St. Thomas, physics, and the principle of metaphysics – Lawrence Dewan

One twentieth-century school of interpretation of St. Thomas’s philosophical doctrines, the “River Forest” School, holds that physics precedes metaphysics, not merely in the order of learning, but also as providing for metaphysics its proper subject of study, being as being.⁽¹⁾ This it does by proving the existence of immaterial reality. I propose to show here that Thomas’s commentaries on Aristotle, as well as his explicit description of intellectual development, run counter to this interpretation.

The late Fr. James Weisheipl, surely representative of the School, in a paper published in 1976⁽²⁾ aimed to show the need for Aristotelian physics, also called “natural philosophy,” and to show that it has a congeniality with modern mathematical physics. He wished to distinguish it from both mathematical science and metaphysics.

Such a natural philosophy is not only valid but even necessary for the philosophical understanding of nature itself. That is to say, there are realities in nature that are not accounted for by physicomathematical abstraction, realities such as motion, time, causality, chance, substance, and change itself. The physicist needs mechanical causes, such as matter and force, but the nature of causality as such is beyond mathematics, where even final causality is out of place. Concepts such as potency and act, matter and form, substance and accident, quite useless to the modern physicist, are established in a realistic natural philosophy.

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Anxiety, envy, emulation and equity: capabilities and political emotions – Amy-Elyse Gordon

Challenging paradigms: the capability approach
Originating in the groundbreaking work of Amartya Sen, the capabilities approach represents a major shift from a narrow conception of economics to a broader account that emphasizes holistic human development and the real consequences of individual lives. Sen critiques the idea of rationality present in former utilitarian and economic accounts, citing the plurality of ends, reasonable desire for just and equitable process and other values challenging a simplistic interpretation of maximizing behavior (Sen 2002). In addition to drawing attention to outcomes and relative rankings in overall welfare indices, Sen emphasizes freedom, rational scrutiny and democratic participation. People have reason to value the processes by which social aims are achieved to ensure just and equitable participation and governance. Martha Nussbaum’s work on capabilities has similarly challenged previous paradigms in political philosophy. Like Sen, Nussbaum draws attention to the plurality, interconnection and irreducibility of the ends that human beings reasonably value.

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“Educational Structures in Context” – Eva Apostolova and Tom Claes

Educational Structures in Context

Eva Apostolova and Tom Claes

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Introduction

The present eBook The Idea of Education is intended as a historical snapshot of the conference The Idea of Education 5 that took place in Budapest in May 2008. The fifth edition of the conference on the idea of education, continued the tradition of critical debate and reflection on Higher Education that started in 2002. Among the topics covered both in the presentations and the discussion panels, were the relation between a Doctoral Degree and career opportunities, self-marketing among university applicants, the impact of globalisation on Higher Education in different developed and
developing countries, and questioning the mission of Higher Education, and the role of the teacher in it. The conference ended with a positive message affirming the role of Higher Education as an autonomous, independent space where different points of view and critical approaches could be tried out before they are implemented in society.

The eleven chapters in this volume are accurate representations of the chapters presented at the conference in Budapest. The editors have grouped the chapters into three sections, each dealing with more general or more specific issues pertaining to education. The first section introduces chapters that deal with general questions about the existing structures of formal academic education. While the authors adopt a critical approach to the existing structures of formal Higher Education, they seem to agree that the primary role of university in creating and organising the social life, (helped by the personal example and experience of the teacher), not only should not be ignored, but should be reinforced to protect universities against the reigning opportunism, managerialism, and bureaucracy that seem to have been affecting, in various degrees, all modern structures.

The second section of the volume focuses on more specific issues concerning Higher Education in different national contexts. While the challenges that Higher Education faces in Canada are different than the challenges it faces in Pakistan or Turkey, the authors agree on one thing: Higher Education should promote the values of democracy and tolerance, prepare students not only for the labour market but also for active citizenship.

Historically, universities have been hubs of creativity. In the context of globalisation where national and cultural boundaries are questioned, universities should resume (or keep) their role of facilitators of social change. This entails the need for Higher Education to remain an autonomous social institution and be available to all social groups, including, and especially, the ones whose access to higher education have been traditionally restricted.

The third section focuses on the impact of technology, and more specifically, the Internet, on Higher Education. The issues the authors tackle range from the use of Web 2.0 technology to the use of mobile phones and different online platforms during lectures. Despite the very different issues and goals that the authors see with regard to the use of technology in the classroom, they argue along the same lines: the fast access to detailed and voluminous information, and the effective structuring of this information that technology offers, should be incorporated as a useful tool in any classroom, to help the lecturer deliver the material successfully and remain connected to the students (and successfully resolve specific problems that students might
face with the course material).

The editors wish to thank all contributors to the current volume whose creative ideas and solutions have greatly enriched the ongoing debate about the place and role of higher education in society!

Échos d’une mutation sociale. Anthologie des textes du père Georges-Henri Lévesque, précurseur de la Révolution tranquille – Jean-François Simard et Maxime Allard

Échos d’une mutation sociale. Anthologie des textes du père Georges-Henri Lévesque, précurseur de la Révolution tranquille

Jean-François Simard et Maxime Allard

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Préface de Guy Rocher

Certains hommes marquent le destin d’un peuple. Georges-Henri Lévesque est de ceux-là. Rarement une personne aura-t-elle autant contribué à façonner le Québec d’aujourd’hui.

Georges-Henri Lévesque est un personnage complexe. Homme d’Église, il a participé à la sécularisation de la société canadienne-française par un appel à la non-confessionnalisation des coopératives de production. À une époque où le clergé était massivement conservateur, il entra en conflit avec plusieurs politiques de Maurice Duplessis. Sa réflexion, ses opinions et ses actions soulevèrent l’ire de plusieurs évêques et politiciens. Il fut dénoncé à Rome mais il en revint avec la bénédiction du pape Pie XII. À une époque où le Québec affichait un faible taux de scolarisation, il fut le fondateur de la première véritable Faculté des sciences sociales de langue française en Amérique du Nord. Plusieurs de ses étudiants formeront la première génération des grands mandarins qui investiront les fonctions publiques fédérale et provinciale à partir des années 1960.

Avec son cri de ralliement La liberté vient aussi de Dieu?!, il a théologiquement anticipé et cautionné ce qu’on appelle depuis la Révolution tranquille. Sous-estimer sa contribution à la mutation de la société québécoise revient à méconnaître une page importante de notre histoire nationale.

La grande attention médiatique dont il a été l’objet au cours de sa vie ne rend pas totalement justice à la richesse de sa pensée. Derrière l’orateur de talent et le pédagogue passionné se cache un rédacteur prolifique dont on a oublié la richesse des écrits. Cette anthologie regroupe de ses textes et conférences en quatre grandes thématiques : théologie sociale, sciences sociales, politiques sociales et solidarité sociale.

Biographie :

Jean-François Simard

Jean-François Simard est titulaire d’un doctorat en sociologie de l’Université Laval. Il est professeur agrégé au Département de sciences sociales à l’Université du Québec en Outaouais. Il s’intéresse à la question de l’innovation sociale dès lors qu’elle prend le visage de la politique publique, de la pensée politique et de la gouvernance du développement.

Maxime Allard

Maxime Allard, dominicain, est titulaire d’un doctorat en théologie de l’Université Laval. Il est professeur de philosophie et de théologie au Collège universitaire dominicain à Ottawa, dont il est aussi le président. Il enseigne régulièrement à Lille et, pendant plusieurs années, il le fit aussi en Afrique du Sud et au Rwanda.

Je le ressusciterai au dernier jour – Michelle Gourgues

Je le ressusciterai au dernier jour 

Michelle Gourgues

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Résumé

Dans la citation qui sert de titre à ce livre, on aura reconnu la parole de Jésus qui revient à trois reprises au chapitre 6 de l’évangile de Jean. Attestée dans la couche la plus tardive du Nouveau Testament, cette parole, dans sa concision, proclame le visage spécifique de l’espérance chrétienne. En même temps, elle en dit l’auteur, les bénéficiaires et le moment. C’est elle qui constitue le point de départ de la réflexion de Michel Gourgues.

Mais son propos n’est pas simplement de réfléchir à la singularité de l’espérance chrétienne. Il en examine l’affirmation par une étude précise des textes du Nouveau Testament relatifs à la résurrection. Il aborde ces passages, des plus anciens aux plus tardifs, dans une perspective de genèse et d’évolution de la certitude croyante. Grâce à ce cheminement rigoureux et clair, il réussit, avec bonheur, à retracer le processus d’approfondissement qu’a connu l’espérance de la résurrection, depuis l’enseignement de Jésus et le tout premier témoignage chrétien — antérieur même à Paul — jusqu’à cette étape de maturation que représente la tradition johannique.