• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

  • About
  • Podcast
  • Column

Thomistic Common Sense by Réginald Gerrigou-Lagrange: A Brief Review

December 30, 2022 by wagraham Leave a Comment

I enjoyed Thomistic Common Sense, although I found Garrigou-Lagrange’s organization slightly annoying; and since I was unaware of some of the people he argues with, I often felt a bit apathetic to the whole debate.

That said, where Garrigou-Lagrange exceeds is defining exactly what he means by claiming with Thomas Aquinas that the formal object of the intellect is being.

Being in this is is all that can be comprised among the division of being, that is, what the intellect sees: substance, potency (non-being) and actuality (being), the principle of non-contradiction (A cannot be and not be in the same way and time); the principle of identity (something must be that is); and more.

These intellectual principles are known by a sort of intuition, which is common to all people; hence, common sense.

For Garrigou-Lagrange, these first principles of being undergird the universal truths of creedal statements, despite their being situated with Greco-Roman language (ousia, substantia, etc.). The concepts they convey are available to common sense (even if their precision is not).

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: metaphysics

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Wyatt is the Executive Director of The Gospel Coalition Canada. He enjoys his family and writing. You'll generally find him hiding away somewhere with his nose in a book.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Want articles in your e-mail? Sign up here!

What Socrates can Teach us About MAiD

January 29, 2023 By wagraham Leave a Comment

Is Song of Songs Allegorical? Five Questions I Might ask of the text

January 25, 2023 By wagraham Leave a Comment

Prosopology, Simply put

January 25, 2023 By wagraham Leave a Comment

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in