Notes on Thomist Epistemology

Léon Noël, Daniel D. Novotný, Jacob Schmutz

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9798385268719
  9798385268726
• eBook ISBN:
  9798385268733
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: European History

Léon Noël (1878–1953) stands as a pivotal yet underappreciated figure in the history of Thomist epistemology. He played a defining role in shaping the Louvain School and its engagement with the problem of knowledge and the relation of faith and reason in the twentieth century. Noël coordinated intellectual initiatives, fostered networks among Catholic philosophers, and helped institutionalize Thomistic thought across Europe and beyond. His rigorous analyses of Aquinas and Kant and other contributions were widely admired in his day. His lectures and his publications reflect a tireless effort to renew scholasticism for the modern age.
Notes d’épistémologie thomiste, first published in 1925, brings together several revised articles written by Noël between 1913 and 1925, with some additions. The volume and its introduction situate him within the broader intellectual moment of neo-Thomism. More than a collection of essays, it represents a sustained and coherent philosophical intervention, one that proved fundamental in consolidating and articulating the distinctive epistemological position for which the Louvain School became widely known. This edition aims to renew interest in the systematic dimensions of Louvain Thomism and to motivate its reassessment among contemporary scholars. 

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Translator’s Preface
• Preface by Léon Noël
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. The Actuality of Thomism
• 2. The “Problem” of Knowledge
• 3. The “Cogito”
• 4. Immediate Realism
• 5. Exegesis
• 6. The Real and the Intelligence
• 7. The Kantian Problem
• 8. The Thing in Itself
• Appendices
• Bibliography