American Catholic Philosophical Association

2017 Annual Meeting

“Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity”

Thursday, November 16 - Sunday, November 19, 2017
The Westin Dallas Downtown
1201 Main Street
Dallas, TX 75202
www.westindallasdowntown.com
972-584-6650

Contents of Program:
1. Schedule of Events……………………….1
2. Details of Satellite Session.…………..6
3. Abstracts of Contributed Papers….18

I. Schedule of Events
Thursday (Nov. 16)

6 -11p: Dinner and Meeting of the Executive Council of the ACPA

Friday (Nov. 17)

8a: Holy Mass

8a-6p: Registration and Book Exhibit

10a-12p: Satellite Sessions (Friday Morning):

1. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - I

2. Phenomenology and Metaphysics
3. Aquinas and Postmodernity Project - I
4. Institute of Philosophic Studies, University of Dallas
5. The Memorial University of Newfoundland
& Villanova University - I
6. Contemporary Thomistic Psychology
7. Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
8. Society for 21st Century Thomism
9. Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group - I
10. Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project

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 11. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - I
12. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - II

1-3p: Satellite Sessions (Friday Afternoon):

13. Society for Thomistic Natural Philosophy

14. Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas
15. Catholicism and Phenomenology - I
16. Society of Christian Philosophers
17. Thomas Aquinas College - I
18. Lonergan Philosophical Society
19. International Institute for Hermeneutics
20. Baylor Philosophy - I
21. Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology - I
22. Northeast Catholic College
23. International Étienne Gilson Society
24. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - III

3:30-5:30p: Contributed Papers (Friday Afternoon):

Philosophy of Nature - 1
Chair: Tom McLaughlin, St. John Vianney Seminary, Denver
Speaker: Christopher O. Blum, Augustine Institute
“Nature & Modernity: Can one philosophize about nature today?”
Comments: John G. Brungardt, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Speaker: Rev. Robert Verrill, O.P., Baylor University
“Elementary Particles are not Substances”
Comments: Timothy Kearns, Legionaries of Christ, College of Humanities

Epistemology
Chair: Carl N. Still, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
Speaker: Christopher Tomaszewski, Baylor University
“A Geachian Cure for Morally Paralyzed Skeptical Theists”
Comments: Max G. Parish, The University of Oklahoma
Speaker: Joseph Gamache, Boston University, Recipient of the ACPA’s Young
Scholar’s Award 2017
“Doxastic Involuntarism and Evidentialism: A Curious Modern
Conjunction”
Comments: Geoffrey Karabin, Neumann University

Metaphysics
Chair: Joseph M. Forte, Northeast Catholic College
Speaker: Karl Hahn, Villanova University
“’The Mystical is Everything Speculative’: Natural Theology in Hegel’s
Philosophy of Religion”
Comments: James M. Murdoch Jr., Villanova University
Speaker: Maria Fedoryka, Ave Maria University

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 “’God is Love’: Personal Plurality as the Completion of Aristotle’s Notion
of Substance and Love as the Absolute Ground of Divine Being”
Comments: R. Glen Coughlin, Thomas Aquinas College

Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity

Chair: Terence Sweeney, Villanova University
Speaker: Matthew Pietropaoli, The Catholic University of America
“A Fruitful Crisis of Belief: Hans Jonas on a Proper Mode of Faith within
the Context of Modernity”
Comments: Michael Vendsel, Tarrant County College
Speaker: Mark K. Spencer, University of St. Thomas, MN
“Grace, Natura Pura, and the Metaphysics of Status: Personalism and
Thomism on the Historicity of the Human Person and the Genealogy of
Modernity”
Comments: Francis M. Petruccelli, The Catholic University of America

7-9:30p: Presidential Address and First Plenary Lecture:

Chair: Francis Beckwith, Baylor University, Vice President of the ACPA

Presidential Address: Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University, President of the ACPA

“Laudato Si, the Crisis of Modernity, and Catholic Philosophy”

Plenary Lecture: His Excellency, the Most Reverend Daniel E. Flores, S.T.D.
Bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville, TX
“Belonging to the WORD made flesh”

9-11:30p: Reception

Saturday (Nov. 18)

8a: Holy Mass

8:30a-6p: Registration and Book Exhibit
8-9a: Philosophers in Jesuit Education - Business Meeting

9-11:15a: Second and Third Plenary Lectures:

Chair: Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University, President of the ACPA

Speaker : John Haldane, Baylor University

“Learning from Art and History: the limits of Philosophy”

Speaker: Russell Hittinger, The University of Tulsa

“From Synthesis to Juxtaposition: Philosophical Perplexities of Catholic
Social Teaching”

11:15-11:45a: ACPA Business Meeting

11:45a-1p: Women’s Luncheon (Reservation Required)

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1:15-3:15p: ACPA Contributed Papers (Saturday Afternoon):

Philosophy of Nature - 2
Chair: Rev. Robert Verrill, O.P., Baylor University
Speaker: Marco Stango, Pennsylvania State University, Juniata College
“Understanding Hylomorphic Dualism”
Comments: Philip Solorzano, University of Dallas
Speaker: Chad Engelland, University of Dallas
“Dispositive Causality and the Art of Medicine”
Comments: Jacob Tuttle, Loyola Marymount University

Philosophy of Human Person

Chair: Edward M. Macierowski, Benedictine College
Speaker: Michael Potts, Methodist University
“Catholic Hylomorphism and Temporary Bodies”
Comments: Carl Still, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
Speaker: Jeremy W. Skrzypek, University of Mary
“Complex Survivalism, or: How to Lose Your Essence and Live to Tell
About It”
Comments: Daniel De Haan, University of Cambridge

Ethics
Chair: Megan Furman, University of Dallas
Speaker: Hilary Yancey, Baylor University
“Frontiers of Analogous Justice: A Thomistic Approach to Martha
Nussbaum’s Justice for Animals”
Comments: Daniel Maher, Assumption College
Speaker: Gregory M. Reichberg, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
“Restrictive versus Permissive Double Effect: Interpreting Aquinas”
Comments: Daniel Shields, Pontifical College Josephinum

Mereology
Chair: Alina Beary, Baylor University
Speaker: Joshua Lee Harris, Institute for Christian Studies
“Things within Things? Toward a Ontology of the Firm”
Comments: Eric Mabry, Christ the King Seminary, NY
Speaker: Lindsay K. Cleveland, Baylor University
“Property Characterization and the Status of Accidental Unities in
Aquinas: A Response to Brower”
Comments: Kelly Gallagher, University of South Carolina

3:30-5:30p: Satellite Sessions (Saturday Afternoon):

25. Author Meets Critics: Thomas Hibbs

26. Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism
27. The Enduring Relevance of Hegel
28. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - II

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 29. Thomas Aquinas: On the Creation and Nature of
Man and Woman
30. Society for Thomistic Personalism
31. Aquinas and Postmodernity Project - II
32. Thomas Aquinas College - II
33. Philosophers in Jesuit Education
34. Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology - II
35. Institute for Saint Anselm Studies
36. The Memorial University of Newfoundland
& Villanova University - II

5:45-6:45p: Holy Mass

7-7:30p: Reception

7:30-9:30p: ACPA Banquet

Young Scholar’s Award Recipient:

Joseph Gamache, PhD Candidate (ABD), Boston University

Introduction of the Aquinas Medalist:

TBA

Aquinas Medal Recipient:

Dr. Linda Zagzebski, George Lynn Cross Research Professor and
Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics,
The University of Oklahoma
“The Two Greatest Ideas”
Sunday (Nov. 19)

8a: Holy Mass

8a-12p: Book Exhibit

9-11a: Satellite Sessions (Sunday Morning):

37. Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics

38. The ACPA Committee on Priestly Formation
39. The Society for the Study of Nature and the Philosophy
of Science
40. International Natural Law Society
41. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - III
42. Baylor Philosophy - II
43. Catholicism and Phenomenology - II
44. Aquinas on Virtue
45. Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group - II
46. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - IV
47. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - V

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 II. Details of Satellite Sessions
Satellite Sessions (Friday Morning, 10a-12p)

1. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - I

Topic: CEPOS: What are the Modern Sciences (up to)?
Organizers: Peter Distelzweig, University of St. Thomas, MN
Karen Zwier, Drake University
Chair: Peter Distelzweig
Speaker 1: Tom McLaughlin, St. John Vianney Seminary, Denver
“Newton’s First Law of Motion, the Principle of Inertia, Considered as a
Mathematical and a Physical Principle of Nature”
Speaker 2: Ravit Dotan, University of California, Berkeley
“The Dual Role of Evidence in Scientific and Religious Practices”
Speaker 3: Michael Dickson, University of South Carolina
“Epistemic Optimism and Scientific Instrumentalism”

2. Phenomenology and Metaphysics

Topic: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Organizer & Chair: Chad Engelland, University of Dallas
Speaker 1: Michelle Averchi, The Catholic University of America
“Husserl and the Question of Ontological Truth”
Speaker 2: Michael Bowler, Michigan Technological University
“Heidegger, Fundamental Ontology, and the Concealing of the Good”
Speaker 3: Jonathan J. Sanford, University of Dallas
“Justice is Beautiful: Aristotle, Justice, and Beauty as Phenomenon”

3. Aquinas and Postmodernity Project - I

Topic: Aquinas and Continental Philosophy
Organizers: Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
Joseph G. Trabbic, Ave Maria University
Chair: Brian Harding, Texas Woman’s University
Speaker 1: Scott Roniger, Loyola Marymount University
“Prudence as Command over Presence and Absence”
Speaker 2: Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Waiting for the End of the World: Aquinas and Heidegger on the
Thessalonians”
Speaker 3: Joseph G. Trabbic, Ave Maria University
“Thinking Thomistically about Heidegger’s Critique of Philosophical
Theology”

4. Institute of Philosophic Studies, University of Dallas

Topic: Three Approaches to Plato’s Republic
Organizers: Robert E. Wood, University of Dallas
Chair: Joshua Parens, Director of IPS, University of Dallas
Panel: Daniel Arioli, Philosophy, University of Dallas
“A Lonerganian Reading of the Divided Line”
Leta Sundet, Literature, University of Dallas
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 “The Allegory of the Cave and the Myth or Er”
Pavlos Papadopoulos, Politics, University of Dallas
“How Socrates Assimilates the Flawed Definitions of Justice
from Book I”

5. The Memorial University of Newfoundland & Villanova University - I

Topic: Augustine and (Post-) Modern Thought
Organizers: Seamus O’Neill, The Memorial University of Newfoundland
Terence Sweeney, Villanova University
Msgr. Hans Feichtinger, Archdiocese of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Chair: Msgr. Hans Feichtinger
Speaker 1: Montague Brown, Saint Anselm College
“Augustine on the Fullness of Freedom and Mercy”
Speaker 2: Patricia Grosse, Drexel University
“When Faith and Reason Were Entwined: The Relationship between
Consciousness and Love in St. Augustine”
Speaker 3: Terence Sweeney, Villanova University
“The Onto-Politics of Pears: Augustine on Communities of Privation”

6. Contemporary Thomistic Psychology

Organizer: Brandon Dahm, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Chair: Mark Allen, University of Dallas
Speaker 1: Heidi Giebel and Tonia Bock, University of St. Thomas, MN
“A Thomistic and Eriksonian Measure of Moral Identity”
Speaker 2: Daniel De Haan, University of Cambridge
“Thomist Philosophical Anthropology: A Heuristic”
Speaker 3: Brandon Dahm and Matthew Breuninger
Franciscan University of Steubenville
“Habits and Habitus: Contemporary Psychology of Habit and Virtue”

7. Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy

Topic: Causation and Science in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
Organizer & Chair: Gloria Frost, University of St. Thomas, MN
Speaker 1: David Cory, The Catholic University of America; Notre Dame
“Is Digestion Fully Material? Aquinas on Matter and the Vegetal Soul”
Speaker 2: Zita Toth, Conception Seminary College, MO
“Durand of St.-Pourçain on Causal Interactions after the Day of
Judgment”
Speaker 3: Nicola Polloni, Durham University
“Accordance and Strife: Encounters with Modernity at the Beginning of
the Thirteenth Century”

8. Society for 21st Century Thomism

Topic: Arguments for the Existence of God
Organizer: John H. Boyer, University of St. Thomas, TX
Chair: Daniel Wagner, Aquinas College, MI
Speaker 1: Evan Williams, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Non-Conscious Teleology in the Fifth Way of Thomas Aquinas”

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 Speaker 2: Geoffrey Meadows and John H. Boyer, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Quantum Mechanics and God”
Speaker 3: Christopher Martin, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Aquinas and the Existence of God”

9. Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group - I

Topic: Avicenna and Aquinas
Organizer & Chair: Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo, St. Gregory the Great Seminary
(Lincoln, Nebraska); Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
Speaker 1: Catherine Peters, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Predication and Causality: Avicenna and Aquinas on the Twofold
Division of Common Principles”
Speaker 2: Jacob J. Andrews, Loyola University Chicago
“Delighting in the First Truth: William of Auxerre’s Intellectual Faith in
its Historical Context”
Speaker 3: Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo, St. Gregory the Great Seminary
(Lincoln, Nebraska); Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
“Maimonides and Aquinas on the Finality of Worship in the Mosaic Law”

10. Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project

Topic: Dietrich von Hildebrand on Art and Beauty, and on Sexuality and Purity
Organizer: John F. Crosby, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Chair: Christopher Haley, Legacy Project
Speaker 1: Mark Spencer, University of St. Thomas, MN
“Beauty and Being in von Hildebrand and the Aristotelian Tradition”
Commentator: Christopher Haley
Speaker 2: Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina
“Self-gift in Marriage and Consecrated Virginity in von Hildebrand's In
Defense of Purity”
Commentator: John F. Crosby

11. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - I

Topic: Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity - I
Chair: Rev. James Dominic Rooney, O.P., St. Louis University
Speaker 1: Joshua Schulz, DeSales University
“Defending Semiotic Anti-Commodification Arguments”
Speaker 2: Daniel O’Dea Bradley, Gonzaga University
“The Devil in Teresa and Descartes: The Way of the Mystics and the
Methods of Modernism”
Speaker 3: William Jaworksi, Fordham University
“Contemporary Hylomorphism and the Philosophy of Mind”

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12. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - II
Topic: Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind
Chair: Christopher Tomaszewski, Baylor University
Speaker 1: Luis Pinto de Sa, Saint Louis University
“Knowledge, Understanding and Well-Being”
Speaker 2: Stephen Ogden, The Catholic University of America
“From Universal Form to Universal Nous”

Satellite Sessions (Friday Afternoon, 1-3p)

13. Society for Thomistic Natural Philosophy

Topic: The Color of Nature
Organizer & Chair: Michael W. Tkacz, Gonzaga University
Speaker 1: Christopher A. Decaen, Thomas Aquinas College
“The Reality of Color and the Influence of Imagination on Vision”
Speaker 2: Steven C. Snyder, Christendom College
“The Reality of Color: A Commentary”

14. Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas

Topic: Transcendentals of Being
Organizer: Gaston G. LeNotre, Independent Scholar
Chair: Turner C. Nevitt, University of San Diego
Speaker 1: Michael J. Rubin, University of Mary Washington
“Aquinas’s Transcendental Proofs of God’s Existence and Attributes”
Speaker 2: Gaston G. LeNotre, Independent Scholar
“How Does Aquinas Derive the Transcendentals of Being?”
Speaker 3: Brian Carl, Dominican House of Studies
“Transcendental Goodness, Moral Goodness, and the Divine Goodness”

15. Catholicism and Phenomenology - I

Topic: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and the Question of Modernity
Organizers: Michael Bowler, Michigan Technological University
Chad Engelland, University of Dallas
George Heffernan, Merrimack College
Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
Chair: Michael Bowler
Speaker 1: Daniel Dahlstrom, Boston University
“Formalization and the Sense of Acting: Themes from Heidegger’s early
phenomenology”
Speaker 2: Stephen Watson, University of Notre Dame
“From the Inner World to Speechless Image: Gadamer, Rothko, and the
Retrieval of the Sacred”
Speaker 3: Pol Vandevelde, Marquette University
“The Subject as Intersubjective: Love as an Epistemic Virtue”

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16. Society of Christian Philosophers
Topic: Autonomy and Moral Education
Organizers: John Schwenkler, Florida State University
Chair: Paul Blaschko, University of Notre Dame
Speaker 1: Kyla Ebels-Duggan, Northwestern University
“Educating for Autonomy: An Old Fashioned View”
Commentator: Nathaniel Helms, University of Oxford
Speaker 2: Ryan West, Grove City College
“Remedial Virtues and the Task of Becoming Good”
Commentator: Maria Altepeter, Washington University in St. Louis

17. Thomas Aquinas College - I

Topic: Philosophy and Faith
Organizer: John J. Goyette, Thomas Aquinas College
Chair: R. Glen Coughlin, Thomas Aquinas College
Speaker 1: John J. Goyette
“Aquinas on the Role of the Praeambula Fidei within the Science of
Sacred Doctrine”
Speaker 2: Patrick M. Gardner, Thomas Aquinas College
“Fides quaerens scientiam: The Proslogion as prototype of the
Prima Pars”

18. Lonergan Philosophical Society

Topic: Lonergan and Heidegger
Organizer & Chair: Elizabeth Murray, Loyola Marymount University
Speaker 1: Daniel Arioli, University of Dallas
“Lonergan and Heidegger on the Problem of Modern Thought”
Commentator: Michael Sharkey, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Speaker 2: Gregory Floyd, Seton Hall University
“Where Does Hermeneutics Lead? Lonergan and Heidegger on the
Phenomenological Hermeneutics of the Subject and Its Purpose”
Commentator: Brad Stone, Loyola Marymount University

19. International Institute for Hermeneutics

Topic: A Human Person As A Soul of Hermeneutics
Organizer & Chair: Andrzej Wiercinski, University of Warsaw, Poland
Panel:
Michael Schulz, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany
“The Self-Interpretation of A Person As Transcendence”
Mindaugas Briedis, Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), University of Memphis (US)
“Phenomenology of Image-Based Medical Diagnostics: The Gazing Soul of
Radiologist”
Andrzej Proniewski, University of Bialystok, Poland
“Joseph Ratzinger’s Philosophical Theology of the Person”
Andrzej Wiercinski, University of Warsaw, Poland
“The Centrality of the Person in Philosophical Hermeneutics: Toward the
Community of Understanding”

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20. Baylor Philosophy - I
Topic: Metaphysics and Ethics- Thomistic and Contemporary
Organizer: Chris Tweedt, Christopher Newport University
Chair: Allison Krile Thornton, Baylor University
Speaker 1: Christopher Tomaszewski, Baylor University
“The Supplemented Soul: Thomistic Corruptionism and Mereology”
Speaker 2: Allison Krile Thornton, Baylor University
“Five Ways Animalists Would Change Their View If They Listened to
Biologists”
Speaker 3: Sarah Gutierrez, Baylor University
“Aquinas and Intellectual Autonomy”
Speaker 4: Chris Tweedt, Christopher Newport University
“Euthanasia: A Way of Enabling Patient Sacrifice”

21. Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology - I

Topic: Heidegger’s Piety
Organizer: Jeffrey Bloechl, Boston College
Moderator: Kevin Brennan, St. John’s Seminary
Speaker: Robert E. Wood, University of Dallas
“Heidegger’s Piety”
Response: M. Ross Romero, Creighton University

22. Northeast Catholic College

Topic: Hope and Optimism in Modern Philosophy
Organizer: Joseph M. Forte, Northeast Catholic College
Chair: Matthew Pietropaoli, The Catholic University of America
Speaker 1: Colin Pears, The Catholic University of America
“Rousseau’s Teleological Optimism”
Speaker 2: Joseph M. Forte, Northeast Catholic College
“For What May We Hope? Philosophical Perspectives on Hope from
Descartes to Heidegger”

23. International Étienne Gilson Society

Topic: Interpreting Being in Aristotle and Aquinas
Organizer: Richard Fafara, Adler-Aquinas Institute
Chair: Edward M. Macierowski, Benedictine College
Speaker 1: Kevin White, The Catholic University of America
"Theses from the Existential Thomistic Metaphysics of Joseph Owens"
Speaker 2: Edward M. Macierowski, Benedictine College
“The Problem of ‘Essence’ in Translating Aristotle’s Metaphysics into
English: τὸ τί ἐστι and τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι revisited”

24. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - III

Topic: Metaphysics
Chair: Jonathan Sanford, University of Dallas
Speaker 1: Seamus O’Neill, The Memorial University of Newfoundland
“Aquinas’s Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of Angels and
Demons and their Continuing Relevance in Our Modern World”

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 Speaker 2: Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., University of St. Thomas, TX
“Which Essence is Brought Into Being by The Existential Act?”
Speaker 3: Rev. Stephen L. Brock, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
“Between Potency and Act? The Status of Created Form in Aquinas”

Satellite Sessions (Saturday, 3:30-5:30p)

25. Author Meets Critics: Thomas Hibbs, Wagering on an Ironic God

Topic: Wagering on an Ironic God (Baylor UP, 2017) by Thomas S. Hibbs
Organizer & Chair: Daniel P. Maher, Assumption College
Remarks: Paul J. Griffiths, Duke Divinity School
John C. McCarthy, The Catholic University of America
V. Martin Nemoianu, Loyola Marymount University
Response: Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University

26. Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism

Organizer & Chair: Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., University of St. Thomas, TX
Speaker 1: Domenic D’Ettore, Marian University
“One is in the definition of all: Some Scholastic interpretations of St.
Thomas Aquinas’s ‘rule’ for names said by analogy”
Commentator: Joshua Hochschild, Mount St. Mary’s University
Speaker 2: Rev. Reginald Lynch, O.P., University of Notre Dame
“John of St. Thomas on the Sacrifice of the Mass”
Commentator: Peter Koritansky, University of Prince Edward Island

27. The Enduring Relevance of Hegel

Organizer & Chair: Robert E. Wood, University of Dallas
Speaker 1: John Russon, University of Guelph
“Why Hegel Now?”
Commentator: Michael Baur, Fordham University
Commentator: Jeffery Kinlaw, McMurray University

28. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - II

Topic: CEPOS: Foundational Issues in Philosophy of Biology
Organizers: Peter Distelzweig, University of St. Thomas, MN
Karen Zwier, Drake University
Chair: Karen Zwier
Speaker 1: Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Providence College
“Toward a Thomist Idea of Snake Evolution”
Speaker 2: Alexander Pruss, Baylor University
“Evolution and Creation: Frequentism and Omnirationality to the
Rescue”
Speaker 3: Robert Koons, University of Texas, Austin
“Why Biology still needs Teleology: A Neo-Aristotelian Account of Life”

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29. Thomas Aquinas: On the Creation and Nature of Man and Woman
Organizer & Chair: John Finley, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary
Speaker 1: Deborah Savage, St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, MN
“The Nature of Woman in Relation to Man: Genesis 1 and 2 Through the
Lens of the Metaphysical Anthropology of Aquinas”
Speaker 2: Mathew Walz, University of Dallas
“Creator, Artist, Doer: Aquinas on God's Bringing-Forth of Man and
Woman”
Speaker 3: John Finley, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary
“Sexual Difference in Relation to the Human Person and the Human
Essence”

30. Society for Thomistic Personalism

Topic: Justice and Hospitality
Organizer & Chair: R. Mary Hayden Lemmons, University of St. Thomas, MN
Speaker 1: Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
“Restoring Justice: Recovering a Classical Christian Concept of Justice for
Today's Politics”
Speaker 2: Kara Logan, Ave Maria University
“’The Law of Hospitality’: St. Thomas on the Old and New Law Regarding
‘Welcoming the Sojourner’”

31. Aquinas and Postmodernity Project - II

Topic: Aquinas and Analytic Philosophy
Organizers: Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
Joseph G. Trabbic, Ave Maria University
Chair: Joseph G. Trabbic
Speaker 1: Turner C. Nevitt, University of San Diego
“Analytic Philosophy and Aquinas’s De Ente Proof”
Speaker 2: Timothy Pawl, University of St. Thomas, MN
“Divine Simplicity in Thomism and Analytic Theology”

32. Thomas Aquinas College - II

Topic: Metaphysics
Organizer & Chair: John J. Goyette, Thomas Aquinas College
Speaker 1: R. Glen Coughlin, Thomas Aquinas College
“De Koninck on the Existence of a Science of Metaphysics”
Speaker 2: Joseph P. Hattrup, Thomas Aquinas College
“Form and Intelligibility in Book 7 of Aristotle’s Metaphysics”

33. Philosophers in Jesuit Education

Topic: Philosophy of Education
Organizer: Scott Cleveland, University of Mary
Chair: Stephen Grimm, Marquette University
Speaker 1: John Haldane, Baylor University
“Educational Philosophy and the Philosophy of Education”
Speaker 2: Shannon Vallor, Santa Clara University

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 “Technology and Self-Cultivation: Meeting the Challenges of Jesuit
Education in an ‘On-Demand’ Culture”

34. Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology - II

Topic: Heidegger’s Critique of Novelty
Organizer: Jeffrey Bloechl, Boston College
Moderator: Erin Stackle, Loyola Marymount University
Speaker: Will Britt, Loyola Marymount University
“Heidegger’s Critique of Novelty”
Response: Michael Smith, Boston College
Response: Jeffrey Bloechl, Boston College

35. Institute for Saint Anselm Studies

Topic: Anselm on Free Will: Angelic, Human, and Divine
Organizer & Chair: Montague Brown, Saint Anselm College
Speaker 1: Katherin Rogers, University of Delaware
“Anselm on Asymmetry between Choosing Well and Choosing Badly”
Speaker 2: Christian Gobel, Assumption College
“Anselm: n-Order Volitions and Theo-Anthropology”
Speaker 3: Michael Barnwell, Niagara University
“Self-determination vs. Freedom for God and the Angels: A Test Case of
Anselm’s Theory of Free Will”

36. The Memorial University of Newfoundland & Villanova University - II

Topic: Augustine and (Post-) Modern Thought
Organizers: Seamus O’Neill, The Memorial University of Newfoundland
Terence Sweeney, Villanova University
Msgr. Hans Feichtinger, Archdiocese of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Chair: Seamus O’Neill
Speaker 1: James Bryson, McGill University
“Interpreters of Augustine: the Will to Love in Baader, Scheler, and
Marion”
Speaker 2: Paul Camacho, Villanova University
“Loving Attention: Augustine and Murdoch on Freedom as Liberation
from (Self-)Delusion”
Speaker 3: Lisa Holdsworth, The Catholic University of America
“Diverging Semiotic Distinctions in Augustine and Peirce”

Satellite Sessions (Sunday, 9-11a)

37. Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics

Topic: Being and Goodness: The Metaphysical Grounding of Value
Organizers: Gyula Klima, Fordham University
and Michael Baur, Fordham University
Chair: Michael Baur
Speaker 1: Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., University of St. Thomas, TX
“The Good as Telos in Cajetan and Báñez”

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 Speaker 2: Robert C. Koons, University of Texas, Austin
“Hylomorphism and our Knowledge of Objective Value”
Speaker 3: Michael Baur, Fordham University
“From Being and Goodness to Law and Order: The Metaphysics of
Natural Law in Aquinas”

38. The ACPA Committee on Priestly Formation

Topic: Excellence in Philosophy Education
Organizer: David Ruel Foster, Mount St. Mary Seminary, Cincinnati
Chair: Tom McLaughlin, St. John Vianney Seminary, Denver
Speaker 1: Matthew Walz, University of Dallas; Holy Trinity Seminary
“Toward a Causal Account of Priestly Formation: A Reading of Pastores
Dabo Vobis”
Speaker 2: Patricia Pintado, Mundelein Seminary
“Different Approaches to Teaching Modern Philosophy”

39. The Society for the Study of Nature and the Philosophy of Science
Topic : Substance, Form, and Theory in Natural Science
Organizer: John G. Brungardt, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Chair: Ryan Shea, Providence College
Speaker 1: John G. Brungardt
“The Relevance of the Formal Causality to Resolutions of the Meta-Law
Dilemma in Cosmology”
Speaker 2: Ryan Shea
“Exemplary Thinking: Aristotle's Kurioi and T. S. Kuhn's Paradigms”
Speaker 3: Rev. Thomas Davenport, O.P., The Catholic University of America
“How About Them Apples? A Case Study in Substantial Unity”

40. International Natural Law Society

Topic: The Discovery and Promulgation of the Natural Law
Organizer: James Jacobs, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans
Chair: Joseph G. Trabbic, Ave Maria University
Speaker 1: Scott Roniger, Loyola Marymount University
“Virtuous Action as a Promulgation of the Natural Law”
Speaker 2: Rev. Justin Charles Gable, O.P., Dominican School of Philosophy and
Theology
“Moral Disagreement and the Universality of the Natural Law”
Speaker 3: James Jacobs, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans
“Impediments to the Reception of the Promulgation of the Natural Law”

41. CEPOS (Catholic Engagement in Philosophy of Science) - III

Topic: CEPOS: God, Humans, and Creation
Organizers: Peter Distelzweig, University of St. Thomas, MN
Karen Zwier, Drake University
Chair: Christopher O. Blum, Augustine Institute
Speaker 1: Logan Paul Gage, Franciscan University of Steubenville
and Trent Dougherty, Baylor University
“Simply Mistaken: Dawkins On God, Simplicity, & Explanation”

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 Speaker 2: Patrick McDonald, Seattle Pacific University
and Phillip Goggans, Morehead State University; Independent Scholar
“Original Sin, Human Evolution, and Gene-Culture Interactions”
Speaker 3: Marie George, St. John’s University, NY
“Does Might Make Right in the Animal Kingdom or do Some Animals Act
on Moral Grounds as Well?”

42. Baylor Philosophy - II

Topic: Philosophical Theology
Organizer: Chris Tweedt, Christopher Newport University
Chair: Caroline Paddock, Baylor University
Speaker 1: Alexander Pruss, Baylor University
“Mere Compensation As a Part of Theodicy”
Speaker 2: Caroline Paddock, Baylor University
“The Mystical Body and the Atonement”
Speaker 3: John Rosenbaum, Baylor University
“On the Queenship of Mary”
Speaker 4: Burke Rea, Baylor University
“Higher Ground: Metaphysics of Grace in Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue”

43. Catholicism and Phenomenology - II

Topic: Faith and Philosophy After Modernity
Organizers: Michael Bowler, Michigan Technological University
Chad Engelland, University of Dallas
George Heffernan, Merrimack College
Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
Chair: Michael Bowler
Speaker 1: Brad Stone, Loyola Marymount University
“The Hope Historicism Provides: Prophetic Pragmatism and Continental
Historicism”
Speaker 2: David Dudrick, Colgate University
“Why Tolerate Religion? A Nietzschean Answer to Leiter's Question”
Speaker 3: Mirela Oliva, University of St. Thomas, TX
“On Immortality in Heidegger”

44. Aquinas on Virtue

Organizer: Jared Brandt, Baylor University
Chair: Brandon Dahm, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Speaker 1: Alina Beary, Baylor University
“Aquinas’s Two-fold Human Happiness and the Need for Acquired Moral
Virtue”
Speaker 2: Adam Myers, Baylor University
“Virtues Simpliciter and Virtues Secundum Quid: An Interpretation of
Aquinas, ST I-II, qq.55-67”
Speaker 3: Jared Brandt, Baylor University
“Aquinas and Scotus on the Necessity of the Infused Moral Virtues”

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45. Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group - II
Topic: Metaphysics and Religion
Organizer: Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo, St. Gregory the Great Seminary
(Lincoln, Nebraska); Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
Chair: Therese Cory, University of Notre Dame
Speaker 1: David B. Twetten, Marquette University
“Aquinas with Avicenna Really Distinguishing Esse and Essence”
Speaker 2: Rollen E. Houser, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Avicenna and the Five Ways”

46. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - IV

Topic: Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity - II
Chair: Jeremiah Chichester, University of Dallas
Speaker 1: Daniel C. Wagner, Aquinas College, MI
“On the Foundational Compatibility of Phenomenology & Thomism”
Speaker 2: Timothy Jacobs, University St. Thomas, TX
“Why Act Otherwise? Thomistic Compatibilism and Sufficient Reason”
Speaker 3: Elliot Polsky, University of St. Thomas, TX
“Either the Popular Free Will Defense or Aquinas, Not Both: Why
Aquinas’ Ontology Entails Divine Sovereignty over the Created Will”

47. ACPA Sponsored Satellite Session - V

Topic: Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity - III
Chair: Scott Moore, Baylor University
Speaker 1: Rev. James Dominic Rooney, O.P., St. Louis University
“What Is the Value of Faith (For Salvation)?”
Speaker 2: Jameson Thomas Cockerell, University of Dallas
“Beyond Technical Rationality: Recovering Reason for Faith”
Speaker 3: Rev. Ignacio De Ribera-Martin, The Catholic University of America
“Can There Be Christian Philosophy in a Secular Era?”

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 III. Abstracts of Contributed Papers
Session 1: Philosophy of Nature - 1

“Nature & Modernity: Can one philosophize about nature today?”

Christopher O. Blum, Augustine Institute

A salient feature of modernity has been the rejection of nature as an authoritative ground of
intelligibility and value, a position once defended by nearly all Catholic philosophers. Since Fr. Ernan
McMullin’s 1969 article “Philosophies of Nature,” however, the philosophy of nature has been eclipsed
by the philosophy of science in mainstream Catholic philosophy. After examining McMullin’s reasons for
setting aside the philosophy of nature and Thomas Nagel’s recent re-affirmation of the possibility of a
philosophical reflection upon nature prior to the claims of empirical science, this article responds to
McMullin’s critique and defends the viability of an Aristotelian understanding of nature today.

“Elementary Particles are not Substances”

Rev. Robert Verrill, O.P., Baylor University

The doctrine of the salvation of souls is obviously central to our Christian faith. Yet one of the challenges
of communicating this truth is that many people have ontological commitments that don't even allow
for the existence of souls. Therefore a philosophical understanding of physical reality which is
compatible with a Christian understanding of the human person is especially important if we are to
preach the Gospel effectively in the modern age. Like many Christian philosophers, I believe that St.
Thomas Aquinas provides us with such a philosophical understanding of physical reality. Nevertheless,
we need to be careful in how we map Aquinas' philosophical concepts onto physical phenomena. It is
with this concern in mind that I will argue that elementary particles are not substances.

Session 2: Epistemology

“A Geachian Cure for Morally Paralyzed Skeptical Theists”

Christopher Tomaszewski, Baylor University

Skeptical theism is a popular response to the evidential problem of evil, but it has recently been accused
of proving too much. If skeptical theism is true, its detractors claim, then we not only have no good
reason for thinking that God’s reasons for action should be available to creatures like us, but we also
have no good reason for thinking that the reasons which govern how we ought to act should be
available to creatures like us. And given this ignorance, we would be morally paralyzed, unable to decide
what we ought to do in ordinary situations that call for a moral decision. In this paper, I present a simple
solution to this problem of moral paralysis by drawing on Peter Geach’s now famous argument for the
attributivity of “good.”

“Doxastic Involuntarism and Evidentialism: A Curious Modern Conjunction”

Joseph Gamache, Boston University

It is a curious feature of early modern (specifically empiricist) epistemology and its contemporary heirs
in analytic philosophy both that belief is held to be involuntary (doxastic involuntarism), and that belief
is held to a prescriptive norm of evidence (evidentialism). I begin by laying out these theses, pointing out
the tension that exists between them, as well as discussing how they put pressure on religious faith. I
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then ask why the first thesis—doxastic involuntarism—has come to be so dominant. Following my
diagnosis, I advance reasons to think that the thin concept of belief presupposed by doxastic
involuntarism is not faithful to our ordinary and more substantial concept of belief. I conclude by
outlining an alternative understanding of what it means to believe that p, based on insights of St.
Thomas Aquinas and Gabriel Marcel regarding belief and opinion, as well as the relationship between
persons and their beliefs.

Session 3: Metaphysics

“’The Mystical is Everything Speculative’: Natural Theology in Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion”

Karl Hahn, Villanova University

Hegel is a towering figure in modern philosophy, and he is interestingly a thinker for whom philosophical
modernity and traditional religion are necessary partners in the pursuit of a shared truth. In this paper, I
use Hegel’s unique rendition on natural theology as a test-case for examining the intersection of
traditional Christian religion and Idealist reason in Hegel’s philosophical modernity. Specifically, I raise
the question of whether Hegel’s philosophy of religion is faithful to what philosopher William Desmond
has called the “religious between”, within which God exists as superior, transcendent other to the finite
human being existing in created dependence on Him. I argue that Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of
Religion contain a German idealist conception of natural theology that counterfeits this “between” by
subordinating it to a pseudo-mystical quest for noetic union with God that obliterates what should be
the irreducible difference between the human and the divine essence.

“’God is Love’: Personal Plurality as the Completion of Aristotle’s Notion of Substance

and Love as the Absolute Ground of Divine Being”
Maria Fedoryka, Ave Maria University

In my reflections I will, firstly, propose a solution to the Trinitarian problem of the “three-in-one”, and
secondly, show how love is foundational to the divine being. Beginning with the Aristotelian notion of
substance, I will show how substance undergoes a first modification in the consideration that substance
finds its fullest realization in person existing in a love-relation with another person. The highest instance
of this, in turn, will prove to be found in persons whose very essences are constituted by such
relationality and the communion resulting from it. This will force a second modification of substance:
the unity of substance will turn out to have its highest instance in the moral unity of a plurality of
persons existing in love – which leads to the solution of the “three-in-one” problem. I will end by
reflecting on the foundational role of love with respect to absolute being.

Session 4: Philosophy, Faith, and Modernity

“A Fruitful Crisis of Belief: Hans Jonas on a Proper Mode of Faith within the Context of Modernity”
Matthew Pietropaoli, The Catholic University of America

The philosopher Hans Jonas penned several essays illustrating how modern thought represents a
revolutionary overturning of previously held religious beliefs. The new paradigms of thought toppled
prior worldviews of Christianity. Thus, modernity represents a crisis for religious belief. And yet, Jonas
contends that modern thought may paradoxically provide the occasion for a deeper encounter with
God.

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 This paper will examine Jonas’s discussions on both the challenge and opportunity which
modern thought presents to Christianity. First, I will address Jonas’s understanding of how modern
science transformed the Christian, God-centered view of the universe, showing, instead, a world
following from impersonal laws. Second, I look briefly at Jonas’s understanding of how Rudolph
Bultmann responded to this crisis by attempting to “de-mythologize” faith. Third, I will show Jonas’s
thoughts that the challenge of modern science to Christian cosmology allows the believer the
opportunity for a closer connection to God, moving beyond beliefs and into relationship.

“Grace, Natura Pura, and the Metaphysics of Status: Personalism and Thomism
on the Historicity of the Human Person and the Genealogy of Modernity”
Mark K. Spencer, University of St. Thomas, MN

Christian Personalists (such as Balthasar and Yannaras) have objected to Thomism’s claim that humans
could have existed in a state (status) of pure nature, on the grounds that this claim entails that historical
states like grace do not give fundamental meaning to us, that these states are merely accidental, and
that it led to modern secularism. I show that Thomism can affirm its traditional claims regarding grace
and pure nature, while denying the first two implications, by developing the Thomistic metaphysics of
status. On Thomism rightly understood persons develop historically through status in non-accidental
ways and grace gives fundamental meaning to our lives. But I also argue that modern secular
experiences (such as experiences of secularity, anxiety, and absurdity described by Heidegger, Camus,
and Taylor) are natural to the human person, not merely the result of sin, and that this is rightly
supported by the theory of pure nature.

Session 5: Philosophy of Nature - 2

“Understanding Hylomorphic Dualism”

Marco Stango, Pennsylvania State University, Juniata College

This paper claims that Aquinas’s philosophy of mind should be read as a form of strong hylomorphic
dualism. After distinguishing between weak and strong hylomorphic dualism and showing, against the
standard reading, that Aquinas takes the so-called mind-body interaction problem seriously, this paper
reconstructs two arguments provided by Aquinas to prove that his position is best understood as strong
hylomorphic dualism. Finally, the paper shows that Aquinas thinks of the relationship between intellect
and phantasms in terms of what could be called diagrammatic causality, as exemplified by his treatment
of the phenomena of abstraction and attention to the phantasms.

“Dispositive Causality and the Art of Medicine”

Chad Engelland, University of Dallas

For many philosophers, the relation of medicine to health is exemplary for understanding the relation
of human power to nature in general. Drawing on Heidegger and Aquinas, this paper examines the
relation of art to nature as it emerges in the second book of Aristotle’s Physics, and it does so by
articulating the duality of efficient causality. The art of medicine operates as a dispositive cause rather
than as a perfective cause; it removes obstacles to the achievement of health, but it does not impose
health. Medicine, on this conception, aids the efficient causality of the natural body rather than
substituting for it. The loss of dispositive causality makes efficient causality an imposition of force which
bypasses the natural power to achieve natural goods. The paper concludes, with Plato, by arguing that

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dispositive causality offers a way to understand not only medicine but also governing, teaching, and
parenting.

Session 6: Philosophy of Human Person

“Catholic Hylomorphism and Temporary Bodies”

Michael Potts, Methodist University

This paper considers the possibility of a disembodied conscious soul, arguing that a great deal of current
research converges in a direction that denies the possibility of a bodiless consciousness for human
beings. Contemporary attacks on Cartesianism also serve as attacks on the view of some hylomorphist
Catholics, such as Thomas Aquinas, that there can be a disembodied consciousness between death and
resurrection, a view that violates the Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, there may be a way
out for the Catholic hylomorphist which was suggested by Dante—the possibility of a temporary body.
The first section of the paper will summarize the contemporary attack against both the Cartesian soul
and physicalist systems that reduce the mind to the brain. The alternative position proposed is that the
human being is a psychosomatic unity at the level of the organism as a whole, and that both mind-body
and brain-body dualism should be avoided. Such a position, I will argue, supports the notion that a
disembodied soul, including a disembodied consciousness, is not possible for human beings. Finally, I
will discuss Dante’s views on temporary bodies and explore three ways of understanding a temporary
body, any of which can preserve a conscious intermediate state between death and resurrection.

“Complex Survivalism, or: How to Lose Your Essence and Live to Tell About It”
Jeremy W. Skrzypek, University of Mary

Of those who defend a Thomistic hylomorphic account of human persons, “survivalists” hold that the
persistence of the human person’s rational soul between death and the resurrection is sufficient to
maintain the persistence of the human person herself throughout that interim. (“Corruptionists” deny
this.) According to survivalists, at death, and until the resurrection, a human person comes to be
temporarily composed of, but not identical to, her rational soul. One of the major objections to
survivalism is that it is committed to a rejection of a widely accepted mereological principle called the
weak-supplementation principle, according to which any composite whole must, at any moment of its
existence, possess more than one proper part. In this paper, I argue that by recognizing the existence of
certain other metaphysical parts of a human person beyond her prime matter and her rational soul,
hylomorphists can adhere to survivalism without violating the weak-supplementation principle.

Session 7: Ethics

“Frontiers of Analogous Justice: A Thomistic Approach to Martha Nussbaum’s Justice for Animals”
Hilary Yancey, Baylor University

In this paper I argue for a Thomistic alternative to Martha Nussbaum’s justice for animals as outlined in
Frontiers of Justice (2007). I argue that an account of analogous justice between humans and animals
can generate real and robust obligations towards animals. I first show how Aquinas’s treatment of
nonhuman animals in the questions on law evince a wider, shared community between humans and
animals by which we see animals and humans as equally under divine providence. I then argue that
while Aquinas’s definition of justice excludes animals in its proper sense, his treatment of animals (or
irrational creatures) in questions such as those on theft and charity prove that there is room to

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understand at least an analogous or metaphorical sense by which we can see them as recipients of
justice. Finally, I examine Nussbaum’s own account and illustrate key similarities between her view and
that of Aquinas.

“Restrictive versus Permissive Double Effect: Interpreting Aquinas”

Gregory M. Reichberg, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

The doctrine of double effect (DDE) can have two different functions, permissive and restrictive.
According to the first function, agents are exculpated from the negative consequences of their actions,
consequences that would be deemed illicit were they intentionally chosen. According to the second,
agents are reminded that they are responsible, albeit in a distinctive manner, for the foreseeable
damages that flow from their chosen actions. Aquinas has standardly been credited with a permissive
version of DDE. I argue by contrast (drawing on the treatment of this issue in my Thomas Aquinas on
War and Peace, Cambridge University Press, 2017) that the permissive version results from a misreading
of Sum. theol. II-II, q. 64, a. 7. Other texts in the same work indicate that he embraced a restrictive
version of DDE.

Session 8: Mereology

“Things within Things? Toward a Ontology of the Firm”

Joshua Lee Harris, Institute for Christian Studies

The burgeoning analytic literature on the topic of “social ontology”—that is, the properly ontological
status of “social” phenomena such as institutions, firms and nation-states—has yielded some promising
avenues of research for economists interested in the economic agency of groups as opposed to
individual persons. Following M.D. Ryall, in this paper I offer a preliminary sketch of an ontology of the
firm inspired by the work of Bernard Lonergan and the Aristotelian metaphysical tradition.

“Property Characterization and the Status of Accidental Unities in Aquinas: A Response to Brower”
Lindsay K. Cleveland, Baylor University

After arguing that Aquinas’s hylomorphism is usefully characterized as a unique type of substratum
theory, Jeffrey Brower argues that Aquinas’s hylomorphic account of change entails a distinction
between property possession and property characterization. Given that and Brower’s assumption that
Aquinas’s fundamental hylomorphic compounds are material substances and accidental unities, it
follows that material substances are not characterized by the accidents they possess. In order to avoid
that counterintuitive consequence, Brower stipulates a form of derivative property characterization and
a numerical sameness without identity relation, which together enable him to affirm that material
substances are derivatively characterized by the accidents they possess. I argue that, by affirming a
plausible alternative to Brower’s account of Aquinas’s fundamental hylomorphic compounds, we can
maintain that accidents characterize material substances in the primary sense without having to affirm
the real existence of accidental unities or Brower’s objectionable numerical sameness without identity
relation. Then I show that my alternative is compatible with Aquinas’s account of accidental change and
the passages from Aquinas’s works that Brower gives to support his view.

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