An Introduction to Philosophy (A Sheed & Ward Classic)

The review of the history of philosophy is clear and simple. It clarifies the points of departure of the different systems. It is simple and clear. The topics are very difficult. I still am not clear on essence and substance but Mr. Maritan encourages intellectual contemplation and advises avoiding using imagination to try to grasp intellectual non material concepts. This introcuction sketches the points of departure of the different modern systems from scholastic-aristotelean philosophy. This sketch clarifies the differences in the systems and makes it easier to decide which system is best. Mr. Maritan is a Thomist but his treatment of all others is very fair.

I am very happy this book is available on Kindle. The scan is not perfect but the economy of space is a bonus.

Anyone who has an interest in philosophy - amateurs and professionals - must read or at least be conversant about the important topics. This is not just history of philosophy or a "mere" introduction. Maritain explores the bedrock and sets criteria that may be argued against but cannot be ignored or given a nod. Hard work pays in every field.

Modern education tends to overlook essential subjects that are needed in today's world, especially when confronted with day-to-day decisions that are influenced by the mainstream media - not the best influence around. Well-grounded thinking is required to combat what has been called "The Dictatorship of Relativism" by Pope Benedict XVI. A good basis in philosophical thinking is a must. Maritain browses over the history of philosophy in his work - a good start for further investigation on philosophical thinking.

A remarkably well done book on a topic that may very well be the biggest mistake in the US Catholic high school curriculum. Sound Philosophy is the remedy for many ills in our society. This book does a tremendous job introducing philosophy back into the Catholic high school curriculum.

Excellent review

If you want to learn philosophy seriously, this is a must-read. The edition is good, despite a few editing mistakes.

This book supplied exactly what I wanted, a thorough survey of philosophy as an overview and bvacking for my other readings in specific philosophical questions. It provided the background I needed, but didn't have.

Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was a French philosopher who converted to Catholicism in 1906; he was known as a prominent "neo-Thomist." He wrote many books, such as Natural Law: Reflections On Theory & Practice,Scholasticism and Politics,A Preface to Metaphysics,On the Use of Philosophy,Man and the State,3 Reformers: Luther Descartes Rousseau,The Social and Political Philosophy of Jacques Maritain, etc.

The Publisher’s Note to this 1930 translation states, “The French edition of this work… appears as the first volume of seven, which deal with Formal Logic, Theories of Knowledge, Cosmology, Psychology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Aesthetics, and the History of Philosophy. But, since six of the seven volumes remain to be written, it has been thought better to issue the present volume quite independently. The series as a whole is intended to provide text-books for a regular university course as it is found in France…”

Maritain wrote in the Preface, “My chief aim in composing an ‘Elements of Philosophy’ series, to which this book may serve as an introduction, is to give a faithful presentation of the system of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and in its light to judge the important systems which have followed each other during the last three centuries and the principal problems discussed by modern philosophy. I have tried to adapt the method of exposition to contemporary conditions… Yet, thus, I have but returned to the method followed by Aristotle himself… The present work is intended for beginners… Finally, I would say that, if the philosophy of Aristotle, as revived and enriched by St. Thomas Aquinas and his school, may rightly be called ‘the Christian philosophy,’ both because the Church is never weary of putting it forward as the only true philosophy and because it harmonizes perfectly with the truths of faith, nevertheless is not proposed here for the reader’s acceptance because it is Christian, but because it is demonstrably true. This agreement between a philosophic system founded by a pagan and the dogmas of revelation is no doubt an external sign, an extra-philosophic guarantee of its truth; but it is not from its agreement with the Faith, but from its own rational evidence, that it derives its authority as a philosophy.”

He says of the pre-Socratics, “save in the case of a few exceptional individuals (for instance Empedocles, the miracle worker, and Pythagoras, who founded a religious sect), Greek philosophy was from the very first distinct from religion---indeed it took shape as a critic and foe of the popular mythology and was manifestly the product of pure reasoning.” (Pg. 47)

He states that “In epistemology Aristotle showed that physics, mathematics, and metaphysics, or the first philosophy, are indeed three distinct sciences, but that they are distinguished by their subject-matter, not by the faculty employed, which in all alike is reason. But his most important achievement in this sphere was to prove, by the marvelous analysis of ABSTRACTION which dominates his entire philosophy, that our ideas are not innate memories of pre-natal experience, but derived from the senses by an activity of the mind.” (Pg. 86)

He asserts, “This philosophy of Aristotle and St. Thomas is in fact what a modern philosopher has termed the natural philosophy of the human mind, for it develops and brings to perfection what is most deeply and genuinely natural in our intellect alike in its elementary apprehensions and in its native tendency towards truth. It is also the EVIDENTIAL philosophy, based on the double evidence of the data perceived by our senses and our intellectual apprehension of first principles---the philosophy of BEING… the philosophy of the INTELLECT, which it trusts as the faculty which attains truth, and forms by a discipline which is an incomparable mental purification. And for this very reason it proves itself the UNIVERSAL philosophy in the sense that it does not reflect a nationality, class, group, temperament, or race, the ambition or melancholy of an individual of any practical need, but is the expression and product of reason, which is everywhere the same.” (Pg. 99-100)

He argues, “The perception that the sphere of philosophy is universal led Descartes… to regard philosophy as the sole science of which the others were but parts; Auguste Comte, on the contrary, and the positivists generally…sought to absorb it in the other sciences, as being merely their ‘systematization.’ It is evident that the cause of both errors was the failure to distinguish between the material and formal object of philosophy… Philosophy and the corpus of other sciences have the same material object (everything knowable). But the formal object of philosophy is first causes, or the other sciences secondary causes.” (Pg. 108-109)

He observes, “It is… obvious that every science, except the highest, bases its demonstrations on postulates or data it is incapable of explaining or defending. For instance, mathematics does not inquire what is the nature of quantity, number, or extension, nor physics what is the nature of matter. And if an objector should deny that the sensible world exists, that two quantities equal to a third are equal to one another, or that space has three dimensions, neither physics nor mathematics can refute his objection, since they on the contrary assume these postulates or data. Therefore it must be the function of philosophy (the first philosophy or metaphysics) to DEFEND against every possible objection the postulates of all the human sciences.” (Pg. 117)

He concludes, “Philosophy is the highest of all branches of human knowledge and is in the true sense wisdom. The other (human) sciences are subject to philosophy, in the sense that it judges and governs them and defends their postulates.” (Pg. 123) “Theology, or the science of God so far as He has been made known to us by revelation, is superior to philosophy. Philosophy is subject to it, neither in its premises not in its method, but in its conclusions, over which theology exercises a control, thereby constituting itself a negative rule of philosophy.” (Pg. 132) Later, he adds, “Philosophy is not based on the authority of common sense understood as the universal consent or common instinct of mankind; it is nevertheless derived from common sense considered as the understanding of self-evident first principles. It is superior to common sense as the perfect or ‘scientific’ stage of knowledge is superior to the imperfect or ordinary stage of the same knowledge. Nevertheless philosophy may be accidentally judged by common sense.” (Pg. 141)

He explains, “The primary intelligible being of a thing is called ‘essence’ because since the intellect is modelled on being, what a thing primarily is for the intellect must be that which is of primary importance in it from the standpoint of being itself… The formal object of the intellect is BEING. On the other hand, what we have agreed to term ‘essence’ is nothing but the primary intelligible being of a thing. Our intellect can, therefore, really apprehend the essences of things. To deny this would be to deny the intellect itself, and to say that it is bound to miss what is peculiarly its object.” (Pg. 202-203)

In these post-Vatican II days, Thomism (and thus, neo-Thomism) has fallen upon “hard times”---even in Catholic seminaries. But this book is an exceptionally clear statement of the philosophy, and will be of great value to anyone studying Thomist philosophy.