Gilson on Philosophy and Civilization

• Authors: Fafara Richard J.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In his essay “The Role of Philosophy in the History of Civilization” presented at the 6th International Philosophical Congress at Harvard in 1926, Gilson outlined three general trends among historians of philosophy. Some reduce the history of philosophy to study sources and find explanations of the philosophy beyond itself. Others try to go beyond the source of a given philosophy to find the original intuition that generates it. A third position, which Gilson espoused, is ahistorical. It depends neither on society nor on the creative genius of philosophers; it is simply truth. Systems of philosophy are uniquely conditioned by the necessary relations that link the ideas. If philosophies are expressions of an eternal truth, dominating men and societies, which discovers itself progressively by the mediation of philosophers, philosophy is transcendent with regard to every given state of civilization and the worth of a civilization depends upon the extent it participates in truth. Gilson’s conception of philosophy can go far in restoring Western civilization’s loss of confidence in human reason with its resulting pathologies and threats to human freedom today.

Keywords

EN

Gilson; civilization; philosophy; history of philosophy

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 213-227

Dates

published

2019-06-30

Contributors

author

Fafara Richard J.

• Adler-Aquinas Institute, Manitou Springs, CO, USA

References

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Identifiers

ISSN

2577-0314

ISSN

2300-0066

DOI

10.26385/SG.080210