Date of Award
Spring 1993
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Rousseau, Mary F.
Second Advisor
Starr, William
Third Advisor
O'Malley, Joseph J.
Abstract
Yves R. Simon was a Thomist thinker. By that I mean that the way he approached any philosophical problem was shaped not only by the Aristotelian substance metaphysics but also by Aquinas' Christian complement to it. For Simon, the Aristotelian vocabulary that includes talk of substance, accident, matter, form, potency and act is merely the starting point. The additional Thomistic insight that God's essence is identical with God's existence, that God is pure act, makes perfect sense to Simon, a devoted believer in the Catholic faith. It is not that Simon could in any sense be appropriately labeled an ideologue. In fact, the testimony of his family, colleagues, students and friends reveals something quite the opposite: Yves R. Simon had such intellectual and personal integrity that it would have been difficult to predict his answer to a philosophical problem before he had thoroughly studied the issue. Clearly, though, he approached his work with a Thomistic world view and the categories of that system, as I will show, permeate his political philosophy...