Joseph Magee, PhD
Since 1996, I have produced and maintained the Thomistic Philosophy Page. I earned my PhD from the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, Texas, in 1999 and for two years I taught philosophy full-time at UST. From 2002 – 2021, I was campus minister at Sam Houston State University, where I regularly taught philosophy of religion. I also taught part-time at Montgomery College, UST, Houston Community College and University of Houston, Downtown.
My book, Unmixing the Intellect: Aristotle on Cognitive Powers and Bodily Organs was published by Greenwood Press in 2003. In this work, I argue that, according to the principles he develops throughout the De Anima, Aristotle successfully argues for a strong sense of the separateness of mind (nous) insofar as its activity occurs apart from the body. Because of the contrast he draws between mind and the senses in his arguments, I examine closely Aristotle’s understanding of sensation and the sense powers. In the course of this analysis, I argue against various interpreters who claim that his theory of mind is cognitivist, functionalist or endorses some version of supervenience.
Other Publications:
The Focus on Immanent Activity in the Second Way, Thomistica.net. July 7, 2021.
The Alleged Birthday Fallacy in Aquinas’s Third Way Published in Reflections on Medieval and Renaissance Thought, edited by Darci Hill. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
Sense Organs and the Activity of Sensation in Aristotle, Phronesis 45 (2000): 306-330.
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Updated 9-25-2021
Thomistic Philosophy Page 