Aquinas on Space and Spatial Location

FAIN: FEL-288235-23

Jeffrey E. Brower
Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN 47907-2040)

Research and writing leading to a book on philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas’s (1225-1274) theories on motion, space, and location.

My project is to complete a monograph entitled Aquinas’s Ontology of Space. The purpose of this monograph is to provide a systematic introduction to Thomas Aquinas’s views about space and spatial location through a careful examination of each of the main contexts in which he develops them—namely, his philosophical and theological treatments of locomotion (motus localis), spatial location (ubi), and place (locus). The monograph will be historically informed and based on a thorough examination of the relevant Latin texts. It will also correct some important misunderstandings about the development of pre-Newtonian theories of space, as well as demonstrate the systematic depth and power of Aquinas’s views by bringing them into dialogue with some of the best recent literature on related topics in contemporary metaphysics.