Tomismo e pensiero moderno by Cornelio Fabro, C. S. S. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 499 with what is done in the departments of philosophy of the universities is another mistake. Unless such a connection is understood in a rather loose sense, we would again face a concept of university quite remote from reality. In a section devoted to the departments of philosophy, however, some very sensible considerations are made concerning the relation between science and philosophy. A large part of this section is devoted to the problems of the organization of university studies. In a section devoted to the teaching of philosophy the author quotes the conclusions arrived at in the previous studies he is analyzing; such conclusions are not very encouraging. He finds that philosophy has not received the importance it should have in university life, that it usually is not studied in an adequate fashion, and that there is a lack of communication between the teachers of philosophy of different universities. The last section takes up again the problem of teaching philosophy. A strong emphasis is put on the distinction between the philosopher as such and the instructor in philosophy, a distinction which in practice is often forgotten. One of the main problems the author is concerned with is the possible effect that the lack of a notion of philosophy could have on the teaching of the discipline. Do we need to know what philosophy is before attempting to teach it? The fact is that in three areas of the globe three different tendencies provide a ready-made answer: philosophy of man in Europe, linguistic analysis in Anglo-Saxon countries, and philosophy of society in Communist countries. This last section is perhaps the most interesting. The author tries to solve the difficulty by using his personal experience as a philosophy professor; his conclusions are both sound and helpful. It is difficult to appraise a book that is meant to be a comparative summary, but, insofar as the author's purpose is to give us a comprehensive and critical view of the teaching of philosophy in the Americas, he has certainly succeeded. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. Lms CAMAcHo, 0. P. Tomismo e pensiero moderno. By CoRNELIO FABRO, C. S. S. Rome: Lateran University, 1969. Pp. 469. This volume is a collection of articles and papers which for the most part have already appeared in philosophical journals. They reflect Fabro's teaching as found in such major works as La nozione metafisica di parteci- 500 BOOK REVIEWS pazione secondo S. Tommaso d'Aquino (3d ed., 1964), Dall'essere all'esistente (1957), Partecipazione e causalita (1961), lntroduzione all'ateismo moderno (1964), published in English under the title God in Exile (Westminster , Md.: Newman Press, 1968), and L'uomo e il rischio di Dio (1967). Twelve of the sixteen articles that make up the book are in Italian, two in French, and the following two in English: " The Problem of Being and the Destiny of Man " (pp. 135-64) and " The Transcendentality of Ens-Esse and the Ground of Metaphysics " (pp. 319-57) . The book has a cumulative index of authors covering both this volume and Esegesi tomistica (1969), which is Vol. I of this two-volume work. Although it is not easy to classify under a single heading studies covering a large variety of subjects, the title of this book seems to be appropriate. It reflects a theme that runs through the entire work but most especially through the paper " S. Tommaso e il pensiero moderno " (St. Thomas and Modern Thought) which the author delivered at the Lateran University in 1963 in the presence of Pope Paul VI. It is Fabro's contention that Thomism, far from being an outmoded philosophy, has much to offer to twentieth-century man. At a time when " philosophical speculation meets almost insurmountable difficulties and the very concept of philosophy is in a crisis " (p. 5) a need is felt for a return to " an essential Thomism." By this the author means a philosophy that "transcends all closed systems and individual historical figures, including St. Thomas himself insofar as he was necessarily bound by the cultural limitations of his own time." (p. 16) An essential Thomism must be able to meet the problematic of modern...