Thomas Heute. Zehn Vorträge zum Aufbau einer neuen existentiellen Ordnungs-Metaphysik nach Thomas von Aquin by Amadeo Silva-Tarouca (review)

240 BOOK REVIEWS world of learning should welcome this new and needed edition of Berkeley's writings. It is hoped that the forthcoming volumes will maintain the high standards set in the present work. The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. 0. JoaN K. RYAN. Thomas Heute. Zehn Vortriige zum Aufbau einer neuen existentieUen Ordnungs-Metaphysik nach Thomas von Aquin. (Thomas To-day. Ten Contributions for the Composition of a new existential Metaphysical Order according to Thomas Aquinas.) By AMADEO SILvATARoucA . Vienna: Herder, 1947. Pp. !l1!l. S !lS; sfr. 14. The author presents in ten chapters, which preserve the form of lectures, the essence of Thomistic philosophy. His intention is to show that the views of the Doctor Communis are not only timely and allow for an immediate application to actual problems, but that they constitute the only philosophy which promises to the modern man understanding of himself and of his present situation. The keyword is" order." It is order for which the modern man longs, order which he needs in the midst of the confusion surrounding him, order to rebuild a decent and meaningful life after the destruction which overwhelmed him. In Aquinas the author sees the philosopher of order. The history of the western world and its civilization is the history of the striving for order. The lasting endeavor of the Occident was to unite within one encompassing order nature (that is, society, state, art, civilization ) , and supernature. The Thomistic synthesis appears as the relatively best and the hitherto only philosophy of order. · This order is not merely a formal one; it is what the author calls an existential order. As such it tries to follow the very structure of reality, whereas a formal order, we may add, can be established on the basis of any arbitrarily chosen principle or propeJ;"ty. To obtain the vision of the existential order one has therefore to follow the indications reality supplies. This discovery proceeds by five steps: the experience of being; the principle of efficient causality; the existence of God; the principle of finality or the final cause; the principle of order. St. Thomas was the first to recognize that the demonstration of God's existence is the foundation of all systematic interpretation of reality and so also of every philosophical systematization. As soon as the general validity of the principle of finality is recognized and it has become evident that every being acts for the sake of some metaphysically ultimate end, it follows that all created beings are ordered in regard to one another. Order implies a multitude of ordered members, a uniform, thoroughgoing principle of relations, and a corresponding articulation , arrangement, or pattern, which is the order itself. Order is discovered BOOK REVIEWS 241 as soon as we approach any experience whatever. We are rendered aware of four modes of relations in being; that of the external things to sensory perception; that of sensory data to the process of knowledge; that of the latter process to the formation of universal concepts; that of the single concepts, judgments, and conclusions into the scientifically known object. The existence of a universal and recognizable order can be made intelligible only within a theocentric conception. These general ideas, which can be here only indicated and should be studied in the original work, are then applied in the last five lectures, dealing with the order of the universe, the optimism of order, the natural philosophy of order, the position of man in the center of order, and the order of the love of God. The interpretation of Thomistic philosophy from the angle of a metaphysics of order throws an interesting light on several questions. Thus, the author considers the hylemorphic conception as less basic than is usually the case. " The theocentric doctrine ·of order can . . . be constructed in its whole width and depth and its comprehension of the universe . . . without reference to the notions of matter and form in the sense of·hylemorphism." On the other hand, the notions of potentiality and act are fundamental insofar as they refer to degrees of perfection and are related to one another as being capable of perfection to being perfected. Man is placed between animal...