Customer Reviews

Treatise on Human Nature: Summa Theologiae 1A 75-89 (The Hackett Aquinas Project)

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This is an excellent version of this particular part of the Summa. Pasnau renders a new translation of this section that is much easier to read than older versions, and yet is also true to the Latin. The translation alone makes the book worthwhile, but the real value comes from the extensive commentary Pasnau offers after the translation. Each article has an introductory paragraph that neatly summarizes what Aquinas claims. Technical vocabulary (and there's a lot of in this section) is explained. Explanations of Aquinas' key arguments are offered and done so in a generous way -- that is, Pasnau admits when certain arguments might not make sense, so he attempts to explain what Aquinas is attempting to do in a way that may make Aquinas' point better than Aquinas did.

Much of this part of the Summa relies upon Aquinas' reading of Aristotle's De Anima, so Pasnau's intimacy with that text is especially helpful; Pasnau did the interpretation of Aquinas' Commentary on De Anima, so Pasnau is familiar with both Aristotle's arguments and Aquinas' understanding of them.

A final bonus is that Pasnau offers up some other translations in the appendix of Thomas' writings on the themes in the book that appear elsewhere in Thomas' work.

If you are a Aquinas neophyte and you are working in this area, this book is a must have. And even if you are an expert, you will find this to be a useful text.

It was for a class on Medieval Philosophy in University. The Uni book store ran out so I bought it on Amazon. It was clear and the translation was easy to understand considering the breadth of the text.