INTRODUCTION XXIU 



tion. Even the method whereby fruitful investigation can be 

 continued today is to be found in the perennial philosophy of 

 the ancients. Only an unreasonable or prejudiced thinker would 

 dismiss this wisdom of the ancients without fair study. An 

 ancient truth does not cease to be true just because it is ancient. 

 Nor does the perennial philosophy cease to be philosophy just 

 because someone else thought of it first. 



When Leo XIII called for the restoration of the philosophia 

 perennis in Catholic schools, he explicitly desired this to be the 

 light by which modern problems of natural science, social 

 ethics and metaphysics are to be worked out. " Even physics, 

 the study which is now held in such high esteem, and which by 

 its many wonderful discoveries has secured to itself everywhere 

 special admiration, will not only receive no detriment but a 

 powerful help from the restoration of the ancient philosophy." 

 Leo XIII pointed out that the consideration of facts and the 

 observation of nature are alone not sufficient for the fruitful 

 appreciation and advancement of natural science. One needs 

 discussion of more fundamental questions of science, reflection 

 on the data obtained, synthesis of various aspects, analysis of 

 scientific theory itself and epistemological evaluation in the 

 light of human knowledge as a whole. " To these investigations 

 it is wonderful what light and powerful aid is afforded by 

 scholastic philosophy, if it be wisely handled." The examples 

 of St. Thomas Aquinas and Blessed Albertus Magnus were pro- 

 posed to modern investigators of nature by Pope Leo. Over 

 half a century later Pope Pius XII gave modern scientists St. 

 Albert the Great for their heavenly patron, " in order that stu- 

 dents of the natural sciences, bearing in mind that he had been 

 given them as their guide, might follow in his footsteps and not 

 cling too tightly to the investigation of the fragile things of this 

 life, nor forget that their souls are meant for immortality, but 

 use created things as rungs in a ladder that will elevate them 

 to understand heavenly things and take supreme delight in 

 them." 



Leo XIII had ordered the restoration of scholastic philoso- 



