International Catholic University

An Introduction to Metaphysics

Twelve Lessons to Accompany Six Video Lectures

Ralph McInerny

Prayer of Saint Thomas Aquinas before Reading and Study

Grant me grace, O merciful God, to desire ardently all that is pleasing to thee,
to examine it prudently,
to acknowledge it truthfully,
and to accomplish to perfectly
for the praise and glory of thy name. Amen

Twelve Lessons on Metaphysics

1. The degrees of wisdom
2. The genetic Aristotle
3. The order of learning
4. The status of the philosophy of nature
5. The immortality of the soul
6. That God exists
7. The logic of demonstration
8. Abstraction and separation
9. The unity of metaphysics
10. On being and essence
11. The analogy of being
12. The names of God

Books you should have:

1. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, Dumb Ox Books, Notre Dame, Indiana.

[This edition contains both the Metaphysics of Aristotle and Thomas's exposition of it.]

2. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings, translated, edited and introduced by Ralph McInerny, Penguin Books, 1998.