Philosophia negativa

by Josef Pieper

  • Year 1953
  • Type Essay
  • Genre philosophy
  • Tradition Catholic
  • Original language German

For For readers of Aquinas interested in the limits of knowledge and the mystery of things. Not a first book on Thomas.

Should I read this?

For the general reader
2 of 5 worth a look
For the researcher
4 of 5 important
Difficulty
4 of 5 hard

Two essays on the negative element in Aquinas: created things are knowable yet never fully comprehended. A source of The Silence of St. Thomas.

How it proceeds
  • Philosophic 5 of 5
  • Scriptural 0 of 5
  • Experiential 1 of 5
  • Sociological 0 of 5
  • Historical 2 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

Two essays on Thomas Aquinas, published by Kösel in Munich in 1953. The second edition (1963) bears the title Unaustrinkbares Licht: Das negative Element in der Weltansicht des Thomas von Aquin. Pieper draws out the negative element in Aquinas's view of the world: because things are created, their essence cannot be fully comprehended, and the mystery of being belongs to the heart of his philosophy. With Über Thomas von Aquin (1940) it is the source of the English The Silence of St. Thomas: Three Essays (Pantheon, 1957).

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Catalog IDW.4JKNHJ.Z

Edition details and descriptions on this page were compiled with the aid of AI research tools. Readers are encouraged to verify specifics (publisher, translator, edition year) against the originating source before purchase or citation.

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