Leo Elders Book order

In the past decades scholars in the field of Thomistic studies repeatedly expressed the desirability of an up-to-date manual on the philosophy of nature and anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Questions demanding to be discussed concern, for instance, the precise nature of a philosophical and a scientific approach, the place of classical philosophy of nature in our time, the value of the atomic representation of material reality, the relevance of the concept of substance. Is it still possible to speak of the human soul? What is the relation between man and the world? The author, a well-known specialist in Thomistic studies, tries to answer these and similar questions in the light of the principles of Aquinas. The explanations are placed in a historical context; the numerous notes give the relevant texts of Aquinas in Latin. Some 500 authors are quoted.

Metaphysics, formerly the queen of science, fell into oblivion under the onslaught of empiricism and positivism and its very possibllity came to be denied. Professor Elders traces the history of this process and shows how St. Thomas innovated in determining both the subject of metaphysics and the manner in which one enters this science, particularly in the framework of his Aristotle commentaries.The work then considers being and its properties, its divisions into being in act and being in potency, into the act of being essence, and into substance and the accidents. Finally the causes of being are considered. The work also introduces and surveys the extensive literature of Thomas interpretation of the past 50 years.