Thomistic Institute: Summer 1997

The annual Thomistic Institute sponsored by the Jacques Maritain Center of the University of Notre Dame, thanks to the generosity of the Saint Gerard Foundation and the Strake Foundation, meets on campus from July 19 through July 27, 1997, to discuss the topic "Science, Philosophy, and Theology". For the purposes of the Institute, "Thomistic" may be taken to stand for realistic philosophy generally -- the philosophical doctrine that we know truths about the world both prior to and by means of science, that knowledge of the world is prior to our knowledge of our knowledge of the world, and that knowledge of things transcending the world, most notably God, becomes possible through this knowledge of our knowledge of the world. Since these are philosophical presuppositions, any element of them is of course up for discussion.

Our day begins with Mass and morning prayer in Alumni Hall chapel and ends with evening prayer. In order that all may actively participate beyond the discussions of scheduled papers, we provide an opportunity for short papers to be given in what we have dubbed Quodlibetal Sessions.

In the schedule below, highlighted entries provide links to texts of the corresponding talks. We apologize for errors resulting from the hasty conversion to Hypertext Markup Language, such as garbled accents, lack of italics in some titles of books, absence of footnotes in some cases. Blame us and not the authors for these atrocities.

Saturday 19 July

7:30pm Ralph McInerny

• Opening and Keynote Address

9:00 Evening Prayer

Sunday 20 Chair: William Carroll

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Peter Hodgson I

• Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Part I)

11:30 Tour of Campus & Library

• Lunch

3:30pm Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P.

• The Categories of Theology and Science

5:00 Evening Prayer

5:30 Pizza Party (Law School Basement)

Monday 21 Chair: Fr. Michael Sherwin, O.P.

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Martin Hewlett

• From Mendel to Biotechnology: A Critical Look at Modern Biology

11:30 Lunch

1:30pm Peter Hodgson II

• Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Part II)

3:00 Break

3:30 Quodlibetal Session I

• 1. William Hoye
  Critique of Karl Friedrich von Weizaeker

• 2. Leo Elders
  Relationship of Natural Science and Philosophy of Nature in Light of Recent Developments in Physics

• 3. Angelo Campodonico
  Experience of Reality, Integrity, and God

5:00 Evening Prayer

Tuesday 22 Chair: Marie George

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Fr. William Wallace, O.P.

• Science, Philosophy, and Theology in the Thomistic Tradition

11:30 Lunch

1:30pm Fr. Mariano Artigas

• On Scientific Truth: A Thomistic Approach to Karl Popper

3:00 Break

3:30 Quodlibetal Session II

• 1. Mario Sacchi
  Human Science: Its Nature and Scope from a Thomistic Standpoint

• 2. Daniel McInerny
  Aquinas's Understanding of Aristotle's Dialectic

• 3. Michael Tkacz
  Quare ibex talia cornua longa habet? A Case Study in Medieval Scholastic Realism and Causal Explanation

5:00 Evening Prayer

Wednesday 23 Chair: Gyula Klima

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Marie George

• On Attempts to Salvage Paley's Argument from Design

11:30 Lunch

1:30pm Tadeusz Pacholczyk

• The Neurosciences and the "Infusion of the Human Soul"

3:00 Break 3:30 Quodlibetal Session III

• 1. Anthony Lisska
  Everett Nelson: The Once and Future Thomist

• 2. Milos Lokajicek
  Quantum Mechanics and a Realistic View of Nature

• 3. Steven Snyder
  Evolution and the Origin of Species: Aristotelian Reflections

5:00 Evening Prayer

Thursday 24 Chair: William Hoye

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Fr. Juan Jose Sanguineti

• Science, Metaphysics, and Philosophy: Looking For a Distinction

11:30 Lunch

1:30pm Joseph Haller

• Proximate, Remote, and Ultimate Causes of Local Motion

3:00 Break

3:30 Quodlibetal Session IV

• 1. Louis Chammings
  Aquinas's Conception of Image

• 2. Thomas McLaughlin
  The Principle of Inertia

5:00 Evening Prayer

Friday 25 Chair: Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O.P.

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 William Carroll

• St. Thomas and "Big Bang" Cosmology

11:30 Lunch

1:30 Fr. Michael Dodds, O.P.

• Top Down, Bottom Up, Or Inside Out? Retrieving Aristotelian Causality in Contemporary Science

3:00 Break

3:30 Milos Lokajicek

• Quantum Mechanics and a Realistic View of Nature
• Understanding of Physical World

5:00 Evening Prayer

Saturday 26 Chair: Anthony Lisska

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Fr. Raphael Martinez

• Spacetime, Relativism, and Realism: A Reflection about Special Theory of Relativity and Aquinas'

11:30 Lunch

1:30pm Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O.P.

• The Importance of Substance

3:00 Break

5:00 Evening Prayer

6:30 Banquet (Morris Inn)

Sunday 27

8:00am Morning Prayer and Mass

9:00 Breakfast

Departure

All sessions will be in the Law School, Room 121.

All meals will be in the South Dining Hall (except for the opening pizza party and the final banquet).

Masses will be in Alumni Chapel.