Human Works, Absent Words: Law, Man, and God in Some Classical Philosophers

Christopher Berry Gray

doi:10.5771/9780761859215

Summary

What is said can be understood only when seen in the context of what is not said. Many ancient and medieval philosophers use this dynamic of presence and absence. Plato always recognizes that his expressions are energized by being set before other people. Aristotle’s dialectic between different sorts of public activity does the same. Anselm sees his writing as a test case for what it says. Bonaventure approximates his distance from trinity by finding its images at large. Aquinas makes legal norms approach the flexibility of facts. Ockham’s solution to holding goods without owning them impresses English jural doctrine. Las Casas’ refusal to fix first nations’ identity in deviant past activities hints at how to rectify contacts with first peoples today. This book shows how each author amplifies meaning in the distance between what he puts into his work and what he leaves unsaid.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2013
Copyright Year: 2013
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7618-5920-8
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7618-5921-5
Publisher: Hamilton Books, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 122
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Acknowledgements No access
1 Phaedo’s Trivia No access Pages 1 - 18
2 Paideia, Schole, Paidia: Then and Now No access Pages 19 - 24
3 Finality’s Flameout No access Pages 25 - 28
4 External Goods and Contemplation in Aristotle No access Pages 29 - 33
5 Aristotle’s Text on Justice No access Pages 34 - 41
6 Freedom and Necessity in St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo No access Pages 42 - 53
7 Bonaventure’s Proof of Trinity No access Pages 54 - 71
8 Civil Obligation in Bonaventure and 20th Century Anarchists No access Pages 72 - 80
9 Specification of Norm in the Jurisprudences of Aquinas, Austin and Kelsen No access Pages 81 - 92
10 Ockham on Trusts No access Pages 93 - 107
11 Las Casas’ Medieval Ideology No access Pages 108 - 122