This text proposes a novel approach to the sciences within Thomism, namely, Thomism in dialogue with science. In line with the recent movement of science-engaged theology, it raises theological and metaphysical questions that require input from the natural sciences. Recent developments within Thomism demonstrate a new way of approaching the natural sciences, and this proposal seeks to foster this type of dialogue by highlighting the differences between contemporary Thomism and that of the past. Even so, although it adopts a novel approach, Thomism in dialogue with science draws on a tradition of thought that possesses a vast arsenal of metaphysical tools. Thus, after presenting this approach and offering a brief introduction to some basic notions of Thomistic metaphysics, the text examines various theological and philosophical questions and their relationship to the natural sciences: topics concerning creation, cosmology, and astrobiology; divine action in evolutionary biology; providence and indeterministic quantum processes; and finally, some ideas for its future development.

This book is available on the website of Cambridge University Press

This book offers a groundbreaking assessment of the contemporary debate surrounding divine providential action and the natural sciences, proposing a revision of both Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical doctrine of providence and his account of natural contingency. By examining the history of debates on providence and nature, the work provides a set of criteria for evaluating models of divine providential action, challenging theologically controversial assumptions underlying current discussions on such action. Among these assumptions are the idea that God needs causally open spaces in the created world to act providentially, and the inadequate conclusion that, if this were the case, then God would be assumed to act as just one cause among many. In response to these shortcomings, the book presents a comprehensive exposition of Aquinas's ideas on the metaphysics of natural causality, contingency, and their relation to divine providence. The work offers a clear and bold metaphysical narrative, based on the thought of Aquinas, which reflects on the relationship between divine providence and natural contingency.

The book is available here

This volume brings together diverse contributions from theology, metaphysics, analytic philosophy, and phenomenology to foster a deeper understanding of the ongoing debate on the divine nature and the notion of personhood that we might properly attribute to God. It contains some of the results of a project that brought together researchers from various countries for a year and a half to explore these questions within the framework of contemporary philosophical and theological discourse, primarily analytic.

The book can be found here

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of the contemporary debate on divine provident action and the natural sciences, suggesting a reconsideration of Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical doctrine of providence along with his account of natural contingency. By examining the history of debates on providence and nature, the volume provides a set of criteria for evaluating models of divine provident action, challenging the underlying, theologically contentious assumptions of current discussions on divine provident action. Such assumptions include that God needs causal spaces in the created world to act providentially within it, and the inadequate conclusion that, if this is the case, then God is supposed to act as yet another cause among causes. In response to these shortcomings, the book presents a comprehensive account of Aquinas's metaphysics of natural causality, contingency, and their relation to divine providence. Thus, it offers a fresh and daring metaphysical narrative, based on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, which appreciates the relationship between divine providence and natural contingency.

The book is available on the website of Routledge.

This volume, the result of the research project 'Human and Divine Providence', seeks to offer an original perspective on divine providence, presenting philosophical, psychological, and theological viewpoints on human providence. According to classical theism, God governs the history of the natural world and humanity with perfect knowledge of future events. But God also allows creatures to have contingent, non-deterministic behaviors. Considering the unique characteristics of human providence, this volume aims to catalyze a paradigm shift on this issue, applying new metaphors to understand and explain the relationship between divine providence and the actions of creatures.

The volume covers various philosophical, theological, and psychological topics, including the virtue of prudence, grace, natural contingency, free will, nature, memory, and technology, featuring 9 chapters and an introduction written by scholars from Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

The book is available on the website of Routledge.

This book presents Leonardo Polo's philosophy of knowledge and the cosmos as a unified whole. Starting from the limits of our thinking, it explores its extension in the sciences and the repeated attempts in philosophy to overcome them. The sciences reduce natural things to intelligible (mathematized) objects that offer a certain idea of ​​reality and serve especially for the technological control of the world. Natural philosophy—causal physics in Polo's view—attempts the difficult task of immersing itself in a world currently lacking intelligibility, relinquishing its objective possession, in order to explain its causes within their complete cosmic context. Polo's proposal, in a way, continues the Aristotelian project of Physics, deobjectifying it. This requires a change of mindset if we are to understand the material world as it is and not as we construct it through conceptual thought. This book thus outlines a universe obscure to us, in its continuous alternation between formal processes and stasis. It is a universe sustained by a perpetual cosmic pulse that, at its higher levels, like life itself, illuminates and orders itself progressively, never reaching a definitive culmination. Only in this way is it possible to detach oneself from all premature metaphysics and take the leap beyond the limit that allows one to glimpse the cosmic being as a perpetual beginning that persists and thus reveals its created nature. The reader who ventures into this work, if unfamiliar with Polo, may be surprised by the novelty of his proposal. But they may also be captivated by it and perhaps be motivated to try to better understand the secret of the universe, beyond what ordinary knowledge and scientific explanations present.

The book is available here.

This book arises from the need to provide an academic explanation of the different types of generous behaviors or expressions that human beings are capable of. The main objective is to present a description and classification of the various manifestations of generosity or types of prosocial behavior, and then focus on 10 different psychological aspects that form the basis for the formation and development of human generosity. Each chapter will present empirical research demonstrating the relationship between different social virtues or psychological traits that foster the emergence of generous behaviors, thus enabling positive psychosocial development.

As previous studies have shown, the roots of generosity or prosocial behavior are multiple and can be found in biological, cultural, and familial factors, as well as in individual psychological characteristics. However, in this work, we will focus only on certain intrapsychic aspects, such as social virtues or traits that can be fostered through education or various promotional strategies. It is important to emphasize that this work does not aim to exhaust all individual characteristics linked to prosociality; rather, it selects the 10 paths that have thus far proven to be a solid foundation for the emergence of generous or prosocial behavior.

The book is available on the website of EUNSA.

The question of God's existence has been of central importance throughout the history of philosophy. Among all the arguments in its favor, one stands out for its peculiarity and influence on the thinking of almost all the most important philosophers: the so-called ontological argument. Since its original formulation in the Proslogion of St. Anselm of Canterbury, this argument has generated such fascination among philosophers that virtually none of the most prominent have refrained from commenting on it. Yet, in addition to being a classic question, the study of the ontological argument has lost none of its relevance. A distinctive feature of the contemporary debate surrounding it (sparked by Findlay, Hartshorne, Malcolm, and Plantinga, and continuing to this day) is its strong influence from the formulations and objections developed in German rationalism.

The book is available on the website of EUNSA.

The birth of philosophy is inseparable from the fundamental questions surrounding human existence: who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. And the answers to these questions, in turn, give rise to many other issues that concern us all, such as the relationship between humankind and Nature, what distinguishes us from other living beings, how we relate to one another (family, friendship, society, etc.), or, on a much more personal level, what the meaning of my life is. To these classic questions have been added, in recent times, others linked to the rapid development of science and technology, since some believe, for example, that in just a few decades we will be able to overcome all the limitations of our species, enjoying superintelligence, superlongevity, and super-well-being (Transhumanism).

The book is available on the website of EUNSA.

By its very nature, ethical speculation has been, from its inception, a terrain of intellectual dialogue, where ordinary knowledge, philosophy, and different religious creeds converged, seeking and contributing reasons. But this landscape has become more complex today, presenting unprecedented facets due to the irruption of the particular sciences (especially from cognitive perspectives) into the study of moral phenomena. Within this context of the naturalization of ethics, a research program inspired by Chomskyan linguistics, called Universal Moral Grammar (UMG), has developed in recent years. UMG essentially posits that beneath spontaneous moral intuitions lies a framework of innate and unconscious cognitive principles that constitute the evolutionary heritage of our species.

In this book, the author proposes a philosophically balanced and critical reading of this research program, aiming at its possible insertion into the broader debate surrounding ethical universals and establishing some non-trivial affinities with the notion of natural law proposed by the Thomistic tradition.

The book is available on the website of EUNSA.

The Summa contra Gentiles offers a unique opportunity to rediscover reason and share it with everyone. Reasoning from the synthesis and union of reason and faith, this book brings Thomas Aquinas into contact with the 20th and 21st centuries. Its main objective is to foster dialogue between Thomistic synthesis and contemporary thought: phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, the philosophy of language and logic, the philosophy of science, current cosmological debates, psychoanalysis, the philosophy of social sciences, and, consequently, also with the philosophy of law and economics.

Is our reality inexorably determined, or is it, on the contrary, left to chance and surprise? The tension between determinism and indeterminism has been a constant concern of humankind in different eras and cultures, finding multiple answers in the history of philosophy: from the Greek Anake or the Latin fatum, to the idea of ​​a world where all certainty and security has been lost.

In this book, the question of determinism is addressed from very diverse fields, from quantum mechanics, chaos theory and microscopic chemistry in the area of ​​physical-chemical sciences, to genetics, evolutionary developmental biology and conservation biology in the domain of life sciences, without omitting specifically philosophical domains such as those that refer to the problem of freedom and free will.

The book is available on the website of New Library.