ACPQ Contest

The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly has begun a “Rising Scholar Essay Contest,” open to anyone who has not yet attained the rank of associate professor. To qualify, the paper must “contribute to the development or elucidation of the Catholic philosophical tradition.” The deadline is August 1. For details, see http://www.stthomas.edu/philosophy/acpq/essaycontest.html.

Medieval Philosophy Podcasts

Peter Adamson’s 2-year-old-plus project, the ‘History of Philosophy without any gaps’ podcast, has now made it to the Middle Ages, or at least to Christian antiquity. Check out the recent discussions with John Marenbon on Boethius, Charles Brittain on Augustine’s De trinitate, and Sarah Byers on Augustine’s ethics. (Among much else.)

PhDs in progress (North America)

I have attempted a census of students pursuing a PhD in medieval philosophy at North American universities. (Later this spring, I’ll try to canvass Europe.) I queried the departments below, asking for the names of students who had a dissertation in progress and had not yet graduated. All titles and descriptions of theses should be regarded as tentative.

I have not in general attempted to account for students working outside of philosophy departments (e.g., in Near Eastern studies, theology, religion, history, politics, classics, medieval studies). I have also not contacted every North American department granting PhDs in philosophy. Hence there may well be other medieval dissertations in progress that I am unaware of. Please send additions (and corrections).

It seems to me there might well be a lot of interesting things to say about this list, so don’t be shy about posting comments, if you feel inspired. But I’ll follow my usual practice of simply presenting the information.

[I’ve now added a few people who had been omitted (March 11, April 22).]

University of Dallas

• Basil Burns (Lehrberger), A study of mutual indwelling [mutua inhaesio] as the preeminent effect of love [amor] in the thought of Thomas Aquinas

Villanova

• Lee Cole (Waddell), At the Limits of Realism:  St. Thomas Aquinas and the Intellectual Knowledge of Singulars
• Erika Kidd (Wetzel), Verbum et Vita: A Reading of Augustine’s De magistro

 Guelph

• Adam Langridge (Eardley), Adam Wodeham’s Account of Evident Knowledge

Fordham

• Brendan Palla (Klima), Thomas Aquinas and Two Problems for Free Choice
• Shane Wilkins (Klima), Medieval and Contemporary Hylomorphic Solutions to the Problem of Material Constitution.
• Turner Nevitt (Davies), Essence, Existence, and God: A Contemporary Defense of Aquinas’s De ente proof
• Marta Layton (Klima), The Evidence of Things Unseen: Conceivability and Language in Anselm’s Ontological Argument.
• Christopher Upham (Davies), Human Responsibility, Freedom, and Control: A Thomistic Exploration of Moral Issues.

Toronto

• Michael Siebert (King): recollection and illumination in Augustine
• Matthew Siebert (King): social epistemology (testimony) in Augustine, Aquinas, and Ockham
• Simona Vucu (King): Self-Motion
• Ian Drummond (King): the theory of virtue in John Duns Scotus
• Brian Embry (Pickavé): truthmakers in neoscholasticism
• Rachel Lott (Pickavé): The Semantics of Proper Names in the 13th- and 14th-centuries
• Stephen Zylstra (Pickavé/Rozemond): Immanent Causation in Spinoza and His Medieval Predecessors.

CU/Boulder

•  Joseph Stenberg (Pasnau): later medieval theories of happiness

UC/Irvine

• Ashley Dressel (Kent), Choosing Evil: Aquinas and His Allies on Willful Wrongdoing

Notre Dame

•  Stephen M. Metzger (Emery), Gerard of Abbeville, Secular Master, on Knowledge, Wisdom and Contemplation
  Garrett R. Smith (Dumont), The Multiplicity of Divine Attributes: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus

South Florida

•  Jeff Steele (Williams), The Metaphysics of Goodness in John Duns Scotus

Purdue

•  Justin Matchulat (Brower), Practical Cognition and Moral Motivation in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas
• Julie Swanstrom (Brower), The Metaphysics of Causation in the Creation Accounts of Avicenna and Aquinas
• Jake Tuttle (Brower), Suarez’s Metaphysics of Efficient Causation

St. Thomas/Houston (Center for Thomistic Studies)

• Daniel De Haan (Houser), Necessary Existence and the Doctrine of Being in Avicenna’s Metaphysis of the Healing (al-Ilahiyyat as-shifa’)
• Casey Edler (Knasas), Thomas Aquinas and the Kalam Cosmological Argument
• Todd Konkel (Osborne), Aquinas and De Ente et Essentia ch. 4 and the Real Distinction
• Sr. Anne Frances Ai Thuy Le (Sommers), Nudus Sequens?: St. Thomas Aquinas on Poverty and Christian Perfection
• Alexander Lynch (Houser), Reason’s Relationship to the Passions in Aquinas
• Jordan Olver (Jensen), Bonum Nostrum: The Necessary Will for Happiness and Love of Others
• Nathan Poage (Houser), Aristotle, Avicenna and Aquinas on the Subject and Principles of Metaphysics
• Nelson Ramirez (Knasas), Contemporary Thomistic Problems on Aquinas’ Understanding of Truth
• Aaron Somerville (Osborne), Arguments for the Final End of Man in Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas
• Stephen Sparks (Knasas), The Indispensability of the Sign and the Scope of Semiosis: Exploring the Doctrinal Foundations of Semiotics, A Comparative Study of the Sign-Theory of John Poinsot and Charles S. Peirce
• Scott Sullivan (Knasas), Nihil est sine ratione: A Defense of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
• Jeffrey Zents (Martin), Abstractive Thomism and the Pyrrhonian Skeptical Tradition

Marquette

•  Traci Phillipson (Taylor), Aquinas, Averroes and the Moral Self
• Rosa Vargas (Twetten), Thomas Aquinas and the Apprehension of Being: Conclusions from Thirteenth-Century Semantics

Cornell

•  Nate Bulthuis (MacDonald), Walter Burley on Propositional Content
• Dave Zettel (MacDonald), The Development of Albert the Great’s Ethics

UCLA

•  Josh Blander (Normore), Distinction and Separability in Duns Scotus

McGill

•  Emann Alleban (Normore), Avicenna’s proofs for the Existence of God

Western Ontario

•  Sarah Hogarth (Lagerlund), The Logic of Thomas Bradwardine
• Lauren Sidlar (Lagerlund), Akrasia in the Aristotelian Tradition: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Donald Davidson

St. Louis

•  Errin Clark (Stump),  Causal Powers in Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Metaphysics
• Gideon Jeffrey (Stump), Final Causation and Its Discontents

Georgetown

•  Anne Jeffrey (Murphy), On the Moral Significance of Conscience (Aquinas)

University of Quebec at Montreal

• Lydia Deni Gamboa (Panaccio), Ockham and Chatton on Reflexive Acts
• René Létourneau, (Panaccio), Language in the anonymous ‘Communia Grammaticae’ (13th c.)
• Jonas Da Nobrega (Panaccio), Abelard’s Critique of Realism
• Aline M. Ramos (Panaccio), John Buridan on Epistemic Virtues
• Mélanie Turcotte (Panaccio), Aquinas on Learning and Teaching

Université Laval

•  Violeta Cervera Novo (Lafleur), Study and Edition of the Commentarium Abrincense in Ethicam Veterem (MS. Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale, 232, fol. 90r-123r).

University of Ottawa

• Eduardo Zachia (Côté), “Subsistent Parts: Aquinas on the Hybridism of Human Souls”
• David McPike (Côté), “Thomas Aquinas and Dietrich of Freiberg on Substance and Accidents”

Université de Montréal

• Geneviève Barrette (Piché), Universaux et intentionnalité chez Hervé de Nédellec
• Laurie Lapointe-Beaudoin (Piché), Les théories médiévales de la perception sensible dans le milieu parisien du XIVe siècle

Catholic University of America

• Paraic Maher (Hoffmann), Whether Friendship Is a Virtue: Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, James of Viterbo and Godfrey of Fontaines
• Peter Furlong (Hoffmann), Indeterminism and Freedom of Decision in Aquinas
• Sean Cunningham (White), Natural Inclination in Aquinas
• Mary Julian Ekman (Doolan), Thomas Aquinas on Self-Love as Perfective of the Human Person
• Brian Carl (Wippel), The Order of the Divine Names in the Writings of Thomas Aquinas
• Daniel Factor (Wippel), St. Thomas Aquinas on the Principle that the Maximum of any Genus is the Cause of All the Others in the Genus
• Michael Rubin (Wippel), The Meaning of ‘Beauty’ and its Transcendental Status in the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas
• Nickolas Kahm (Wippel), Thomas Aquinas on the Sense Appetite as Participating in Reason
• David Cory (Gorman), Agency and materiality in Aquinas’s Soul Theory
• Paul Dudzinski (Noone), An Analysis of Intelligible Species in the Doctrine of Knowledge in a Manuscript Attributed to Antonius Andreas
• Bart Himel (Noone), The Possibility of Moral Science in the Philosophy of William Ockham
• Daniel Pierson (White), Thomas Aquinas on the Principle Omne Agens Agit Sibi Simile
• Jose Rivera-Noriega (Noone), John Duns Scotus on Concepts as the Object of Scientific Logic
• Jordan Watts (Noone), Natural Final Causality at the University of Paris from 1250–1360

University of Chicago

• Joseph Steineger IV (Marion), Intrinsic Divine Properties and the Natural Knowledge of God: John of Damascus and Anselm’s Argument in 13th Century Scholasticism

I also queried the philosophy departments at Ohio State, Indiana, Boston College, SUNY/Buffalo, and Loyola/Chicago. None of their students studying medieval are presently at the dissertation stage.