School of the Annunciation
In the module we will study how the great tradition of metaphysical knowledge, of philosophical knowledge of reality, which begins with Aristotle and develops with St Thomas Aquinas, is still as relevant today as ever it was. We will study how recent philosophers and theologians in this long tradition can help us understand how metaphysics meshes with scientific knowledge and other areas of knowledge we have of the world. We will examine how crucial metaphysical knowledge is to understanding the world and ourselves as created by God for union with God as our ultimate destiny. The examination of general metaphysical principles, applying to being as such, will allow the student to appreciation the central importance of ‘substance’ and the way analogical predication allows us to apply metaphysical pairs, such as form and matter, essence and existence across the whole of reality. St Thomas’s key insights into the significance of ‘existence’ in metaphysics will be a central element in our studies. We will proceed to reflect upon metaphysical aspects of this contingent world-order in which we live and examine ways in which areas metaphysical knowledge such as that regarding the hierarchical ordering of genus and species, throw light upon the different levels of being we find in our created universe.