Fr Christopher Caruana, OP will deliver a series of five lectures on philosophy at Mount St Joseph retreat house, Tarġa Gap, Mosta, between November 25 to 29 from 6.30 to 7.30pm.
The lectures are being held to celebrate the 700th anniversary of St Thomas Aquinas’s canonisation and the 750th anniversary of his death.
Aquinas was an Italian medieval genius whose intellectual and cultural footprint has weathered the aggression of Copernican revolutions.
“The entire history of philosophy has scarcely seen such a combination of intellectual rigour, creative acumen and humility in one man,” Caruana, who is a visiting lecturer at university, says.
“Philosophy and theology would be for centuries unrecognisable without his teachings, while his contribution reaches far beyond into other areas of research and debate to this day. His systematic analyses of practically every thinkable philosophical and theological question continue to excite the minds of students and scholars alike.”
Caruana acknowledges that philosophy as a subject is hard to define. Some have contested the claim even that it is a subject as opposed to a practical activity or a modus vivendi. Nonetheless, he says that like mathematics, the study of its history is integral to understanding what makes it so unlike any other intellectual activity, in contrast to the pragmatic or social sciences where textbooks need to be constantly updated and sometimes radically changed.
“This is because philosophy stubbornly keeps alive the problems that after more than 2,000 years simply will not go away. Like the natural sciences, it examines both causes and phenomena, but it goes beyond as it also delves into the paradoxical value of what appears to be real when it simply might have been different,” Caruana says.
Philosophy is also unique in that it is parasitic, he continues. He mentions that, for instance, there is a philosophy of language and a philosophy of mathematics, a philosophy of morality and the philosophy of religion. There is also a philosophy of artificial intelligence.
“For this reason, its vocation to hungrily hitch an analytical ride on other disciplines’ back is very often the cause of much irritation and discomfort, especially when it threatens everyone’s comfort zones and exposes social platitudes,” Caruana points out.
The aim of the forthcoming series of lectures is to connect Aquinas’s thought to a variety of topics and try to answer a number of topical questions, namely:
God’s existence – Does God exist? How certain can our knowledge and language about God be?
Knowing nature through science – Why do philosophy in a scientific age? Is knowing truth possible?
Confusion about brains, mind and souls – What makes us human? Do we have a soul? Are we free?
The drama of the human condition – What is wrong with us? Is happiness a reachable goal? What sense do we make of nature and grace? Why is there evil? Is there life after death?
The marvel of the Eucharist – Why is the Eucharist so central to the Catholic faith? Didn’t Jesus Christ abolish ancient rites?
An overall fee of €20 is payable to attend the series.
For more information and to register, send an e-mail to chriscaruana@opmalta.org.