Philosophers

Is Catholic philosophy, like that of Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Alasdair MacIntyre, etc., considered by modern philosophers to be true philosophy, or is it thought of more as philosophy in the service of dogma?

Comments

I think on the whole it is highly regarded as real philosophy. What is important is how the dogma is brought in. Were they to argue that the Catholic Church has the view that p and so p is obviously true regardless of what philosophy might suggest, then their views would not be interesting. But they don't argue in that way. They take the principles of Catholicism, as they interpret them, and submit them to the rigors of philosophy, and out of that mixture a very potent brew emerges.

One should distinguish between the motives that lead one to philosophize and the character of the resulting philosophical work itself. Their motives may have been to defend the Church, but what they produced does much more than that, since it comprises solid philosophical argumentation. Whether their work actually goes any way to realize their purpose is of course another story.

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