The Rediscovery of Wisdom : From Here to Antiquity in Quest of Sophia

By reconstructing it and tracing its vicissitudes, David Conway rehabilitates a time-honoured conception of philosophy, originating in Plato and Aristotle, which makes theoretical wisdom its aim. Wisdom is equated with possessing a demonstrably correct understanding of why the world exists and has the broad character it does. Adherents of this conception maintained the world to be the demonstrable creation of a divine intelligence in whose contemplation supreme human happiness resides. Their claims are defended against various latter-day scepticisms. My aim, in sum, is to defend the legitimacy of the view that the explanation of the world and its broad form is that it is the creation of a supreme omnipotent and omniscient intelligence, more commonly referred to as God, who created it in order to bring into existence and sustain rational beings such as ourselves who, by exercising their intellects, can become aware of the existence of God and thereby join their Creator in the activity of contemplating God in which activity God is perpetually and blissfully engaged.--from introduction Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-5 Philosophy without Wisdom....Pages 6-30 The Classical Conception of Philosophy....Pages 31-78 The Decline and Fall of the Classical Conception....Pages 79-133 The Wisdom of the Book Revisited....Pages 134-170 Conclusion....Pages 171-176 Back Matter....Pages 177-196