Publications

This book intends to serve one principal end: instructing students, of sufficiently mature mind, how to compose thoughtful and insightful essays in the English language.  Accomplishing this rather specific end, however, requires a broad range of study: a study much broader than that comprised by a simple question of “how to write”.  That is, we cannot write well unless we understand the instruments whereby writing is accomplished; or, to employ one of those instruments—the metaphor—the fruits of composition are nourished best through growing deep the roots of grammar.  As we will see, this linguistic growth requires some knowledge also of logic and rhetoric: for although this book intends an introduction into the first study of the liberal arts, all three arts of the Trivium are nevertheless inseparably convergent in the flourishing of our natural human ability for linguistic signification.

We will combine some use of all the Trivium, however abecedarian our talents in these arts may still be, by the time we reach the final chapter.  While we will draw upon logic and rhetoric, however, the focal study of grammar, as pursued in this book, forms not only the foundational but rather the central part of this non-trivial pursuit of the Trivium.

This second edition is expanded, with one new chapter, many new sections, greatly improved in clarity, precision, homework, readings, and more.  692 pages.
Also available as a PDF ($5.75).

An introduction to philosophy often approaches the branches of philosophy to describe this particular science, but what about approaching it from the more general and obvious areas of human knowledge? And one not meant for polymaths, but vigorous seekers that can’t help crossing boundaries along the way? Scott Randall Paine writes for the committed of heart and the specialist who feels constrained. As he suggests, “Inside every specialist there is a generalist trying to get out.”

Among a myriad of books on philosophy, Paine celebrates the true philosopher: the reader who seeks to know that which has a bearing on everything. This is a book unlike any other. The reality we live in has a kind of ‘face’, and philosophy is a way of engaging this entity. “Who are you? What can you tell me about being human?” Can certain encounters in science and other branches of knowledge be like seeing the half-smile of Mona Lisa? What a tease and yet how much to be discovered upon the right inquiry! Philosophy in this regard can be incredibly daunting, as it brings us face to face not just with particulars, but with everything.

Paine’s trajectory is captured in his table of contents. First, he approaches synoptic and cenoscopic philosophy, and then he deals with philosophy and the following categories: humanities, production and liberal arts, physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, religion, modernity, idioscopy, and the range of the cenoscopic. Paine is successful in his attempt to be exemplary more than strictly conclusive. This is a book for highly engaged (but not necessarily technical) individuals who need to remember to stay hungry.

Series – Philosophical Habit: New Paradigms for the Digital Age.

Available from St. Augustine’s Press or via Amazon.

This first issue of REALITY—The Philosophy of Realism—like most publications and especially those of a collaborative effort, signifies innumerable hours of effort. The goal of our journal is simple: to reinvigorate an intelligent discussion about realism as a philosophical approach. By a realist approach, we mean not simply as pertains to theories of knowledge, but rather a kind of thinking that perfuses itself throughout all philosophical inquiries: all questions of truth, of meaning and purpose, of good, of human action, the political, the physical and the metaphysical, of thought and thing, and anything else about which one might ask, “What does this mean?” To clarify this pursuit of reality, and expound on its importance, our first issue asks the question: what is realism? It is an important question, not simply for our purposes here, but for philosophy as a whole, and thus an important question for all human beings. Without maintenance of a sound answer—which must be sustained dialogically—philosophy wilts into one or another sophistical theory that begins by denying some aspect of the real; and a small error in the beginning becomes great in the end.

A Preface to Metaphysics: Seven Lectures on Being by Jacques Maritain is a concise but demanding introduction to the reality, subject, essential considerations, principles, and causes which are rightly studied in a metaphysical inquiry. Written from a Thomistic standpoint, the work argues that metaphysics is neither an obsolete speculation nor a …

In this first part of his Cursus Philosophicus, the Prima Pars Artis Logicae, Poinsot introduces the art of dialectic, provides a summary of formal logic, and investigates disputed questions concerning the more difficult issues in formal logic …

In the Secunda Pars Artis Logicae of his Cursus Philosophicus, Poinsot takes up material logic, giving an overview of its doctrine, followed by expositions of Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s logical works of the Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics …

In the Philosophiae Naturalis Prima Pars, Poinsot discusses mobile being in common, with a prefatory section discussing the science of philosophy and the order of cognition, followed by a commentary on the eight books of Aristotle’s Physics …

In the Philosophiae Nautralis Tertia Pars, John continues his commentary on Aristotle, focusing on corruptible mobile being, proceeding through the two books of On Generation and Corruption and On Meteorology …

In this, the final volume of his Cursus Philosophicus, containing the Philosophiae Naturalis Quarta Pars, Poinsot provides a twofold commentary on Aristotle’s On the Soul: covering the first two books in one, focused on animate mobile being in common; and attending in the other, through commentary on book three, to the intellective soul …

This volume contains a valuable set of indices to all ten tomes, including all citations of Sacred Scripture sorted by book, and a general, analytic index sorted alphabetically …

In this, the final substantive volume of the Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot completes his consideration of the Tertia Pars of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, with treatises concerning the sacraments in general, the sacrifice of the mass, the Eucharist, and of penance …

In this eighth volume of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot takes up commentary on the Tertia Pars of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, discussing the many nuances which follow upon the Incarnation …

In this first volume of his Cursus Theologicus, John Poinsot summarizes the four books of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, gives an introduction to the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, explains the connection and order of the whole Summa Theologiae, provides a treatise lauding and defending the authoritative teaching of St. Thomas, and exposits the …

In this, the first part of the fourth volume in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot provides two treatises commenting upon the Prima Pars of the Summa Theologiae: first concerning the mystery of the sacred trinity, and second, concerning creation …

In this, the second part of the fourth volume in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot delivers a thorough treatise concerning the angels, commenting upon the corresponding part in the Prima Pars of the Summa Theologiae …

This, the first of two volumes in the fifth tome of Poinsot’s Cursus Theologicus, covers the first nine questions in the Prima Secundae of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, comprising the treatise on the ultimate end for human beings, and the beginning of the treatise on human acts …

The second of two volumes in the fifth tome of Poinsot’s Cursus Theologicus, this volume completes the treatise on human action and considers the goodness and evil of human acts, continuing to build our understanding of the Prima Secundae in Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae …

In the second volume of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot continues his commentary on the treatise concerning the divine nature, from question eight through fourteen, before turning to the work of the six days of creation, in questions sixty-five through seventy-four, all of the Prima Pars in the Summa Theologiae …

Here, in the first of two parts in the seventh volume of his Cursus Theologicus, and acting as commentary upon the Secunda Secundae of Aquinas’ Summa Theologia, Poinsot treats of faith, hope, charity, the authority of the pope, and dedicates a question specifically to homicide …

In the second of two parts in volume seven of the Cursus Theologicus, John Poinsot discusses canonical impediments to holy orders (irregularity), the nature of religion, devotion, prayer, and various other questions pertaining to the conduct of spiritual life, following prompts from the Secunda Secundae of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae …

The first of two parts in volume six of his Cursus Theologicus, here Poinsot completes his discussion of the goodness and evil of human acts and takes up also the passions, habits, and virtues, expounding upon the insights of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Prima Secundae of the Summa Theologiae …

In this, the second of two parts in volume six of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot continues examining and expositing the Prima Secundae of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, taking up the topics of gifts, blessings, and fruits of the Holy Spirit, before turning to grace and justification …

In the first of two parts in volume three of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot discusses the ideas of God, truth and falsity with respect to Him, and pursues the questions of God’s life and will.  Here he follows and exposits the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae Prima Pars …

In the concluding part of volume three in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot discusses many more topics concerning God: His love, justice and mercy, providence, potency, and beatitude. He also takes up here the questions of predestination—not only expositing St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae Prima Pars, but responding also to a pressing concern of …

This, the first of four volumes reproducing the Vives Latin edition of Francisco Suárez’s seminal 1597 Disputationes Metaphysicae, covers the first thirteen disputations: on metaphysics, the concept of being, its principles, unity, distinctions, truth, falsity, good, evil, and more …

This, the second of four volumes reproducing the Vives Latin edition of Francisco Suárez’s seminal 1597 Disputationes Metaphysicae, stretches from disputation 14 through 27. Picking up disputationes 12 and 13 in the first volume, these continue the investigation of causality …

This, the third of four volumes reproducing the Vives Latin edition of Francisco Suárez’s seminal 1597 Disputationes Metaphysicae, encompasses fourteen disputationes, from 28 through 41.  These include finite and infinite being, uncreated being, God, the “real distinction” of essence and existence, substance and accident, immaterial and material substance, quantity, and more …

This, the fourth of four volumes reproducing the Vives Latin edition of Francisco Suárez’s seminal 1597 Disputationes Metaphysicae, encompasses the final thirteen disputations (42 through 54), and includes several theories that would have profound if largely yet unknown influence upon the philosophy to follow, especially in those disputations concerning relation and …

Quintilian (or Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) was an educator and rhetorician born in 35 AD, whose sole surviving major work—this Institutio Oratoria or “Institutes of Oratory”—has endured with great influence over the millennia. Spanning twelve books, Quintilian takes up nearly every topic of rhetoric; from the manner of a youth’s education towards the …

The Rhetorica ad Herennium remains the oldest surviving complete Latin manual of rhetoric and one of the most influential works on persuasive speech in Western thinking. This Lyceum Institute reprint presents the 1954 public domain English translation by Harry Caplan, edited for modern readers, students, and scholars. Caplan’s clear, accessible English preserves …