Author: Daniel C. Wagner

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Aquinas College Editor of Reality

[article] On the Elegance of Posterior Analytics II.19 as Platonic Division

While commentators on APo II.19 generally take note of Aristotle’s break from Platonism in his approach to knowledge genesis, the fact that Aristotle’s approach is yet Platonic goes unnoticed.  At the same time, APo II.19 is treated as an incomplete, even embarrassing attempt by Aristotle to answer the question as to the ultimate source of the principles of science.  This study exhibits the elegance and completeness of Aristotle’s genetic account of the principles of science at APo II.19 precisely as an exercise of the Platonic method of division, providing an invaluable hermeneutic key for unlocking this extremely difficult and dense text and showing the developmental philosophical continuity that exists between Plato and his student, Aristotle… Read More [article] On the Elegance of Posterior Analytics II.19 as Platonic Division

Daniel C. Wagner

[article] No Cause, No Credo

ABSTRACT: This study presents St. Thomas Aquinas’ groundbreaking treatment of the relation between God as Creator and nature through the Aristotelian model of natural causation and the distinction between essentia and esse contra occasionalist conceptions of creation. By clearly distinguishing primary (divine) and secondary (natural) orders of causation, the Angelic Doctor champions Divine omnipotence while preserving the causal integrity of nature at one and the same time. His position on the relation of divine and natural causation in nature is formulated, in part, as a response to the occasionalist doctrine, denying natural causation. While Thomas shows that denying natural causation would actually vitiate divine omnipotence, this study extends his argument showing Aristotelian causation (secondary cause) is a necessary condition—i.e., one of the preambula fidei—for the Christian belief that God is the all-powerful creator of the natural world. This presentation and extension of St. Thomas Aquinas’ critique of occasionalism is needed given a continuing trend among Anglo-American Analytic and Humean Christian philosophers to deny natural causation and hold that God is the only cause.… Read More [article] No Cause, No Credo

Daniel C. Wagner2 Comments

[Article] The Logical Terms of Sense Realism

A Thomistic-Aristotelian & Phenomenological Defense Daniel C. Wagner Professor and Chair of Philosophy Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI Editor, Reality ABSTRACT: At the heart of realist philosophy is the doctrine of univocal predication of definitions or the universal terms genus, species, and difference. This doctrine, first set down by Aristotle in the Categories, was famously… Read More [Article] The Logical Terms of Sense Realism

Daniel C. Wagner3 Comments

[essay] Aristotle on Nature (φύσις) – Part II

Part 2 of 2: The Ancient meaning of nature, that of an ἀρχή, is a necessary beginning. A necessary beginning for what? For katharsis of the lived nihilism of modernity! As we explain in our editorial introduction to the first Issue of Reality the English term catharsis, meaning “a release, or relief from powerful repressed emotions,” is from the ancient Greek term κᾰθαρσις (katharsis).… Read More [essay] Aristotle on Nature (φύσις) – Part II

Daniel C. Wagner1 Comment

[essay] Aristotle on Nature (φύσις) – Part I

Part 1 of 2: The Ancient meaning of nature, that of an ἀρχή, is a necessary beginning. A necessary beginning for what? For katharsis of the lived nihilism of modernity! As we explain in our editorial introduction to the first Issue of Reality the English term catharsis, meaning “a release, or relief from powerful repressed emotions,” is from the ancient Greek term κᾰθαρσις (katharsis).… Read More [essay] Aristotle on Nature (φύσις) – Part I

Daniel C. Wagner1 Comment