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From Searle to Scotus and Back: Institutions, Powers, and Mary

From Searle to Scotus and Back: Institutions, Powers, and Mary INTRODUCTIONThis paper is a long shot. It explores whether we can solve a hard metaphysical problem for contemporary social ontology by turning to medieval theology and simultaneously solve a problem for medieval theology by turning to social ontology. However exotic as it may seem, the connection between the two has been noted before. In his review of an edited volume on social ontology (Smith 2008), Wolfgang Grassl wondered why ‘one avenue has been totally neglected from which insights may be derived for an unequivocally realist understanding of the social world: sacramental theology’ (Grassl 2008, 345). Baptism, holy orders, transubstantiation, etc. are all performative speech acts that bring about an irrevocable ontological change. There are also sophisticated understandings of the relation between speech acts and social reality – ‘entia moralia’ – in late medieval scholasticism (Kobusch 2018).The hard metaphysical problem for social ontology, as indicated by John Searle, is: ‘How can there be an epistemically objective set of statements about a reality which is ontologically subjective? In large part, that is what this book is about.’ (Searle 2010, 18 original emphasis) The proposed solution is that, if human persons are metaphysically primordial to institutional reality in the same way that http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Heythrop Journal Wiley

From Searle to Scotus and Back: Institutions, Powers, and Mary

The Heythrop Journal , Volume 64 (1) – Jan 1, 2023

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References (49)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Trustees for Roman Catholic Purposes Registered
ISSN
0018-1196
eISSN
1468-2265
DOI
10.1111/heyj.13992
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThis paper is a long shot. It explores whether we can solve a hard metaphysical problem for contemporary social ontology by turning to medieval theology and simultaneously solve a problem for medieval theology by turning to social ontology. However exotic as it may seem, the connection between the two has been noted before. In his review of an edited volume on social ontology (Smith 2008), Wolfgang Grassl wondered why ‘one avenue has been totally neglected from which insights may be derived for an unequivocally realist understanding of the social world: sacramental theology’ (Grassl 2008, 345). Baptism, holy orders, transubstantiation, etc. are all performative speech acts that bring about an irrevocable ontological change. There are also sophisticated understandings of the relation between speech acts and social reality – ‘entia moralia’ – in late medieval scholasticism (Kobusch 2018).The hard metaphysical problem for social ontology, as indicated by John Searle, is: ‘How can there be an epistemically objective set of statements about a reality which is ontologically subjective? In large part, that is what this book is about.’ (Searle 2010, 18 original emphasis) The proposed solution is that, if human persons are metaphysically primordial to institutional reality in the same way that

Journal

The Heythrop JournalWiley

Published: Jan 1, 2023

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