Here is a guest piece from author Gunther Laird, who recently wrote The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), which I edited and consulted on. Please grab a copy! This piece is particularly pertinent given what is going on in the Supreme Court right now. Actuality and Abortion Gunther Laird As readers of A […]
Thomas Aquinas
Posted inReligion, Sex & Gender
Contraceptive Causality: Natural Law & Sexual Ethics
Gunther Laird has recently written a superb refutation of Natural Law Theory (NLT), as espoused these days by Christian thinkers such as Edward Feser who build upon work of Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. This kind of worldview underwrites conservative lawmakers who try to utilise NLT to underwrite modern jurisprudence. Therefore, whilst some might see a […]
Posted inEthics
The Problems of Pure Act
This is a guest post from Gunther Laird, whose superb new book The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), a devastating critique of Ed Feser, Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law Theory, is out now. Over to Laird: The philosopher Edward Feser, in most of his published books and articles (such as The Last […]
Posted inBooks, Ethics
The Unnecessary Science
The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (Onus Books) is a cracking book tackling the work of Edward Feser in his defences and use of Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle in trying to establish natural law theory and its connected areas of essentialism and so on. It is written by Gunther Laird and is just […]
Posted inGeneral
An Evil Ecumenical Church Service in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #122, Ch. 13)
Hi and welcome back to our off-topic Monday chat series, Lord Snow Presides (LSP)! Lately, we’ve been reviewing Frank Peretti’s dead albatross of a novel, This Present Darkness. In Chapter 13, he compares and contrasts a pair of church services. Last week, we checked out a scene from the TRUE CHRISTIAN™ church. Immediately after that scene, the author offers us […]
Posted inEthics
Some Thoughts on Hsiao’s Perverted Faculty Argument
The Perverted Faculty Argument (PFA) is a strand of Thomistic (Thomas Aquinas) thinking that is intertwined with Natural Law Theory (NLT) of which I have been blogging lately. I was challenged by Vincent Torley recently to, if I was going to attack the PFA (as I have done here and here), attack the best form […]
Posted inEthics, Religion
Natural Law, Essentialism and Nominalism
I have said this many times before in different ways and as part of different posts, but I thought I would explicitly make this point on its own. Natural Law Theory and the essentialism upon which it depends, as part of a Thomistic/Catholic philosophy, depends on the negation of nominalism, and depends on the clarity […]
Posted inReligion, Sex & Gender
Natural Law Theory, Morality and Rational Beings
Natural Law Theory (NLT) is an ethical theory derived from the thinking of people such as Thomas Aquinas that attempts to establish that humans, for example, have an ideal form or essence that dictates how they should act. The form of a particular species of bird is that it has feathers, a beak, two eyes, […]
Posted inReligion
Aquinas’ Essence and Existence Argument: A Critique
Aquinas is famous for a number of arguments for God’s existence, one such one being the argument from essence and existence from De Ente et Essentia [On Being and Essence]. I will briefly summarise it here. Everything supposedly has both essence and existence and they are two separate properties; only God has them together. The essence of […]
Posted inReligion
On Aquinas and Unfalsifiable Intentionality
These quotes, from Ficino’s last post on Aquinas’ Fifth Way, are on point. The first is from Sheila C.: See, he loses me at the very first premise. Things don’t act for an end at all. They seem like they do because we are watching them and, when their actions are somewhat consistent, we project our […]