Understanding Our Being: Introduction to Speculative Philosophy in the Perennial Tradition

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Understanding Our Being John W. Carlson Understanding Our Being Introduction to Speculative Philosophy in the Perennial Tradition The Catholic University of America Press Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2008 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carlson, John W. Understanding our being : introduction to speculative philosophy in the perennial tradition / John W. Carlson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8132-1518-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy— Introductions. 2. Ontology. I. Title. BD21.C364 2008 149'.91—dc22 2007030355 To my students across the years— companions in the search for understanding “It should never be forgotten that the neglect of being inevitably leads to losing touch with objective truth and therefore with the very ground of human dignity. This in turn makes it possible to erase from the countenance of man and woman the marks of their likeness to God, and thus to lead them little by little either to a destructive will to power or to a solitude without hope.” “In the present circumstances, therefore, it is most significant that some philosophers are promoting a recovery of the determining role of this [perennial] tradition for a right approach to knowledge.” “I appeal to all philosophers, and to all teachers of philosophy, asking them to have the courage to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition , the range of authentic wisdom and truth—metaphysical truth included— which is proper to philosophical enquiry.” —John Paul II, Fides et ratio (1998) ...