- Clayton State University
University Center 211
2000 Clayton State Blvd.
Morrow, GA 30260 - 678-466-4846
Alex Hall
Clayton State University, Humanities, Faculty Member
- Philosophy, Philosophy Of Language, Aesthetics, Philosophy Of Religion, Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, and 20 moreAristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Hellenistic Philosophy, Early Modern Era, History of Logic, Natural Theology, Medieval logic, Duns Scotus, John Buridan, Medieval Theories of Signification, Humanities, Aquinas, Scholastic Philosophy, Categories, Medieval semiotics, History of Philosophy, Intellectual History, History, and The Soviet and Post-Soviet Reviewedit
- Professor of Philosophy, Director of Honors. Clayton State University.edit
This author-meets-critics volume about Robert Pasnau’s After Certainty treats the history of epistemology, from Aristotle to the present. Pasnau presents this history as a gradual lowering of expectations regarding certain knowledge, the... more
This author-meets-critics volume about Robert Pasnau’s After Certainty treats the history of epistemology, from Aristotle to the present. Pasnau presents this history as a gradual lowering of expectations regarding certain knowledge, the culmination of a sea change dating to the early-modern rejection of Aristotelian essentialism. The result, he concludes, is that contemporary epistemology is, more than any other branch of philosophy, estranged from its tradition. Pasnau’s After Certainty draws conclusions that are not just historical, but also systematic, an effort that led to a 2018 Parisian symposium to evaluate the text, collected here as a volume that stands alone as an intriguing work on the history of epistemology or together with After Certainty as an invaluable companion piece.
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This volume considers the Aristotelian virtue-ethics tradition as it develops in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Part One studies the types of virtues Aquinas believes are held by Christians in a state of grace. Aquinas’s intriguing... more
This volume considers the Aristotelian virtue-ethics tradition as it develops in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Part One studies the types of virtues Aquinas believes are held by Christians in a state of grace. Aquinas’s intriguing account is apparently fraught with inconsistencies, which have split contemporary interpreters over not only how to understand Aquinas on this matter, but also as to whether it is even possible to provide a consistent interpretation of his doctrine. This book brings together scholarship that reflects the various sides of the debate. Part Two explores a Thomistic synthesis regarding Aquinas’s account of the good as telos or end that emerges in the seventeenth century, as well as what promise his virtue ethics holds today, arguing that Aquinas’ hylomorphic understanding of human beings as matter-form composites furnishes a robust moral accounting that seems unavailable to alternative, reductive materialist accounts.
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Mereology is the metaphysical theory of parts and wholes, including their conditions of identity and persistence through change. Hylomorphism is the metaphysical doctrine according to which all natural substances, including living... more
Mereology is the metaphysical theory of parts and wholes, including their conditions of identity and persistence through change. Hylomorphism is the metaphysical doctrine according to which all natural substances, including living organisms, consist of matter and form as their essential parts, where the substantial form of living organisms is identified as their soul. The theories date to Plato and Aristotle and figure prominently in the history of philosophy up until the seventeenth century, where their influence wanes relative to a reductive materialism that culminates with deflationary accounts of objects and persons, where mere conglomerates constitute things and we are left to account for mental phenomena in terms of the powers of physical materials. In view of such difficulties, there is a renewed interest in hylomorphism, as its forms structure matter and can account for natural kinds, with their various capacities and powers. This volume presents medieval theories of hylomorphism and mereology, articulating the conceptual framework in which they developed and with an eye on their relevance today.
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Contemporary introductions to the theme of self-knowledge too often trace its emergence in the history of philosophy to thinkers such as René Descartes and David Hume. Whereas Descartes conceives of self-knowledge as intimate and... more
Contemporary introductions to the theme of self-knowledge too often trace its emergence in the history of philosophy to thinkers such as René Descartes and David Hume. Whereas Descartes conceives of self-knowledge as intimate and first-personal, Hume contends that it is limited to our awareness of our impressions and ideas. In point of fact, self-knowledge is a perennial theme. We may, for instance, trace the lineage of Hume and Descartes on these matters to Aristotle and Plato, respectively. This volume studies philosophical treatments of self-knowledge in the Medieval Latin West. It comprises two sets of papers; the first is taken from an author-meets-critics session on Therese Scarpelli-Cory’s Aquinas on Human Self Knowledge, which advances the thesis that Aquinas’s theory of self-knowledge wherein the intellect grasps itself in its activity bridges the divide between mediated and first-personal self-knowledge. The second set of papers discuss self-knowledge in terms of self-fulfilment. Authors look to Aquinas’s account of how we can know when we have acquired the virtues necessary for human happiness, as well as the medieval traditions of mysticism and theology, which offer accounts of transformative self-knowledge, the fulfilment that this brings to our emotional and physical selves, and the authority to teach and counsel about what this awareness confers.
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One of the most debated topics in medieval philosophy was the metaphysics of identity—that is, what accounts for the distinctness (non-identity) of different individuals of the same, specific kind and the persistence (self-identity) of... more
One of the most debated topics in medieval philosophy was the metaphysics of identity—that is, what accounts for the distinctness (non-identity) of different individuals of the same, specific kind and the persistence (self-identity) of the same individuals over time and in different possible situations, especially with regard to individuals of our specific kind, namely, human persons. The first three papers of this volume investigate the comparative development of positions. One problem, considered by William of Auvergne and Albert the Great, deals with Aristotle’s doctrine of the active intellect and its relation to Christian philosophical conceptions of personhood. A larger set of issues on the nature and post-mortem fate of human beings is highlighted as common inquiry among Muslim philosophers and Thomas Aquinas, as well as Aquinas and the modern thinker John Locke. Finally, the last two papers offer a debate over Aquinas’s exact views regarding whether substances persist identically across metaphysical “gaps” (periods of non-existence), either by nature or divine power.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Aristotle, Medieval logic, Thomas Aquinas, and 13 moreJohn Locke, Individuation, Albert the Great, Avicenna, Averroes, Medieval Metaphysics, Medieval Arabic Philosophy, Resurrection, Al Ghazali, William of Auvergne, Philsophy of Mind, Metaphysics and Personal Identity, Metaphysics of Resurrection, and History of Medieval Philosopy
Moses Maimonides and John Duns Scotus are key figures as regards the thirteenth-century philosophical tradition that developed out of the Western Christian reception of the Neo-Platonized Aristotelianism of Islamic and Jewish thinkers.... more
Moses Maimonides and John Duns Scotus are key figures as regards the thirteenth-century philosophical tradition that developed out of the Western Christian reception of the Neo-Platonized Aristotelianism of Islamic and Jewish thinkers. Whereas the writings of Maimonides count among the received works that inaugurate and shape this span, the variety of conceptual instruments developed by Scotus arguably signal its end, preparing the way for the emergence of diverse fourteenth-century philosophical worldviews. Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics explores the eponymous thinkers’ work across a variety of fields. In the domain of natural theology, Maimonides presses for creation de novo, adapting from the Islamic Kalām tradition what has come to be known as the Argument from Particularity, which deduces intelligent design when science seems, in principle, unable to account for states of affairs that conceivably needn’t obtain (to take an example from modern physics, the strength of the four fundamental forces). Part one of this volume contrasts Maimonides’s and Aquinas’s parallel treatments of this and other proof strategies still employed by contemporary philosophers. Part two, on Scotus, includes discussion of the authenticity of the logical writings attributed to him, the evolution of his thought in this field against the backdrop of various thirteenth-century developments, the types of Aristotelian universals theorized by Scotus, his semantics of theological discourse and ontology of possible entities.
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Metaphysical Themes, Medieval and Modern presents three sets of essays that engage the metaphysics of substance through a study of thought on this theme over the last eight centuries, shedding light on contemporary disputes as well as the... more
Metaphysical Themes, Medieval and Modern presents three sets of essays that engage the metaphysics of substance through a study of thought on this theme over the last eight centuries, shedding light on contemporary disputes as well as the history of thought leading into the modern era. Part I grows out of an author-meets-critics panel on Robert Pasnau's Metaphysical Themes: 1274-1671 (OUP, 2011). Pasnau's rich study delves into the four centuries wherein later medieval thought gives way to the modern period. Andrew Arlig reflects on Pasnau's discussion of holenmers, entities such as God and the human soul, that are thought to exist as wholes in more or less disparate things. Paul Symington, on the other hand, treats the substance ontology of Thomas Aquinas in particular through a reflection on Aquinas' understanding of the ontological status of the various modes or accidents of Aristotelian substances. Part II, "Substance Ontology, Medieval and Modern", transitions to contemporary substance ontology. Travis Dumsday canvasses the field of debate over what is the substratum of change, contending that the Aristotelian, hylomorphic account of substance that views substances as matter-form composites remains the most robust. Gyula Klima, while agreeing with Dumsday's conclusion, strengthens his argument with reference to the development of this bundle of problems within the recent history of analytic philosophy. Dumsday concludes with reflections on the relevance of substance ontology to natural theology, which, in turn, is the theme of Part III, "The Natural Theology of Thomas Aquinas", wherein Alexander Hall and Michael Sirilla consider how Aquinas' understanding of the divine substance bears on the logic of demonstration in his natural theology, concluding that contemporary Radical Orthodoxy readings that have Aquinas forfeit demonstrative proof that God exists misconstrue him on this point.
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Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus are arguably the most celebrated representatives of the 'Golden Age' of scholasticism. Primarily, they are known for their work in natural theology, which seeks to demonstrate tenets of faith without... more
Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus are arguably the most celebrated representatives of the 'Golden Age' of scholasticism. Primarily, they are known for their work in natural theology, which seeks to demonstrate tenets of faith without recourse to premises rooted in dogma or revelation.
Scholars of this Golden Age drew on a wealth of tradition, dating back to Plato and Aristotle, and taking in the Arabic and Jewish interpretations of these thinkers, to produce a wide variety of answers to the question 'How much can we learn of God?' Some responded by denying us any positive knowledge of God. Others believed that we have such knowledge, yet debated whether its acquisition requires some action on the part of God in the form of an illumination bestowed on the knower. Scotus and Aquinas belong to the more empirically minded thinkers in this latter group, arguing against a necessary role for illumination.
Many scholars believe that Aquinas and Scotus exhaust the spectrum of answers available to this circle, with Aquinas maintaining that our knowledge is quite confused and Scotus that it is completely accurate. In this study, Alexander Hall argues that the truth about Aquinas and Scotus lies somewhere in the middle.
Hall's book recommends itself to the general reader who is looking for an overview of this period in Western philosophy as well as to the specialist, for no other study on the market addresses this long-standing matter of interpretation in any detail.
Table of Contents
List of abbreviations
List of translations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Aquinas and scientia
Chapter 3: Scientia, analogia, and the Five Ways
Chapter 4: Duns Scotus on naming
Chapter 5: Scotus, divine names, and deliberate equivocity
Chapter 6: Transcendental signification and analogy
Bibliography
Index.
Reviews
“Aquinas’s account of per se belonging, the scientific syllogism, and the types of scientific demonstration are rough going for the non-specialist reader, but Hall does his best to make them accessible. These are crucial discussions for his purposes, because in chapter 3 he proceeds on the assumption that Aquinas intends the Five Ways as paradigmatic cases of scientific demonstration…to make his [Hall’s] case that the First Way is a paradigmatic instance of scientific demonstration, Hall needs to show that “The ultimate cause of motion exists” is itself the conclusion of a paradigmatic scientific syllogism. But Hall’s interests lie elsewhere. He focuses instead on how ‘exists’ is predicated analogically in the major premise and conclusion…Accordingly, Hall tries to show for each of the Five Ways how Aquinas’s use of analogy enables him to attain scientia of a being that is radically different from the creaturely effects to which he appeals for the starting-points of each proof.” - Thomas Williams, Journal of the History of Philosophy, July 2008
“In teasing out the hermeneutical and speculative differences between Aquinas and Scotus, Hall sharpens our view of the similarities between them. He also persuasively advances a more nuanced understanding of the questions driving natural theology at the height of the Middle Ages…Thomistic scholars will be particularly interested in Chapter 2 of Hall’s book, for it contains a highly synthetic, ad litteram exposition of Aquinas’ interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of predication. Hall includes a synoptic comparison of the respective Greek and Latin texts without burdening the readers with excessive lexicographical information. Overall, speculative issues remain at the forefront of Hall’s discussion so that philosophers can engage the arguments on their own turf.” –Daniel B. Gallagher, Philosophy in Review
"Hall’s discussion of…Scotus’s account of God and religious language is the best such account known to me...Hall offers a valuable and innovative account of the relations between Aquinas and Scotus on these questions..."
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2008
Scholars of this Golden Age drew on a wealth of tradition, dating back to Plato and Aristotle, and taking in the Arabic and Jewish interpretations of these thinkers, to produce a wide variety of answers to the question 'How much can we learn of God?' Some responded by denying us any positive knowledge of God. Others believed that we have such knowledge, yet debated whether its acquisition requires some action on the part of God in the form of an illumination bestowed on the knower. Scotus and Aquinas belong to the more empirically minded thinkers in this latter group, arguing against a necessary role for illumination.
Many scholars believe that Aquinas and Scotus exhaust the spectrum of answers available to this circle, with Aquinas maintaining that our knowledge is quite confused and Scotus that it is completely accurate. In this study, Alexander Hall argues that the truth about Aquinas and Scotus lies somewhere in the middle.
Hall's book recommends itself to the general reader who is looking for an overview of this period in Western philosophy as well as to the specialist, for no other study on the market addresses this long-standing matter of interpretation in any detail.
Table of Contents
List of abbreviations
List of translations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Aquinas and scientia
Chapter 3: Scientia, analogia, and the Five Ways
Chapter 4: Duns Scotus on naming
Chapter 5: Scotus, divine names, and deliberate equivocity
Chapter 6: Transcendental signification and analogy
Bibliography
Index.
Reviews
“Aquinas’s account of per se belonging, the scientific syllogism, and the types of scientific demonstration are rough going for the non-specialist reader, but Hall does his best to make them accessible. These are crucial discussions for his purposes, because in chapter 3 he proceeds on the assumption that Aquinas intends the Five Ways as paradigmatic cases of scientific demonstration…to make his [Hall’s] case that the First Way is a paradigmatic instance of scientific demonstration, Hall needs to show that “The ultimate cause of motion exists” is itself the conclusion of a paradigmatic scientific syllogism. But Hall’s interests lie elsewhere. He focuses instead on how ‘exists’ is predicated analogically in the major premise and conclusion…Accordingly, Hall tries to show for each of the Five Ways how Aquinas’s use of analogy enables him to attain scientia of a being that is radically different from the creaturely effects to which he appeals for the starting-points of each proof.” - Thomas Williams, Journal of the History of Philosophy, July 2008
“In teasing out the hermeneutical and speculative differences between Aquinas and Scotus, Hall sharpens our view of the similarities between them. He also persuasively advances a more nuanced understanding of the questions driving natural theology at the height of the Middle Ages…Thomistic scholars will be particularly interested in Chapter 2 of Hall’s book, for it contains a highly synthetic, ad litteram exposition of Aquinas’ interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of predication. Hall includes a synoptic comparison of the respective Greek and Latin texts without burdening the readers with excessive lexicographical information. Overall, speculative issues remain at the forefront of Hall’s discussion so that philosophers can engage the arguments on their own turf.” –Daniel B. Gallagher, Philosophy in Review
"Hall’s discussion of…Scotus’s account of God and religious language is the best such account known to me...Hall offers a valuable and innovative account of the relations between Aquinas and Scotus on these questions..."
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2008
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Aquinas divides knowledge into two types: certain and probable. Broadly construed, certain knowledge (scientia) is of what is either necessary or true for the most part. Necessity pertains to axiomatic systems, indemonstrable principles... more
Aquinas divides knowledge into two types: certain and probable. Broadly construed, certain knowledge (scientia) is of what is either necessary or true for the most part. Necessity pertains to axiomatic systems, indemonstrable principles of demonstration and perhaps certain natural phenomena such as eclipses. Statistical natural phenomena are the subject of knowledge that is true for the most part. Probabilistic knowledge, on the other hand, comprises a variety of epistemic attitudes that correlate with degrees of assent that fall short of certainty, ranging from low (mere fancy) to high (belief). Scientia is the product of a syllogism that either (1) demonstrates the inherence of a property in a subject by a middle term that immediately designates the essence of the subject, or (2) demonstrates a necessary connection between an essence and a state of affairs by a middle term that indirectly designates the essence.
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The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology is the first collection to consider the full breadth of natural theology from both historical and contemporary perspectives and to bring together leading scholars to offer accessible high-level... more
The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology is the first collection to consider the full breadth of natural theology from both historical and contemporary perspectives and to bring together leading scholars to offer accessible high-level accounts of the major themes. The volume embodies and develops the recent revival of interest in natural theology as a topic of serious critical engagement. Frequently misunderstood or polemicized, natural theology is an under-studied yet persistent and pervasive presence throughout the history of thought about ultimate reality - from the classical Greek theology of the philosophers to twenty-first century debates in science and religion.
Of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this authoritative handbook draws on the very best of contemporary scholarship to present a critical overview of the subject area. Thirty eight new essays trace the transformations of natural theology in different historical and religious contexts, the place of natural theology in different philosophical traditions and diverse scientific disciplines, and the various cultural and aesthetic approaches to natural theology to reveal a rich seam of multi-faceted theological reflection rooted in human nature and the environments within which we find ourselves.
Readership: Students and scholars of philosophy, theology, history, science, and cultural studies
Of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this authoritative handbook draws on the very best of contemporary scholarship to present a critical overview of the subject area. Thirty eight new essays trace the transformations of natural theology in different historical and religious contexts, the place of natural theology in different philosophical traditions and diverse scientific disciplines, and the various cultural and aesthetic approaches to natural theology to reveal a rich seam of multi-faceted theological reflection rooted in human nature and the environments within which we find ourselves.
Readership: Students and scholars of philosophy, theology, history, science, and cultural studies
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"Medieval commentary writing has often been described as a way of 'doing philosophy,' and not without reason. The various commentaries on Aristotle's Categories we have from this period did not simply elaborate a dialectical exercise for... more
"Medieval commentary writing has often been described as a way of 'doing philosophy,' and not without reason. The various commentaries on Aristotle's Categories we have from this period did not simply elaborate a dialectical exercise for training students; rather, they provided their authors with an unparalleled opportunity to work through crucial philosophical problems, many of which remain with us today. As such, this unique commentary tradition is important not only in its own right, but also to the history and development of philosophy as a whole. The contributors to this volume take a fresh look at it, examining a wide range of medieval commentators, from Simplicius to John Wyclif, and discussing such issues as the compatibility of Platonism with Aristotelianism; the influence of Avicenna; the relationship between grammar, logic, and metaphysics; the number of the categories; the status of the categories as a science; realism vs. nominalism; and the relationship between categories.
Contributors are: Michael Chase, Allan Bäck, Bruno Tremblay, Robert Andrews, Paul Symington, Giorgio Pini, Martin Pickavé, Todd Bates, Alexander W. Hall, and Alessandro D. Conti."
Contributors are: Michael Chase, Allan Bäck, Bruno Tremblay, Robert Andrews, Paul Symington, Giorgio Pini, Martin Pickavé, Todd Bates, Alexander W. Hall, and Alessandro D. Conti."
