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Starting from our common experience of change, this book introduces the fundamental features of Aristotelian-Scholastic philosophy. After differentiating between the various types of change and motion, the author presents the concepts of act and potency, as well as form and matter. Further attention is given to the difference between substance and accident, and essence and existence. Finally, an overview of causality is given based on Aristotle's doctrine of the four causes. This introductory course is aimed primarily at laypeople interested in philosophy and at high-school students beginning their studies of philosophy and the humanities. About the Author Rafael Hüntelmann, PhD is an author, publisher, and lecturer in philosophy. He is the co-editor of METAPHYSICA. International Journal for Ontology & Metaphysics. His most recent publications include Grundkurs Philosophie in six volumes, as well as the three-volume logic course Grundkurs klassische aristotelische Logik.

Philosophy confronted with things is thought confronted with chaos. To our mind things are in chaos, for, though we notice that they are, superficially, and, we presume, fundamentally in order, still our minds are restless, because we cannot fully comprehend this order. We may grasp its main outlines, but we are at a loss when we come to examine it more closely, and the farther we go into it, the more we find ourselves faced by a mystery.

This book is a general introduction to metaphysics in four parts: The first part deals with metaphysics in general; in the second part the author deals with the first principles of metaphysics and truth; the third part deals with finite being and causes; and in the fourth part the author deals with infinite being, the existence of God, the essence and attributes of God, and the divine activity outside himself.Grenier was born in Gaspé, Quebec, and ordained for the diocese of Gaspé in 1924. He studied philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome (1924-1926), and at the major seminary in Gaspé (1926-1927). From 1927-1930 he studied theology at the Angelicum and Canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University. He held doctorates in philosophy, theology, and canon law. From 1930 to 1947 he was professor of theology at the seminary of Québec. In 1938 he was incardinated in the diocese of Québec. He spent a year in Oklahoma, 1944-1945. He was for many years professor of philosophy at the Université Laval.

The subject of this book is ¿metaphysics.¿ Aristotle called it ¿first philosophy¿; by this term he and St. Thomas Aquinas mean the full philosophical treatment of being and its Cause, of Being and God. Metaphysics begins with the beings of experience. Its preliminary concern is with the beings of direct experience, not with concepts, not with emotions or guesses (no matter how noble), not with some logical pre-conditions of experience (often dignified with the impressive term ¿a priori conditions¿). In the beings of experience, and there only, we find what being is, and by an inductive analysis we come to know its intrinsic and extrinsic principles as well as its common attributes. But metaphysics, in its full sense, is more than an ¿immanent metaphysics,¿ as some recent philosophers would wish it to be; the principles the metaphysician finds in the beings of experience lead him beyond experience.

In the first place, I want to point out that the term ¿science¿ is not restricted here to the physical sciences, as is usually done in English and French scientific literature, but is used in a very broad sense¿namely, for science in general as well as each and any special science, no matter what its nature be, including theology and philosophy. If in particular chapters restrictions are made in the use of the term, this will always be justified and wherever possible indicated by the addition of a qualifying noun. Although the term¿science¿ is used in a very broad sense, a large number of the examples illustrating the text will be borrowed from the physical sciences. The reason is, first of all, that because of his former studies the author is most familiar with this domain, but also that the physical sciences often reveal most clearly the typical features of science.

Under the influence of the post-Fregean logical analysis, in the present discourse relationality tends to be identified with polyadicity and relations with universal polyadic predicates. This essay is an attempt to retrieve the Aristotelian understanding of relations as a genuine feature of the world of particulars, consisting of various kinds of ¿directedness¿ or ¿being towards¿ of one particular thing towards another. It emerges, however, that existing traditional theories are haunted with serious problems so that none of them appears to be defensible. The author undertakes a critical analysis of some of the most important conceptions of relations proposed within the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition and tentatively proposes his own Neo-Aristotelian solution.

Relations belong to the fundamental philosophical concepts, for everything that exists relates to something. This leads us quite naturally to think about relations themselves. In our book we consider relations against the background of the issue of change. We draw on the Aristotelian but also the Platonic traditions of thought, which for centuries have tried to come to terms with Aristotle's thesis that there is no change with respect to relations. We critically examine and ultimately reject this certainly surprising claim. As a part of our own solution to this difficulty, we propose a particular reconstruction of the Aristotelian categorial schema that allows us to properly grasp not only ordinary changes but also relational changes.The book is systematic in nature; in dialogue with many great philosophers, we seek a true solution to our difficulty, using in particular the resources of contemporary analytic philosophy.

Everyone is aware of the distinction between right and wrong, between what is morally good and morally bad. The distinction is made by people every day, in the home and in the school, in business and labor, in courts and police actions, in politics and in government. And yet, the attitude of many persons toward human conduct is largely amoral. People know intuitively ¿that¿ some actions are morally good and others morally bad, but they are not sure ¿why¿ they are so. It is therefore necessary to reaffirm the principles which underlie morality. Ethics, or moral philosophy, seeks to lay bare the natural foundations of correct living, to uncover the principles which govern morality and make individual actions to be right or wrong, and thus develop the science of right conduct.

In accordance with the purpose as an introduction for students, the scope of the book is frankly positive and constructive. It attempts to build up an understanding of the matter of ontology in a logical manner, using simple language, illustrating the subjects with copious examples, and extracting the contents of each chapter into compact summaries. Some of the more abstruse problems of ontology, such as the problem of essence and existence, have been omitted; it was felt that the average student would derive little benefit from a lengthy discussion of problems which have taxed the ingenuity and acumen of the most profound intellects. Such problems may be attacked after the student has become acquainted with the ideas and subjects which form the foundation of the science of metaphysics. After all, the student cannot be expected to be a professional philosopher; it should be sufficient if he acquires a thorough grounding in fundamentals, so that he can deepen his knowledge through subsequent reading and study. In a general way we may define metaphysics as the science of the ultimate principles and properties of real beings.

This book offers a fresh approach to the problem of the philosophy of nature. Written by a specialist whose competence is unquestionable, the book aims at simplicity without sacrificing profundity. The important problems raised by modern science with respect to the philosophy of nature are treated in such a way as to be understandable even to those whose knowledge of physical science is rather limited. Careful considerations is given to historical factors which have in the past so often led to confusion of philosophy and science and which even in the present time remain a source of conflict between scientist and philosophers.

2021 was the fifth anniversary of Amoris Lætitia, and according to pope Francis, it should have been a year of reflection on the exhortation, an opportunity to focus more closely on the content of the document. In response to this appeal, Dispelling the Fog presents five essays analysing the issue of the so-called ¿divorced-remarried¿ and their access to the Eucharist in connection with the exhortation. Vojt¿ch ¿imek focuses on the crucial Chapter 8 of Amoris Lætitia and its possible interpretations. Peter Dvöák examines and refutes the claim that the teaching of the exhortation is Thomistic. Luká¿ Novák argues that even after Amoris Lætitia, there is no sustainable argument to vindicate the legitimacy of administering the Eucharist to the ¿remarried¿ who refuse to commit themselves to abstinence. Stanislav P¿ibyl interprets the ever increasing demand for unrestricted access to the Eucharist as a manifestation of a general tendency in the post-conciliar Church to abandon the Sacrament of Penance. Finally, Marie Tejklová criticizes the so-called Filial Correction for not adequately addressing the symptoms of modernism in Amoris Lætitia: given that modernism is based on skepticism, it cannot be countered by a mere appeal to the teaching of the Church but calls for a philosophical refutation. The book further includes a foreword by bishop Athanasius Schneider, an afterword by Professor Stanislav Sousedík and rich indices.