thomas and Analogy (1941) by

University of Notre
Gerald B.
Phelan, Ph.D., director of the Mediaeval Institute,
Dame.
(1942) by
St.
Thomas and
the
the
Problem of Evil
Jacques Maritain, Ph.D., French Ambassador to
Holy
See.
First in series
(1937) $1.00;
ail
others $1.50.
Humanism and Theology (1943) by Werner

Ph.D.,
Litt.D.,
Jaeger,
"university"
professor,
Harvard
University.
The Nature and Origins of Scientism (1944) by

John Wellmuth,
S.J.,
Fr.
chairman of the Department
of Philosophy, Xavier University.
Cicero
in
the
(1945) by the
Courtroom of St. Thomas Aquinas late E. K. Rand, Ph.D., Litt.D.,
LL.D., Pope Professor of Latin, emeritus, Harvard

University.
St.
Thomas and Epistemology (1946) by
Fr. Louis-
Marie Regis, O.P., Th.L., Ph.D., director of the

Albert the Great Institute of Mediaeval Studies,
University of Montreal.
St.
Thomas and the Greek Moralists (1947, Spring) by Vernon J. Bourke, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.
History of Philosophy and Philosophical Education
(1947, Fall) by Etienne Gilson of the Academie

frangaise,
director
of studies
and professor of
Pontifical
the
history
of mediaeval philosophy,
Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
Uniform format, cover and binding.

History of Philosophy and Education - Gilson

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Aquinas Lecture 1947, P^U

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL

History of Mediaeval Philosophy, Pontifical

Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY MILWAUKEE

Milwaukiae, die 24 Decembris, 1947

mensis Januarii, 1948

Who Knows Why

University each year invites a scholar to deliver

Aquinas. Customarily delivered on the Sun-

day nearest March

7th, the feast

In 1947, after Dr.

Greek Moralists," on March 9 the Society

not permit him to come to the University

Aquinas lecture in the

pleasure of recording that lecture, given

received his Agrege in

1907 and became Docteur-es-Lettres in 1913.

taught him historical meth-

od and suggested the study of Descartes'

which led him

Thomas Aquinas and

the middle ages, the principal concern of

College de France, of Henri Bergson,

"the only living master in philosophy"

world war he was a

army, was captured at Verdun and spent

writing and studying. After the war, in

1919, he joined the faculty of the University

the Sorbonne, this time to teach,

ed to the College de France.

fessor of the Philosophy of the

College de France. In 1929 he also

became Director of Studies and Professor

raised to a Pontifical Institute by Pius XII.

continues in those positions now. Ordi-

he teaches in Toronto during the

Professor Gilson has held notable

and 1931 he gave the

liam James lectures at Harvard; in 1937,

lectures at the University of Indiana.

founder and director of Archives

d'Htstoire Doctrinale et Litteraire

age (with R.P.G. Thery) of which 16 vol-

umes have been published

since 1925; Etudes

1921; Etudes de Tbeologie et d'Histoire de

9 volumes since 1934, and

founder (with colleagues

Mediaeval Studies) of Mediaeval

which 9 volumes have been pub-

lished since 1939-

French Academy, the Royal Academy of

ford University; Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)

from the University of Aberdeen, Harvard

Rome, University of Milan and the University

president of the Franco-Canadian

of the Society of Catho-

cours Catholique International and of Pax

Romana, before which he has

Republique, the upper house or senate

of the present French government in 1946.