The University of Notre Dame Press has just published Words of Wisdom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial Tradition, by John W. Carlson, Ph.D., professor of Philosophy at Creighton University. Carlson's dictionary is intended to support both student learning and philosophical scholarship within the perennial tradition of philosophy within the history of Western philosophy, which assigns a central place to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
In the words of Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., associate professor of Philosophy at Fordham University and Editor-in-Chief of International Philosophical Quarterly, "This volume fills a serious lacuna. In the explosion of research tools for philosophy, we have seen dictionaries and encyclopedias on virtually everything. But it has been decades since there has been a comprehensive dictionary on philosophy that takes special consideration of the topics, terms and perspectives prominent in the philosophia perennis. This volume not only provides accurate accounts of terms from across the spectrum of philosophical schools but also includes coverage of many items that are absent from its counterparts."
Carlson has also been invited to to Mount St. Mary's University and Seminary for a presentation to Seminarians, students and faculty on March 5 and will film two segments of EWTN (global Catholic television) with Msgr. Stuart Swetland, Pre-Theology Program director at the seminary and host of an interview show with the network on March 6.
Carlson is a teacher and scholar of the perennial tradition of philosophy and of biomedical ethics at Creighton University. He is the author of Understanding our Being: Introductions to Speculative Philosophy in the Perennial Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2008)