Western Culture: A Collective Achievement Cover Image

Western Culture: A Collective Achievement
Western Culture: A Collective Achievement

Author(s): Jude P. Dougherty
Subject(s): History of Philosophy, Philosophical Traditions, Special Branches of Philosophy
Published by: International Étienne Gilson Society
Keywords: Western culture; metaphysics; realistic epistemology; human intellect; scholasticism; modernity; science; religion; Christianity;

Summary/Abstract: By examining selected works by Stephen Gaukroger, Alfred North Whitehead, Lynn White, Jr., Benjamin Farrington, and Paul Gans, the author discusses the formation of Western culture and the intellectual tools and the social conditions that contributed (and still contribute) to its being. He concludes that a metaphysics and a realistic epistemology—based on an ancient Greek confidence in the human intellect, in its ability to reason to truths that acknowledge the immaterial character of human intellection—is required for the West to retain its identity and develop its own culture.

  • Issue Year: 8/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 751-758
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: English