History of Philosophy Works-in-Progress Luncheon: Markos Klemz Guerrero (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), "Aquinas on the Varieties of Modality"

Please join us for this week's History of Philosophy Works-in-Progress Luncheon! This week's presenter is Prof. Markos Klemz Guerrero (Department of Philosophy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), who will present on "Aquinas on the Varieties of Modality" (see abstract below).

Each meeting consists of a presentation by a graduate student or faculty member on a project that they are working on in the history of philosophy, followed by a period of comments/questions from other participants. The workshop is designed to give contributors the opportunity to develop ideas and receive helpful feedback on projects/papers in a friendly and low stakes environment.

Lunch is provided for registered attendees. Sign up here!

Abstract: Aquinas talks about various senses of necessity and possibility throughout his writings. Assuming there is no general and univocal notion under which one can gather various senses, our research aims at investigating the role those concepts play in two particular contexts, a strictly metaphysical one, the Third Way, and an epistemological one, the self-evidence of first principles. Concerning the first topic, we will try to establish that it is possible to provide a simple and straightforward reconstruction of a notoriously problematic step of the Third Way by appealing to the necessity of the past. Concerning the second topic, we will analyze how the kind of necessity which belongs to first principles might serve as a common thread that allows one to understand precisely in which way human intellect abstracts insofar as it participates in the light of Divine Intellect. Both those enterprises will require elucidating the dependence and irreducibility between logical, metaphysical and natural modalities.

Originally published at historyofphilosophy.nd.edu. Please check their website for the most up-to-date information about this event.