Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University Dr. Catherine Peters joins us this week for an episode on Avicenna and Aquinas. Dr. Peters looks at the thought of Avicenna and its influence on and development within the teachings of St. Thomas.

Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas Dr. Christopher Wolfe joins us this week for an episode on unalienable rights. Dr. Wolfe looks at the thought behind unalienable rights and how they are understood by certain libertarian thinkers.

Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder Dr. Robert Pasnau joins us for an episode on the assent of faith. Dr. Pasnau looks at the thought of medieval thinkers on the causes of and reasons for the assent of faith and the criteria used on heretics.

Dr. Turner Nevitt is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. In his talk "How to Be an Analytic Existential Thomist," Dr. Nevitt defends the Thomistic doctrine that existence is a real property against traditional critiques by analytic philosophers. Nevitt argues that, besides Aquinas' own arguments, there are solid analytic grounds for adopting the Thomistic conception of existence.

Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas Dr. Christopher Wolfe joins us this week for an episode on politics. Dr. Wolfe, apropos of the debate, centering on the term "integralism", over the proper relation between church and state, suggests that looking to the thought of George Washington, our first president, may help us to resolve these debates.

We are happy to welcome Dr. Nathan Smith, who teaches at Houston Community College, to our Colloquium Series this semester. This episode features his paper on Descartes, in which he investigates Descartes' mathematical method and the implications of that method for Descartes' idea of what corporeal beings are. This paper was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on December 6th, 2019.

Center professor Dr. Christopher Martin is the author of this week's colloquium paper. The subject is the difficult concept of the "self": how the self can be identified, what ensures its continuity, and to what degree it can be identified with the soul. This paper, "The Self and the Soul: Aquinas, Ascombe and Authority", was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on November 8th, 2019.

Dr. R. Edward Houser, professor emeritus of philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies, gives in this episode his paper "The Metaphysics of Aquinas and Avicenna". In it, he traces the influence of the Arabic philosopher on Aquinas' thought.

This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on October 25, 2019.

Join us for a colloquium with Dr. George Sher! Dr. Sher is a professor of philosophy at the nearby Rice University, and he gives us in this episode an argument that only actions, not thoughts, can be vicious. This paper, "Vicious Thoughts", was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on October 11th, 2019.

Join us for a Colloquium with Dr. Steven Peña! Dr. Peña, who received his PhD from the Center for Thomistic Studies, and now teaches philosophy at San Jacinto College, speaks here on "Marx, MacIntyre and Metahistory". This paper was given on October 4th, 2019.

We are happy to have Dr. Jennifer Frey with us for another episode of our Colloquium series. Dr. Frey is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, and she speaks here on Elizabeth Anscombe's little-understood writings on the concept of intention. Her paper is entitled "Aquinas and Anscombe on Action" and was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on September 27th, 2019.

Join us for a colloquium with Dr. Robert Koons! Dr. Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and he speaks here about the implications of quantum chemistry for our understanding of matter in natural substances.

This paper was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies, at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, on September 13th, 2019.

This episode features Dr. John Nieto. Dr. Nieto earned his PhD in philosophy from Notre Dame University and teaches at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA.

In his paper, "Aristotle's Identification of Substance and Action in God as Subsisting Goodness," Dr. Nieto gives a detailed examination of Aristotle's statements about God in Metaphysics Lambda.

This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on January 18, 2019.

In this episode, the Center brings you Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP PhD (University of St. Thomas) presenting a paper titled "Hunger and Thirst: Suffering for Christ in Sts. Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Kolkatta." The published version of this paper can be found in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Fall 2017), pp. 18-38 (www.stthomas.edu/media/catholicst…0.4Surmanski.pdf)

Sr. Albert Marie is a Visiting Assistant Professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas. She earned her PhD in theology from Ave Maria University in 2014.

This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on November 5, 2018.

We are happy to welcome back Dr. Gaston LeNotre for his second appearance on Talking Thomism! Dr. LeNotre is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He earned his PhD in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.

In his paper "Can Thomas' Account of Individuation Survive Scotus' Objections? A CONCRETE Respone," Dr. LeNotre follows up on the work he presented in his appearance on Talking Thomism. Here, he argues that Aquinas held indeterminate dimension is the principle of individuation and considers some objections to this position taken from the Subtle Doctor himself, Duns Scotus.

This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on February 22, 2019.

In this episode, we will hear Dr. Brian Carl present his paper "The Multiplicity of Divine Attributes in Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas." Dr. Carl is a member of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, where he is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on March 4, 2018.

In this episode, Dr. Thomas Ball provides a robust account of Anselm's ethic theory through a consideration of Anselm's lesser known works. Dr. Ball is an independent scholar and a co-founder and co-owner of Sacristy Press (Durham, UK). Dr. Ball earned his PhD in the history of political thought at Durham University. 

In this episode, we will hear Dr. Christopher Wolfe present his paper, "Looking for the Common Good in Our Republic: Considering Some Objections from Alasdair MacIntyre". Dr. Wolfe is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas. This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on November 2nd, 2018.

In this episode, the Center brings you Dr. Steven Delay (Wake Forest University) presenting a paper titled "Jean-Yves Lacoste: From Being-in-the-World to Living-Before-God." This paper is adapted from Dr. Delay's recent book "Phenomenology in France: A Philosophical and Theological Introduction" (Routledge, 2018). Dr. Delay earned his MA in philosophy from Rice University and his DPhil in philosophy from Oxford University. He is currently a Thomas Jack Lynch Teacher-Scholar Post Doctoral Fellow at Wake Forest University, NC. This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on September 28, 2018.

Dr. Steven Jensen is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston and the chair of the Center for Thomistic Studies. In his paper, titled "Sophisticated Alienation," Dr. Jensen provides a critique of consequentialism in relation to recent attempts by consequentialist philosophers to overcome the problem of alienation (the objection that consequentialist focus on maximizing the agent-neutral good destroys one's personal connections to anyone you may try to help.)

Dr. Turner Nevitt is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. In his talk "How to Be an Analytic Existential Thomist," Dr. Nevitt defends the Thomistic doctrine that existence is a real property against traditional critiques by analytic philosophers. Nevitt argues that, besides Aquinas' own arguments, there are solid analytic grounds for adopting the Thomistic conception of existence.

Dr. Gaston LeNotre is an independent scholar who earned his PhD in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. In his paper "Thomas Aquinas on the Different Problems of Individuation," Dr. LeNotre addresses issues concerning the principle of individuation in St. Thomas. He provides a thorough overview of St. Thomas' writings on how material individuals are individuated and provides a critique of Joseph Owens' interpretation of Aquinas that esse is the ultimate principle of individuation in Aquinas.

In light of recent defenses (e.g. Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now!", Jonah Goldberg's "Suicide of the West") and critiques (Patrick Deneen's "Why Liberalism Failed") of enlightenment liberalism, Mr. Jones argues the ultimate fruit of enlightenment liberalism has been the atomization society, leading to a sense of isolation and meaninglessness.

Mr. Jones has been published in New Blackfriars, Crisis, Catholic World Report, HPR, and Catholic Social Science Review.

This talk was given at the Center for Thomistic Studies on May 4, 2018.

In this episode, Dr. Brian Kemple addresses how the insights of Peirce, Heidigger, and Thomas can be used to understand how we interpret the truth. The talk draws on material from Dr. Kemple's recent book "Ens Primum Cognitum in Thomas Aquinas and the Tradition, The Philosophy of Being as First Known" (Brill, 2017) and his current research. Dr. Kemple is a graduate of the Center for Thomistic Studies. He currently teaches ethics at the Wentworth Institute of Technology and is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Digital Life.