This course will take a close look at the constitution of practical reason and its relationship to physicality and, in particular, the body. This will require a review of texts dealing with a cluster of knotty themes: the constitution of practical reason; the role/meaning of form and matter; the real and the symbolic; the relation between cosmos and person; personal and biological aspects of physicality and the body; subjectivity and objectivity. Readings drawn from Plato, Aristotle (De Anima, Nicomachean Ethics), Thomas, Hume, Kant (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason), de Lubac (Corpus Mysticum), Balthasar, John Paul II (Theology of the Body).
Selected Texts
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason.
Etienne Gilson, Spirit of Medieval Philosophy.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I,I-II.
Plato, Meno.
Plato, Phaedo.
Plato, Phaedrus.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone is Credible.
Karol Wojtyla, Radiation of Fatherhood.
John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.
Faculty
David S. Crawford
Dean
Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Family Law
Dr. Crawford’s teaching spans the areas of moral theology and philosophical ethics, the theological and philosophical anthropology of marriage and family, and legal and political philosophy. His publications address human action, natural law, homosexuality, “gender identity,” and the anthropological implications of modern civil law.
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