The role of philosophy

Fr. Mauricio Beuchot Puente OP
The philosophical commitment of the Thomist of today
Reflections on the study of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Dominican Order of our time

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the role of the Thomistic philosopher in the midst of the challenges of our time. The main light to do this is the papal document Fides et Ratio, in which the magisterium helps us to understand better the way we can follow to renew Thomism.

In the first place, the importance of the dialogue with other systems and tendencies on the part of Thomism is pointed to. The Holy See advises and admonishes in regard to the attention that the Thomist must pay to dialogue with other philosophies. Precisely new we have interlocuters such as Analytic Philosophy and Postmodernist Philosophy. Thomism cannot fail to attend to these tendencies.

The dialogue with other philosophical tendencies will result in tbe renewal and updating of Thomist doctrine. In the line of Analytic Philosophy there is the dimension of the Philosophy of Language called Pragmatics; and in the line Postmodernist Philosophy we have Hermeneutics as the common language (koinè) of our culture.

Insistence is to be made on the benefits we consider Thomism can afford to Hermeneutics. The fact is that recent Hermeneutics is very much inclined to a crude relativism (equivocism) or to an excessive scientific reductionism (univocism). Thomism can provide another way: an analogical Hermeneutics, viz. an interpretive tool based on analogical reasoning.

This renewal in Hermeneutics is achievable because the integration of Thomism can reflect a deeper consciousness of the analogical character of Metaphysics or Ontology so as to point to a Metaphysics more significant for our time, one that rejects the rigid Metaphysics of Modernity (a univocal enterprise) and rejects as well a very nihilist and relativist position relative to being (an equivocal enterprise).

In Epistemology it will emerge with an attitude more attentive to the object of the sciences that command its method, in a very analogical way. In Ethics or Moral Philosophy it will result in a rebirth of the theory of virtues that will function as a way out from the impasse of a law ethics and a situation ethics.

This will avoid ostracism and favor autocriticism. We can call this an iconic Thomism, but not an idolic or idolatric Thomism, that is, a Thomism which is a service to or a servant of humanity.

© 1.5.2003, P. Mauricio Beuchot Puente OP.