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Aquinas never describes himself as a ‘philosopher.’ He typically uses that word when referring to such “pagans” as Aristotle. Yet he often presents what we can now view as purely philosophical arguments. And it is some of these with which MacIntosh is concerned in this fine new book, which is divided into three parts, as is Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae. MacIntosh has previously published two books on Robert Boyle (1627–1691), who features from time to time in the present volume.
In part 1, “Natural Philosophy,” MacIntosh reports a number of things that Aquinas has to say about necessity and possibility, causality, time and motion, and time and infinity. Part 2, “Natural Theology,” deals with Aquinas under the headings “God’s existence,” “God’s attributes,” and “Foreknowledge and freedom.” Part 3, “Human Beings,” contains chapters titled “Epistemology and philosophy of mind,” “Souls and Immortality,” and “Morality and Method: Aquinas on lying and unnatural practices.” Part 1 is largely, though not exclusively, expository. In parts 2 and 3, which also contain a fair amount of exposition, MacIntosh seems more concerned to evaluate some of the arguments of Aquinas on which he reports. And he tends to evaluate them...