Thomism and Phenomenology: Ways of Contemplation

With Mark Spencer, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, U. of St Thomas, St Paul, MN.

I contend that Thomism and phenomenology can and should aid and supplement one another. Taken on their own or taken together, however, these methods are inadequate to fully accomplishing the end of philosophy, theology, and intellectual life in general. To show this, I first consider three ways in which any two schools of thought, like Thomism and phenomenology, can enter into dialogue. Dialogue among schools of thought can be based around their material content, their formal methods, or their ultimate ends. While some thinkers, like Karol Wojtyła and Edith Stein, have sought to synthesize Thomism and phenomenology based on their content or methods, I contend that these routes to dialogue are ultimately unsuccessful. Rather, these two schools of thought can be brought into dialogue and synthesized only inasmuch as they each provide something needed to achieve the end of human intellectual life, which the other does not provide. The end of human intellectual life is contemplation of what is most fundamental to reality. Thomistic and phenomenological content and methods can supplement one another in pursuit of this end. Not only is the end of the intellectual life contemplation, but the ends of Thomism and phenomenology, as they have historically developed, are also contemplation. Understood in the context of the pursuit of this end, elements of Thomism and phenomenology fill in gaps left by the other, without which total contemplation of what is fundamental cannot be achieved. A complete synthesis of the two schools, however, requires that they each be seen as aspects of a higher-order, synthesizing method, which in other works I have called the “aesthetic method.” I close the paper with a brief description of this method and its focus on beauty, how it can be used to join Thomism and phenomenology, and how it enables us to achieve the end of the intellectual life.