Welcome To Philosophia Perennis – The Philosophy Classroom-Ontology 11

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TONIGHT’S CHAT AUDIO BEGINS WITH BROTHER FRANCIS’ Ontology Lecture 9 LIVE CHAT WITH BR. ANDRE, DAVID SIMPSON & MIKE CHURCH AT 06:00 P.M.

Mandeville, LA – Welcome to the Philosophia Perennis Chatroom and knowledge resource page. Open your mind philosophy and your mind will become prepared to receive wisdom. The chatroom will convene every Tuesday Evening at 06:00 p.m. Central. To begin the course I suggest you listen to Brother Francis’s 8 introductory lectures covering each of the disciplines we will be learning, beginning with Minor Logic. Our first chatroom, April 28th will convene to discuss and review the introduction to the course. I have extended an invitation to Br. Andre Marie and his Brothers at the St Augustine Center to attend the chats if they are able to and help answer questions. Your Brothers in Philosophia study who are here to assist: David Simpson Mike Church Br. Andre Marie (when his schedule allows)

NEW FEATURE FOR MEMBERS AND THE CURIOUS-REVIEW EACH WEEK’S AUDIO CHAT WITH BR. ANDRE MARIE, DAVID SIMPSON & MIKE CHURCH-PLEASE NOTE ALL AUDIO SESSIONS ARE NOW PLAYING IN THE FOUNDERS PASS MEDIA PLAYER!

Audio recording from Course # 20 LOGIC 01•09•2015

Audio recording from Course #16 LOGIC 11•08•2015

Audio recording from Course #15 LOGIC 04•08•2015

Audio recording from Course #14 LOGIC, 28•07•2015

Audio recording from Course #13 LOGIC, & 21•07•2015

Audio recording from Course #9 LOGIC 23•06•2015

Audio recording from Course #7 LOGIC &, 09062015

TRANSCRIPTS FROM PREVIOUS CHAT SESSIONS:

28 APRIL, 2015 • 

DOWNLOAD BR. LAWRENCE NOTES FOR LOGIC #14 HERE

Download Br. Lawrence’s notes from Logic #8 here.

Download Br. Lawrence’s notes from Logic #9 here.

There will be some audio commentary from Mike Church introducing the course tonight, welcoming everyone and then answering questions via the online chat window below the audio player.

Click THIS LINK to open in Windows Media Players IF the above link does not work

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TRANSCRIPTS FROM PREVIOUS CHAT SESSIONS:

28 APRIL, 2015

WHY PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS?

David Simpson, who has taken the entire course relates his life and knowledge experience as a result of Philosophia Perennis.

I have been asked: Why study philosophy?

The most direct answer is to say: So that we may know with certainty. But many modern people might scoff at that answer since they have imbibed the common error that everything is opinion. So what value is there to philosophy in an age that is full of self-doubt? The value is to come out of oneself and to complete a rigorous and orderly study of the world around us and where we fit into it in order to grow wise. I can attest that this is not only possible, but joyful. Today, the average person endures years of education, is inundated with information and has constant sensory overload. Still, with all this input, the modern man is locked in an epistemological quagmire: How do I know if what I know is true? I experienced this problem. As a fairly well-read adult male with both a bachelors and post-graduate degree, I knew a lot of things. But my knowledge was sort of an amorphous blob without any order. I had wit, but no wisdom. I even believed that I processed information fairly well, but when push came to shove, I could not defeat the arguments of the sophists running our society. If you are sick to your stomach, you know it. But how can you know if you are sick in your mind, when it is your mind that is responsible for telling you so? A diseased organ of thought is unreliable, right? So are we forced to conclude that we can know nothing because the “knowing faculty” is broken? This is where our world sits today. But it hasn’t always been so. Perhaps the answer to our question lies in minds that have gone before us. And so it is. When I was introduced to the philosophy course that you are undertaking today, for the first time in my life I KNEW I HAD FOUND TRUTH. Why? Because philosophy, being a sort of skeleton for thought, put all of my prior knowledge into a systematic and orderly relation. Philosophy also added thoughts to my noggin by importing the great thoughts from the greatest thinkers of all time. I did not have to “figure it all out”….most important thoughts have already been figured out…rather, I had to conform my mind to the eternal truths and reject erroneous notions that have been offered as alternatives to truth. A strange thing happens as you approach wisdom. Your mind will know the truth, but, more significantly, your heart will rejoice in it. I know mine did. For once in my life, my intellect and will confirmed to me that not only were things “knowable” but that they were able to be known confidently. Truth is authoritative. Philosophy is all about getting wiser. It is a never-ending quest…that is until one meets the Truth. Still, if we envision wisdom as a river, one’s knowledge of the river is not limited by how far along one is down the river, but rather how well one appreciates water, currents, boats, fish and a host of other “river knowledge.” If you can appreciate that difference, then you are well on your way to that special and certain knowledge we call philosophy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Why Philosophy? Part II: Brother Francis’s Unique Ordering of the Courses Br. Joseph Mary In my last Mancipia article I presented reasons why members and friends of the Saint Benedict Center should study philosophy. In this piece, I will discuss why we should study philosophy under the guidance of Brother Francis rather than another teacher or try to learn philosophy by reading books. Brother Francis presents the eight courses in an order that is unique. From the time he was a young philosophy student, he noticed that the popular arrangement of the courses failed to help the students really understand and accept the concepts. Universally, the study of philosophy began with General Metaphysics, starting with Minor Logic and Epistemology, followed immediately by Ontology. Only after these did courses turn to the world around us with the study of Cosmology, Psychology and Ethics. Often there was a course in the History of Philosophy included in the curriculum. Brother observed that, by starting with the study of the most abstract courses, Minor Logic, Epistemology and Ontology, the students failed to connect the ideas to the real world. As a result, they didn’t fully understand and assimilate the concepts and were easily swayed when presented with false philosophies or sophistries. Many students lost their Catholic Faith because they never understood the perennial philosophy that supported it. Brother Francis’s approach is the reverse. He, also, begins with Minor Logic so that the student has some concepts to work with, but immediately he moves from there to Cosmology — the study of the real world around us. Brother wants to give students the confidence that the abstract ideas they are learning are grounded in reality and are not just ethereal notions that have no further importance. After Cosmology, the students take the course in Psychology — the study of living beings with an emphasis on man and his qualities, including those he shares with the animals. Because it discusses human faculties or powers, it is also one of the most interesting. Every student finds something to which he can personally relate. Brother follows this with Ethics, answering the moral questions that are so important in our modern world. Towards the end of this course, Brother explains to the students that they now have a platform, a set of standards, with which they can evaluate the ideas presented by other philosophers, both good and bad. As Brother says, students should have the ability to read a work written by anyone and, like bees gathering nectar from a thistle, discern correct thinking from what is incorrect. The next two courses discuss the History of Philosophy. The first is the History of Philosophy from the Greeks to Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Greeks are presented as the pioneers of philosophy and, as such, they espoused many false ideas together with true ones. On the other hand, the “golden chain” of philosophers — Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, provide the basis of what is called Philosophia Perennis, also referred to as the “True Philosophy.” Brother details the development of those ideas and their fruition in the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. After having mastered about one-hundred key concepts serious students have a much greater appreciation for the “Common Doctor” than would otherwise have been possible. The History of Modern Philosophy follows immediately. Learning history in Brother Francis’ plan of instruction is quite exciting because the students discover they now have the tools to accurately evaluate the ideas espoused by these modern philosophers. As Brother explains, the course is “polemical,” meaning that students will not blithely accept the ideas but will use their training to tear erroneous modern notions to shreds. Students’ confidence grows as they successfully take on these sophists whose false principles have caused so much havoc in today’s world. Next, Brother presents the first of the two courses in General Metaphysics — Epistemology, also known as “Major Logic.” As stated above, by now students are convinced that the ideas they have learned are not merely useless abstractions, but are a solid basis for the study of the great mystery of knowledge itself, what Brother calls “the FACT of knowledge.” The final course is Ontology — the study of being. In this, the highest of the eight courses in philosophy, students happily discover that they are already familiar with nearly all of the concepts. Little-by-little, Brother has been working the higher, but more extensive concepts, into all of the preceding courses. When the students have reached this point, they can look back and understand why Brother arranged the courses in this manner. They have a firm grasp of the ideas, understand their importance, and can readily see through and confidently refute all modern sophisms. Such is the progressive layout of the philosophy courses as taught by Brother Francis. Future articles will demonstrate our teacher’s signature skill in making the complex and profound understandable. They will also underscore his emphasis on philosophy as a basis for meditation and contemplation, as well as his peculiar grace to orderly transition between natural philosophy and Divine Revelation.

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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