Aristotle's Revenge

This monograph presents a systematic defense of Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics against modern naturalistic philosophy, arguing that contemporary science and philosophy of mind inadvertently vindicate rather than refute classical theistic arguments. Feser contends that post-Cartesian philosophy's rejection of Aristotelian categories has created intractable problems in understanding consciousness, causation, and the natural world that ultimately point back to the necessity of classical metaphysical foundations.

The work engages three major argument families for God's existence through the lens of Aristotelian metaphysics. Regarding cosmological arguments, Feser maintains that modern physics, despite appearances, requires Aristotelian notions of actuality and potentiality to coherently explain change and causation. He argues that attempts to eliminate teleology from nature fail, as scientific practice implicitly relies on goal-directedness in biological and physical explanations. This rehabilitation of formal and final causes serves to undergird updated versions of Aquinas's Five Ways.

For design arguments, Feser distinguishes sharply between modern "Paley-style" arguments from probability and the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic approach. He contends that the latter, rooted in the intrinsic teleology of substances rather than mechanical arrangements, remains untouched by Darwinian critiques. The work suggests that laws of nature themselves require grounding in divine intellect to explain their regular, mathematically describable character.

The ontological argument receives treatment through Feser's defense of the real distinction between essence and existence in contingent beings. He argues that only in God do these coincide, making divine existence metaphysically necessary rather than merely conceptually required. This approach sidesteps standard Kantian objections by grounding the argument in broader metaphysical commitments about the nature of being.

Methodologically, Feser employs careful conceptual analysis characteristic of analytic philosophy while drawing extensively on historical sources, particularly Aristotle and Aquinas. He engages contemporary philosophers of science and mind, arguing that their own findings support rather than undermine classical theistic metaphysics. The work targets naturalistic philosophers who assume that modern science has definitively refuted teleological and theistic worldviews.

The monograph's significance lies in its comprehensive attempt to show that properly understood science requires rather than excludes traditional metaphysical categories, and that these categories inevitably lead to theistic conclusions. Feser positions this as not merely compatible with but demanded by honest engagement with contemporary physics, biology, and philosophy of mind.