The HUN-REN Institute of Philosophy cordially invites everybody to the upcoming talk by Gyula Klima (Fordham University) entitled Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics of Form and Existence vs. Contemporary Analytical Metaphysics.
The talk will be given in English, but the subsequent discussion will be in Hungarian.
Time: 3 December 2024, Tuesday, 2PM (CET)
Venue: Institute of Philosophy, 1097, Budapest, Tóth Kálmán Street 4. Floor 7, Room 16.
You can find the event on Facebook via this link.
The event will be broadcast via the Zoom platform:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83232213392?pwd=Ql8b2LL1w8p1ly9AbuXL9DFmkSU1P8.1
Anyone interested in reading the lecture beforehand, should write to László Bene for the document ().
Abstract:
This lecture will review the most difficult conceptual hurdles in the way of a genuine reintegration of Aquinas’ metaphysics of form and existence into contemporary analytical philosophical thought. Instead of a boundless survey of contemporary works and authors that might eventually lead to identifying the most problematic issues in Aquinas’ contemporary reception, I will directly identify the main trouble spots based on the historical development of the analytic tradition. The discussion will target those major conceptual hurdles inherent in the analytic tradition that Aquinas’ genuine reception faces regarding his fundamental metaphysical notions of being and essence and his conception of the hylomorphic composition of material substances. This strategy will allow me to introduce a hopefully “analytically acceptable” sketch of the metaphysical foundations of Aquinas’ unique position on the ontological status of the human intellective soul, which places it on a razor-thin borderline between the material and purely spiritual realms of reality, running right across our very being. I conclude the discussion with a summary of the conceptual pre-requisites of a genuine and full recovery of Aquinas’ thought for contemporary metaphysical discourse.
Keywords: existence, essence, real distinction, hylomorphism, soul
