Adventures in Unfashionable Philosophy

by Felt, James W.

• ISBN13: 9780268029029
• ISBN10: 0268029024
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780268079673
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-15
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

Throughout more than forty years of distinguished teaching and scholarship, James W. Felt has been respected for the clarity and economy of his prose and for his distinctive approach to philosophy. The seventeen essays collected in Adventures in Unfashionable Philosophyreflect Felt's encounters with fundamental philosophical problems in the spirit of traditional metaphysics but updated with modern concerns. Among the main themes of the volume are: the enrichment of Thomistic philosophy through engagement with modern philosophers, Whitehead and Bergson, in particular; considerations of metaphysical method and its effect on philosophic conclusions; the development of a nuanced epistemological realism; and the relation of possibility to actuality and of time to experience. " Adventures in Unfashionable Philosophydoes indeed lie off the beaten path. To deal straightforwardly today (as its author does) with God, the self, freedom, and the meaning of human life is not only unfashionable: it is considered terminally naive. James Felt, however, is not naive. His clear, careful thought breathes new life into old problems, providing fresh insights where traditional approaches have failed." -- Pete A. Y. Gunter, University of North Texas " " Adventures in Unfashionable Philosophyis equivalently James Felt's intellectual autobiography. In a series of essays written over a period of forty years and now republished with introductory self-critical comments, Felt records his journey from a youthful enthusiasm for the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead to his conversion to the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and, in recent years, his efforts to come up with a creative synthesis of the major insights of both Aquinas and Whitehead. One does not have to agree with all his conclusions, but everyone should admire the dispassionate way in which he analyzes and critiques both systems for their relative strengths and weaknesses." -- Joseph A. Bracken, S.J., Xavier University "Felt makes no concessions to the current unfashionable status of classical metaphysics. With justified confidence in the foundational importance of the discipline, and in dialog with some of its most famous practitioners, he explores and advances many of its perennial themes in essays exemplary in their clarity of reasoning and expression." -- Jorge Nobo, Washburn University " Adventures in Unfashionable Philosophyis a sound, insightful, mature, and philosophically rich work. One hears a distinctive voice in all of the essays of the collection, the voice of a teacher anxious to share ideas that have animated his own philosophical development. This is rare, and something to be celebrated when it is found." -- Brian Martine, University of Alabama, Huntsville

Author Biography

James W. Felt, S.J., is professor emeritus of philosophy at Santa Clara University. He has published a number of books, including Human Knowing: A Prelude to Metaphysics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) and Aims: A Brief Metaphysics for Today (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

Preface (2009)	p. vii
On Being Yourself (1968)	p. 1
Invitation to a Philosophic Revolution (1971)	p. 4
The Temporality of Divine Freedom (1974)	p. 22
Philosophic Understanding and the Continuity of Becoming (1978)	p. 37
Transmutation and Whitehead's Elephant (1981)	p. 61
Coming Around Again in Philosophy (1982)	p. 68
Impossible Worlds (1983)	p. 78
God's Choice: Reflections on Evil in a Created World (1984)	p. 101
Whitehead's Misconception of "Substance" in Aristotle (1985)	p. 110
Intuition, Event-Atomism, and the Self (1987)	p. 128
Faces of Time (1987)	p. 141
Fatalism and Truth about the Future (1992)	p. 152
Relational Realism and the Great Deception of Sense (1994)	p. 169
Why Possible Worlds Aren't (1996)	p. 184
Proposal for a Thomistic-Whiteheadian Metaphysics of Becoming (2000)	p. 198
Epochal Time and the Continuity of Experience (2003)	p. 214
"Know Yourself!" (2007)	p. 232
Notes	p. 239
Index	p. 267
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