Overview

Philosophers will be richly rewarded by reading John O'Callaghan's new book, Thomistic Realism and the Linguistic Turn. Based on his broad knowledge of Aristotle and Aquinas, O'Callaghan provides not only an excellent treatment of Aquinas's epistemology but also a superb demonstration of just how Aquinas might contribute to contemporary debates. Traditionally, the camps of realism and idealism fiercely engaged one another in the field of epistemology. Thomists participated in confronting idealism from their unique realist position. Post-Wittgenstein, the conflict has been dominated by a form of epistemology that grounds all knowledge in linguistic practice. Since Thomists work in a textual and historical mode, their response to the technical approach of the analytic philosophy in which most of the linguistic epistemologists write has been slow in coming. O'Callaghan expertly closes that gap by successfully bringing together these fields.

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This is a magnificent tour de force that engages head-on the attacks upon (and defence of) mental representationalism as the dominant epistemology of the modern period... this work constitutes the closest approximation currently available to a definitive 'map of the territory' of Anglo-American analytic epistemology, its fatal affiliation to the Cartesian theory of ideas, and a most persuasive argument for the distinctness of the Aristotelian-Thomist approach... A splendid achievement... - The Heythrop Journal. O'Callaghan offers an interpretation of Aquinas that is simultaneously traditional and innovative. This book undertakes a worthy effort to revitalize the traditional interpretation of Aquinas's theory of cognition so that it can engage the contemporary debate about the relationship of language and thought to the world. His argument is timely ... and it makes an important contribution to the field. - The Thomist. O'Callaghan writes as a passionate, penetrating, and faithful reader of St. Thomas. Thomists will have no difficulty recognizing the basic theses, but they will profit by following the careful development of these theses in dialogue with a number of contemporary philosophers. - Review of Metaphysics.

This is a magnificent tour de force that engages head-on the attacks upon (and defence of) mental representationalism as the dominant epistemology of the modern period. . . . this work constitutes the closest approximation currently available to a definitive `map of the territory' of Anglo-American analytic epistemology, its fatal affiliation to the Cartesian theory of ideas, and a most persuasive argument for the distinctness of the Aristotelian-Thomist approach. . . . A splendid achievement. . . . - The Heythrop Journal. O'Callaghan offers an interpretation of Aquinas that is simultaneously traditional and innovative. This book undertakes a worthy effort to revitalize the traditional interpretation of Aquinas's theory of cognition so that it can engage the contemporary debate about the relationship of language and thought to the world. His argument is timely . . . and it makes an important contribution to the field. - The Thomist. O'Callaghan writes as a passionate, penetrating, and faithful reader of St. Thomas. Thomists will have no difficulty recognizing the basic theses, but they will profit by following the careful development of these theses in dialogue with a number of contemporary philosophers. - Review of Metaphysics.

Author Information

John P. O'Callaghan is director of the Jacques Maritain Center and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is co-editor of Recovering Nature: Essays in Natural Philosophy, Ethics, and Metaphysics in Honor of Ralph McInerny, also published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

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