ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Person

Edward Feser

American philosopher (b. 1968). The leading contemporary popular-academic defender of Aristotelian-Thomist metaphysics and Classical Theism in the analytic-philosophy world. Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College. A Catholic convert from atheism (he tells the story on his blog and in The Last Superstition). He has written accessible introductions to Aquinas (Aquinas, 2009) and to the Five Ways family (Five Proofs of the Existence of God, 2017), plus more technical scholastic-metaphysics work (Scholastic Metaphysics, 2014; Aristotle's Revenge, 2019). His widely-read blog ("Edward Feser") is a major venue for contemporary Thomist engagement with analytic philosophy of religion.

Feser is the most-cited contemporary author when the codex uses Aristotelian-Thomist resources. See Aquinas Five Ways, Act and Potency, Final Causality, Per Se vs Per Accidens Causation, Privation, Cosmological Arguments, Classical Theism, and Perfection Argument.

Place in the contemporary classical-theist recovery

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Feser stands in the line of mid-20th-century Neo-Scholastic Thomism (Étienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange). But he writes for today's analytic-philosophy audience, not for the seminary or the French Thomist tradition. His distinctive move is to translate the scholastic toolkit (act and potency, hylemorphism, the four causes, real distinctions, the analogia entis) into the language of contemporary analytic philosophy. This makes Aquinas's actual arguments legible to philosophers trained on Quine, Kripke, and Plantinga.

He is sharply polemical against:

  • The New Atheism. The Last Superstition (2008) is a book-length reply. Feser argues that the New Atheists (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett) attack a strawman of theism (God as a "big person"). They miss the actual arguments of the classical and Aristotelian tradition.
  • Theistic personalism. Feser thinks William Lane Craig-style "God is a maximally great person" theism is a regression from the classical tradition. The dispute is in-house among theists. Feser's critique aligns with David Bentley Hart's, though their styles differ. Hart is literary and rhetorical; Feser is argumentative and scholastic.
  • "Intelligent Design" as a movement (he distinguishes this from intelligent designer as a metaphysical conclusion). Feser argues that ID's mechanistic framing concedes too much to the Newton / Paley legacy. It misses the deeper Aristotelian point that final causation (teleology) is built into nature as such, not just into rare gaps. The disagreement is friendly but real (see Feser's exchanges with Stephen Meyer and the Discovery Institute).

Five Proofs framework (Feser's signature contribution)

Five Proofs of the Existence of God (Ignatius, 2017) presents five distinct proofs in formal structure, with extended cross-examination of objections:

  1. The Aristotelian Proof. From change (motus) to a Purely Actual Actualizer. Close to Aquinas's First Way (First Way - Motion), but stated more rigorously to handle modern objections.
  2. The Neo-Platonic Proof. From composite beings to an absolutely Simple being. Argues from the act / essence composition of finite beings to a non-composite ground.
  3. The Augustinian Proof. From the existence of abstract objects and universals to a divine mind in which they are held.
  4. The Thomistic Proof. From the real distinction between essence and existence in creatures to ipsum esse subsistens (Ipsum Esse Subsistens), the only being where essence and existence are the same.
  5. The Rationalist Proof. From the Principle of Sufficient Reason and contingency to a necessary being (a Leibnizian version; see Contingency Argument).

Each proof, Feser argues, ends in a being that just is the classical-theist God. This being has simplicity, aseity, immutability, impassibility, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness. So the proofs jointly establish not just "a god" but the God of Classical Theism. The proofs interlock. A weakness in one is covered by another.

Key positions in the codex's territory

  • Classical Theism vs theistic personalism. Feser is a strict classical theist. The Five Proofs and Aquinas books are the most accessible contemporary statement of the position.
  • Divine Simplicity. Feser strongly defends strong simplicity. Scholastic Metaphysics and his blog answer objections from contemporary analytic philosophers (Plantinga's Does God Have a Nature?, Hasker, Mullins).
  • Cosmological Arguments. Most of Feser's apologetic output works in this area. He uses the distinction between per se and per accidens causal series (see Per Se vs Per Accidens Causation) to handle the "infinite regress" objection that New Atheists routinely deploy against Kalam-style arguments.
  • Final Causality and Aristotelian teleology. The Last Superstition and Aristotle's Revenge argue that teleology cannot be reduced to mechanistic or efficient causation. He applies the point to philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and ethics.
  • Capital punishment. Feser co-authored By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed (Ignatius, 2017, with Joseph Bessette), defending the traditional Catholic retributive case for capital punishment. The book pushes back on the recent shift in Catholic magisterial teaching. This is not a codex focus, but it is a known Feser position.
  • Mind and body. Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide (Oneworld, 2005) defends hylomorphic dualism, the Aristotelian-Thomist alternative to both Cartesian dualism and physicalism. Relates to Argument from Consciousness.

Selected works

  • Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide (Oneworld, 2005)
  • Locke (Oneworld, 2007)
  • The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (St. Augustine's Press, 2008)
  • Aquinas (Oneworld, 2009), the standard contemporary intro to Aquinas
  • Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction (Editiones Scholasticae, 2014)
  • Neo-Scholastic Essays (St. Augustine's Press, 2015)
  • By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment (Ignatius, 2017, with Joseph Bessette)
  • Five Proofs of the Existence of God (Ignatius, 2017)
  • Aristotle's Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science (Editiones Scholasticae, 2019)
  • All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of Racism and Critical Race Theory (Ignatius, 2022)

See also