Étienne Gilson

A existência na filosofia de São Tomás

Forms and Substances in the Arts (French Literature Series (Normal, Ill.).)

The study of being was one of the main preoccupations of Etienne Gilson's scholarly and intellectual life. Being and Some Philosophers is at once a testament to the persistence of those concerns and an important landmark in the history of the question of being. The book charts the ways in which being is translated across history, from unity in Plato and substance in Aristotle to essence in Avicenna and the act of existence in Aquinas. It examines the vicissitudes of essence and existence in Suarez and Christian Wolff, in Hegel and Kierkegaard, in order to uncover the metaphysical and existential foundations of modern thought. And yet Being and Some Philosophers remains not so much an historical investigation (although it could only have been written by a scholar steeped in the history of philosophy) but, in the words of its author, "a philosophical book, and a dogmatically philosophical one at that." Its passionate vigour has proven, over many years, at once fresh and provocative. Indeed, the appendix to this revised edition contains critiques of the book by two Thomists as well as Gilson's replies to their objections.

Being and Some Philosophers

Painting and Reality

"The midpoint of the twentieth century, as with the present day, saw no shortage of scholarship on the subject of art. In Painting and Reality, delivered in 1955 for the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Étienne Gilson makes what a unique contribution to that vast body of literature. Addressing the problem of what a philosopher can learn from painting, Gilson makes the center of his perspective the work of art in and of itself paired with its relationship to the world of natural reality (ontology) and to the beholder (phenomenology). From this metaphysically robust vantage point, he develops a vision of art as both an investigation into and an affirmation of reality. Borne up on the wings of a deep understanding of and love for the artistic process, Painting and Reality aims to reveal to art the fullness of its inherent meaning and to artists the exhilarating honor of their creative mission. Brilliant and expansive, Gilson's "pictorial approach to philosophy" properly belongs among the classics of aesthetic philosophy."--

Delivered for the A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1955

Este volumen recoge las lecciones dictadas por el autor en las Gifford Lectures de 1931, en la Universidad de Aberdeen. A menudo se piensa que la Edad Media posee una literatura y un arte bien reconocibles, pero carece de filosofía propia. Pero de igual modo que el arte o la literatura medieval tiene fundamentos anteriores, igual sucede con la filosofía. En este caso, el autor la presenta como la filosofía cristiana por excelencia, penetrada por la tradición griega y capaz de producir una visión del mundo específicamente cristiana. El espíritu de la Filosofía Medieval es una de las obras imprescindibles para entender los presupuestos filosóficos que dieron origen a la visión cristiana del mundo y de la vida.

El espíritu de la filosofía medieval

Jacques Maritain

Christopher Dawson

Maurice Blondel

Martin Cyril D'Arcy

With a new afterword by Jacob Holsinger Sherman! "A Monument to Saint Augustine, now happily reprinted by Wipf and Stock, gathers many diverse strands of the early twentieth century Catholic thought within its pages: the creative transformation of neo-scholasticism through a kind of ressourcement, the Catholic literary intellectual renaissance in Europe and Britain, the focus upon the renewal of Christian humanism in the face of modernity's proliferating dangers, and the Augustinian turn as a resource for the theology of crisis. Were it to do nothing else, this volume would be of extraordinary historical importance insofar as it makes clear how central the legacy of St. Augustine was to the interwar renaissance in Catholic thought and culture, not only to Burns, Dawson, and the British Catholics but also to the great figures of the Continent: Blondel, Gilson, Maritain, and Przywara. But the volume does much more. The contributions themselves are of real, substantive, and lasting value. The essays contained in this volume are not in theology per se--though theology, especially the doctrine of creation and theological anthropology, lies ever just beneath the surface. Rather, they treat Augustine from the perspective of philosophy, history, religious studies, and the humanities more generally." -- From the New Afterword by Jacob Sherman

Essays on Some Aspects of His Thought Written in Commemoration of His 15th Centenary

A Monument to Saint Augustine

Il volume raccoglie le Tre lezioni che Étienne Gilson, Accademico di Francia, propose nel 1960 alla Pontificia Università Lateranense dedicate al grande problema della dimostrazione dell’esistenza di Dio. La prima mette in luce le difficoltà di interpretazione delle “prove” secondo la proposta di Tommaso d’Aquino. La seconda suggerisce come conviene intendere queste prove, o vie. La terza si interroga sulla questione, inevitabile per i filosofi, circa la validità del tipo di ragionamento al quale l’Aquinate fa appello per condurre l’intelletto alla conclusione che esiste un Dio.

Tre lezioni sul problema dell'esistenza di Dio

René Descartes

texte et commentaire

René Descartes' Discours de la méthode

Étienne Gilson (1884-1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy, as well as a scholar of medieval philosophy. In 1946 he attained the distinction of being elected an Immortal (member) of the Académie française. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959 and 1964. The appearance of Gilson's Metamorphosis of the City of God, which were originally delivered as lectures at the University of Louvain, Belgium, in the Spring of 1952, coincided with the first steps toward what would become the European Union. The appearance of this English translation coincides with the upheaval of Brexit. Gilson traces the various attempts of thinkers through the centuries to describe Europe's soul and delimit its parts. The Scots, Catalonians, Flemings, and probably others may nod in agreement in Gilson's observation on how odd would be a Europe composed of the political entities that existed two and a half centuries ago. Those who think the European Union has lost its soul may not be comforted by the difficulty thinkers have had over the centuries in defining that soul. Indeed the difficulties that have thus far prevented integrating Turkey into the EU confirm Gilson's description of the conundrum involved even in distinguishing Europe's material components. And yet, the endeavor has succeeded, so that the problem of shared ideals remain inescapable. One wonders which of the thinkers in the succession studied by Gilson might grasp assent and illuminate the EU's path.

Étienne Gilson

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