An Introduction to Philosophy

I have been teaching intro to philosophy for five years, and Maritain's book is the best I have ever seen. In the first four chapters, Maritain lays out the development of philosophical thought from various schools of thought around the world in ancient time, through the pre-Socratics and through Aristotle. Then in the next four chapters he shows what philosophy is, how it is related to the special sciences, to theology, and to common sense. That is all part one of the book. In part two of the book, he examines and explains each of the main divisions of philosophy inluding: logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of nature, epistemology, ontology (to which he devotes four chapters), and the philosopy of art

Preface

v

Introduction

xiii

Ralph McInerny

Introductory

xix

PART ONE THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

Philosophic Thought before Philosophy in the Strict Sense

3

(18)

Introduction

Primitive tradition

4

(1)

The Semites and the Egyptians

The Indo-Europeans

5

(13)

The Persians

The Indians

6

(5)

Brahmanism

Buddhism

11

(2)

Other schools

13

(1)

The Chinese

14

(4)

Limitations of human wisdom

18

(1)

The Greeks the chosen people of reason

19

(2)

The Pre-Socratic Philosophers

21

(13)

The Sages

The Ionians

22

(12)

Thales and his successors

The great physicists

24

(2)

Heraclitus

Democritus

26

(1)

Anaxagoras

27

(1)

The Italians: Pythagoras

28

(4)

The Eleatics: Parmenides

32

(2)

The Sophists and Socrates

34

(8)

Introduction

The sophists

35

(2)

Socrates

37

(5)

Ethics and knowledge

38

(1)

Irony, maieutic, dialectic

39

(1)

Moderate intellectualism

40

(2)

Plato and Aristotle

42

(22)

The minor Socratics

Plato

43

(5)

His theory of ideas

His system of philosophy

45

(2)

Its limitations

47

(1)

Aristotle

48

(12)

Corrections of Plato

49

(3)

The Aristotelian system

52

(4)

Aristotle's works

56

(4)

Aristotle and St. Thomas

60

(2)

Philosophia perennis

62

(2)

Definition of Philosophy

64

(5)

Scientific knowledge

Its material object

67

(2)

Its formal object

Conclusion I

69

(12)

Further considerations

Philosophy and the Special Sciences

71

(10)

Philosophy judges the special sciences

It governs them

72

(4)

It defends them

76

(1)

It is pre-eminently free

77

(4)

Further observations

Conclusion II

81

(7)

Philosophy and Theology

82

(6)

Nature of theology

Theology judges philosophy

83

(1)

Philosophy submits to theology its conclusions, not its premises

84

(2)

Philosophia ancilla theologiae

86

(2)

Further considerations

Conclusion III

88

(18)

Philosophy and Common Sense

89

(12)

Unscientific knowledge

Philosophy is derived from common sense, understood as the natural apprehension of first principles

90

(1)

Common sense may accidentally judge philosophy

91

(4)

Conclusion IV

The method of philosophy

95

(6)

PART TWO THE CLASSIFICATION OF PHILOSOPHY

The Main Divisions of Philosophy

101

(5)

Logic, Theoretical philosophy. Practical philosophy

Their objects

104

(2)

Conclusion V

106

(3)

Logic

107

(2)

Correct reasoning

Ideas and images

108

(1)

Conclusion VI

109

(2)

Individual and universal

Conclusion VII

111

(10)

The problems of universals

Nominalism

Realism

112

(2)

Moderate Realism

The Philosophy of Mathematics and the Philosophy of Nature

114

(7)

The term body

The philosophy of mathematics

The philosophy of nature

115

(4)

Mechanism

116

(1)

Dynamism

Hylomorphism

117

(2)

Psychology

119

(2)

Problem of the origin of ideas

Conclusion VIII

121

(8)

Abstraction: Problem of human nature

Conflicting schools

123

(3)

Criticism (Epistemology)

126

(3)

Being qua being

Criticism

Problem of truth

127

(2)

Conclusion IX

129

(4)

Conflicting schools

Scepticism

Rationalism

Moderate intellectualism

130

(1)

Problem of the object of the intellect

131

(2)

Conclusion X

133

(1)

Being and intelligibility

Conclusion XI

134

(10)

Ontology: Essence

135

(9)

Problems of ontology

Essence

136

(5)

In the wide sense

137

(2)

In the strict sense

139

(2)

Characteristics of this essence

141

(3)

Conclusion XII

144

(5)

Further observations

Our intellect can apprehend essence

146

(2)

Conclusion XIII

Further observations

Essence is universal in the mind

148

(1)

Conclusion XIV

149

(14)

Individual nature and matter

Individual nature

150

(1)

First matter

151

(1)

Archetypal being

152

(2)

Nature, essence, and quiddity

154

(3)

Ontology: Substance and Accident

157

(6)

Origin of these notions

Substance

161

(2)

Conclusion XV

163

(3)

Further observations

Accident

165

(1)

Conclusion XVI

166

(15)

Further observations

Conflicting schools

167

(3)

The individuality of substance

170

(6)

Substantia prima, substantia secunda

Per se, a se, in se

173

(3)

Ontology: Act and Potentiality

176

(5)

Origin of these notions

Identity and change

Their apparent incompatibility

177

(1)

Solved by the concept potentiality

178

(1)

Potency or potentiality

179

(1)

Act

180

(1)

Conclusion XVII

181

(20)

The nature of change

Act and potentiality in things

Axioms i-vii

183

(2)

Conflicting schools

185

(1)

Terminology

Material and formal

186

(2)

Virtual and formal (actual)

188

(1)

Implicit and explicit

In express act, in accomplished act

189

(1)

Theodicy (Natural Theology)

190

(3)

Subsistent being itself

191

(2)

The Philosophy of Art; Ethics

193

(8)

Introduction

The philosophy of art

Ethics

196

(3)

Divisions of ethics

Conflicting schools

199

(2)

Conclusion

201

Classification of philosophy

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An Introduction to Philosophy

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials