Associate Member of the Commissio Leonina (since 1989)
Associate Professor (The Catholic University of America)
Address :
School of Philosophy
The Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C. 20064
202-319-6658
Contribution to the Leonine Edition
Since 1989 Kevin White is in charge of the edition of Aquinas’s Sententia Super Meteora.
As established by Antoine Dondaine and Louis Jacques Bataillon, Aquinas’s commentary includes three chapters, attested to by a number of manuscript witnesses, which had never appeared in any printed edition. In 1992, Kevin White published an edition of these chapters (see below). This preliminary inquiry allowed him to study in details the tradition of Aquinas’s Sententia, namely to distinguish between a « university » group of seven manuscripts and an « independent » group of three manuscripts. Proceeding chapter by chapter, he is currently preparing a draft of all thirty chapters of Thomas’s commentary, along with an Aristotelian text based on the Aristoteles Latinus edition.
Degrees
B.A., St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, 1978
M.A., University of Ottawa, 1981
L.Ph., St. Paul University (Ottawa), 1983
Ph.D., University of Ottawa, 1986. Dissertation title: “Two Studies Related to St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Aristotle’s De sensu et sensato, Together with an Edition of Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones super Parva naturalia.” Directed by Bernardo Carlos Bazán.
Positions held
- 1981-84 : Research assistant, Laboratoire de recherches sur la pensée antique et médiévale, University of Ottawa. Assisted L. Paquet, M. Roussel, Y. Lafrance in research for Les présocratiques: Bibliographie analytique (1879-1980), 2 volumes. Montreal-Paris: Bellarmin-Les Belles Lettres, 1988-89.
- 1981-82 : Lecturer, St. Paul University.
– 1986-89 : Internship with the Commissio Leonina in Rome, editing Aquinas’s Sentencia super Meteora.
- 1986-88 : Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
– 1988-89 : External lecturer, Pontificio Collegio Beda, Rome.
– 1989- : Member of the Commissio Leonina.
- 1989-96 : Assistant Professor, School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America.
– 1992-2007 : Faculty Secretary, School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America.
– 1994 : Co-director, with Guy Bedouelle and Romanus Cessario, of an international colloquium on the thought of Jean Capreolus held at Rodez, France, September 2-4, 1994.
– 1997-98 : Treasurer, American Catholic Philosophical Association.
– 1996- : Associate Professor, School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America.
– 1996- : Director, “Thomas Aquinas in Translation” series, The Catholic University of America Press.
Publications
Books Edited and Translated
1. Editor, Hispanic Philosophy in the Age of Discovery. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997.
2. Co-editor, with Guy Bedouelle and Romanus Cessario, Jean Capreolus et son temps, 1380-1444: Colloque de Rodez. Paris: Cerf, 1997.
3. Co-translator, with Romanus Cessario, John Capreolus on the Virtues. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001.
4. Translator, Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Aristotle’s “On sense and what is sensed”. In Commentaries on Ariistotle’s “On Sense and What Is Sensed” and “On Memory and Recollection.” Translated with introductions and notes by Kevin White and Edward M. Macierowski. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005.
Articles and book chapters
1. “The Meaning of Phantasia in Aristotle’s De anima, III, 3-8.” Dialogue 24 (1985): 483-505.
2. “The Leonine Commission.” La Parola, nn. 22-23 (1988-89): 20-22.
3. “St. Thomas Aquinas and the Prologue to Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones super De sensu et sensate.” Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 1 (1990): 427-56.
4. “Three Previously Unpublished Chapters from St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Meteora: Sentencia super Meteora 2.13-15.” Mediaeval Studies 54 (1992): 49-93.
5. “The Virtues of Man the Animal sociale: Affabilitas and Veritas in Aquinas.” The Thomist 57 (1993): 641-53.
6. “Aquinas, St. Thomas (1224/25-74).” Encyclopedia of Time. Edited by Samuel L. Macey. New York-London: Garland Publishing, 1994, 22-24.
7. “Aquinas on Solercia.” Les philosophies morales et politiques au Moyen Age: Actes du IXe Congrès international de Philosophie Médiévale. Edited by B. Carlos Bazán, Eduardo Andújar, Léonard G. Sbrocchi. New York-Ottawa-Toronto: Legas, 1995, 826-34.
8. “Individuation in Aquinas’s Super Boetium de Trinitate, Q.4.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 69 (1995): 543-96.
9. “Aquinas on the Immediacy of the Union of Soul and Body.” In Studies in Thomistic Theology. Edited by Paul Lockey. Houston: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1996, 209-280.
10. “Saint Thomas et Durand de Saint-Pourçain: La question de la certitude de la foi.” In Jean Capreolus et son temps, 1380-1444: Colloque de Rodez. Mémoire dominicaine, Numéro spécial, No.1. Edited by G. Bedouelle, R. Cessario and K. White. Paris: Les éditions du Cerf, 1997, 165-75.
11. “Creation, Numbers, and Natures.” Medieval Masters: Essays in Memory of Msgr. E. A. Synan. Edited by R. E. Houser. Houston: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1999, 179-90.
12. “The Passions of the Soul (IaIIae, qq.22-48).” Essays in the Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited by S. Pope. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2002, 103-115.
13. “John Capreolus.” Blackwell Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia and Timothy B. Noone. Malden, Massachesetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002, 349-50.
14. “Observations on Time and Being in Thomistic Metaphysics.” Being and Thought in Aquinas. Edited by Jeremiah M. Hackett, William E. Murnion, and Carl N. Still. Binghamton: Global Academic Publishing, 2004, 243-71.
15. “St. Thomas Aquinas on Prologues.” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum. Miscellanea 98 (2005), 803-13.
16. “The Quodlibets of Thomas Aquinas.” Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century. Edited by Christopher Schabel. Leiden: Brill, 2006, 49-133.
17. “Aquinas on Oral Teaching.” The Thomist 71 (2007): 505-28.
18. “Wanting Something for Someone: Aquinas on Complex Motions of Appetite.” The Review of Metaphysics 61 (2007): 3-30.
19. “Aquinas on Purpose.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 81 (2008): 133-47.
20. “Friendship Degree Zero: Aquinas on Good Will.” Nova et Vetera 9 (2011): 539-78.
21. “Drop the Mic.” First Things, December 2012: 19-21.
22. “Pleasure, a Supervenient End.” Aquinas and the Nicomachean Ethics. Edited by Tobias Hoffmann, Jörn Müller, Matthias Perkams. Cambridge University Press, 2013: 220-38.
23. “Accidents and Incidents: A Phenomenologist Reads T. S. Eliot.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 17 (2014): 169-83.
24. “Act and Fact: On a Disputed Question in Recent Thomistic Metaphysics.” The Review of Metaphysics 68 (2014): 287-312.
25. “Philosophical Starting Points: Reason and Order in Aquinas’s Introductions to the Posterior Analytics, De caelo, and Nicomachean Ethics.” Theology Needs Philosophy: Acting Against Reason Is Contrary to the Nature of God. Edited by Matthew L. Lamb. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016: 135-53.
Book Reviews
1. Oliva Blanchette, The Perfection of the Universe According to Aquinas: A Teleological Cosmology. University Park: Penn State Press, 1992. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 46 (1992): 389-91.
2. Monique Paulmier-Foucard et al., eds., Vincent de Beauvais: Intentions et réceptions d’une oeuvre encyclopédique au Moyen Age. Paris: Vrin, 1990. Reviewed in The Catholic Historical Review LXXVIII (1992): 447-49.
3. Richard Ingardia, Thomas Aquinas International Bibliography 1977-1990. Bowling Green: The Philosophy Documentation Center, 1993. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 47 (1994): 825-26.
4. Jean-Pierre Torrell, Initiation à saint Thomas d’Aquin: Sa personne et son œuvre. Paris-Fribourg: Cerf-Editions Universitaires de Fribourg, 1993. Reviewed in Crisis, April 1994: 55-56; and The Review of Metaphysics 47 (1994): 825-26.
5. Jan A. Aertsen, Medieval Philosophy and the Transcendentals: The Case of Thomas Aquinas. Leiden-New York-Köln: E. J. Brill, 1996. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 51 (1997): 405-7.
6. Roberto Radice, ed. La “Metafisica” di Aristotele nel XX secolo: Bibliografia ragionata e sistematica. Collana Temi metafisici e problemi del pensiero antico: Studi e testi, 48. Milan: Centro di Ricerche di Metafisica, 1996. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 51 (1997): 439-40.
7. Rita Librandi, La metaura d’Aristotile: Volgarizzamento fiorentino anonimo del XIV secolo. Romanica Neapolitana, 29. Naples: Liguori Editore, 1995. Reviewed in Isis 91 (2000): 149-50.
8. Joëlle Ducos, La météorologie en français au Moyen Age (XIIIe-XIVe siècles). Paris: Honoré Champion, 1998. Reviewed in Isis 92 (2001): 387-88.
9. John P. O’Callaghan, Thomist Realism and the Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect Form of Existence. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2003. Reviewed in Nova et Vetera 3 (2005): 414-21.
10. Thomas Aquinas, Lectura Romana in primum Sententiarum Petri Lombardi, ed. Leonard E. Boyle, O.P. and John F. Boyle. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2006. Reviewed in Nova et Vetera 5 (2007): 925-31.
11. Gabriele Taylor, Deadly Vices. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. Reviewed in International Philosophical Quarterly 48 (2008): 120-23.
12. Simo Knuuttila, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004. Reviewed in Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (2008): 316-7.
13. Adriano Oliva, Les débuts de l’enseignement de Thomas d’Aquin et sa conception de la Sacra doctrina, avec l’édition du Prologue de son Commentarie des Sentences. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2006. Reviewed in The Thomist 72 (2008): 313-7.
14. Henrik Lagerlund, ed., Forming the Mind: Essays on the Internal Senses and the Mind/Body Problem from Avicenna to the Medical Enlightenment. Studies in the History of the Philosophy of Mind, 5. Dordrecht: Springer, 2007. Reviewed in Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (2009): 137-8.
15. Donald Mowbray, Pain and Suffering in Medieval Theology: Academic Debates at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2009. Reviewed in The Catholic Historical Review 96 (2010): 794-5.
16. Bernard N. Schumacher, ed., A Cosmopolitan Hermit: Modernity and Tradition in the Philosophy of Josef Pieper. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009. Reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (http://ndpr.nd.edu): 2010.02.20.
17. Susan Irvine and Malcom R. Godden, editors and translators. The Old English Boethius. With Verse Prologues and Epilogues Associated with King Alfred. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 68 (2014): 168-9.
18. Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos. Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 68 (2014): 187-9.
Presentations
- October 12, 1990. “Report on Research into the Manuscript Tradition of Aquinas’s Sentencia super Meteora”. 17th St. Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, St. Louis University.
– May 10, 1991. “St. Thomas Aquinas on the Immediacy of the Rational Soul’s Union with a Body”. 26th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 27, 1991. Comment on paper by Peter Preuss entitled “The Originality of Epicurus”. 35th Annual Congess of the Canadian Philosophical Association. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
– September 14, 1991. “The Virtues of Man the Animal sociale: Affabilitas and Veritas in Aquinas”. 16th Semana Tomista, Sociedad Tomista Argentina, Buenos Aires.
– October 10, 1991. “Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones super De memoria et reminiscentia and St. Thomas Aquinas”. 18th St. Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, St. Louis University.
– May 7, 1992. “Aquinas on the Passions of the Soul and Natural Motion”. 27th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– August 21, 1992. “Aquinas on Solercia”. Ninth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy, Ottawa.
- May 8, 1993. “Aristotle’s Meteorologica in Dante’s Divine Comedy”. 28th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
- October 9, 1993. “Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones super De sensu”. 20th St. Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, St. Louis University.
– October 30, 1993. “St. Thomas on Aristotle’s Meteorology”. Society for Aristotelian Studies, Binghamton University (SUNY).
– April 9, 1994. “Durandus’s Attack on Aquinas”. Conference on Religion, Politics, and Cultural Dynamics, Cornell University.
– May 6, 1994. “Capreolus on Theological Faith”. 29th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– September 3, 1994. “Durandus et la certitude de la foi”. Jean Capréolus et la vie intellectuelle dans le Rouergue et le Midi au XVe siècle: Colloque scientifique, 2-4 septembre 1994, Rodez (France).
– October 15, 1994. “Aquinas on Time”. SSIPS/SAGP 13th Annual Conference: Global and Multicultural Dimensions of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Medieval Philosophy III: Aquinas II.
– March 17, 1995. “Potentiae animae: The Powers That Were”. School of Philosophy Spring Lecture Series, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
– March 25, 1995. “Psychological Issues in the Parva Naturalia Commentaries of St. Thomas and Peter of Auvergne”. 69th Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C.
– May 6, 1995. “Individuation in Aquinas”. 30th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– March 24, 1996. Comment on paper by David Twetten entitled “Clearing a ‘Way’ for Aquinas: How the Proof from Motion Concludes to God”. 70th Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Redondo Beach, California.
– March 22, 1997. Comment on paper by Richard K. Mansfield entitled “Antecedent Passion and the Moral Quality of Human Acts According to St. Thomas”. 71st Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Buffalo, N.Y.
– May 9, 1997. “Aquinas on Creation, Numbers, and Nature”. 32nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 6, 1999. “Tota anima: On Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae 1, Q.76, a.8″, 34th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 4, 2001. “Anger’s Argument: Summa Theologiae I-II, Q.47”. 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 2-5, 2002. “Aquinas’s Commentary on the Prologue of Aristotle’s De anima: Sentencia libri De anima 1.1-2″. 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 3, 2003. “Aristotle and Aquinas on the Causes of Pleasure”. 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– September 26, 2003. “Aquinas on Practical Reason and the Order of Emotions”. School of Philosophy Fall Lecture Series entitled Practical Reason, The Catholic University of America.
– May 5, 2005. “Philosophy and Philosophers in Aquinas’s Quodlibets”. 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 6, 2006. “Aquinas and Oral Teaching”, 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– September 15, 2006. “Augustine on Number and Species”. School of Philosophy Fall Lecture Series entitled Augustine and Augustinianism, The Catholic University of America.
– October 28, 2006. Comment on paper by Lorelle Lamascus entitled “Aquinas and Themistius on Intellect”. 80th Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Granville, Ohio.
– May 11, 2007. “Aquinas as Reader of Aristotle’s Rhetoric”. 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University.
– May 2, 2009. “Aquinas on Good Will.” 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University.
– May 15, 2010. “Aquinas and the Two Accounts of Pleasure in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.” 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigna University.
– February 1, 2011. “The Electronic Mass.” The Old Docs (Washington, D.C.).
– February 11, 2011. “Philosophical Starting Points: Reason and Order in Aquinas’s Prologues to Aristotle.” Philosophy in Theological Education: A Conference in Honor of Ralph McInerny. Abve Maria University, Florida.
– March 26, 2011. “Act and Fact: A Disputed Point in Recent Thomistic Metaphysics.” The Metaphysics of Aquinas and its Modern Interpreters: Theological and Philosophical perspectives. 31st Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, New York.
– May 12, 2011. “Thomistic Self-Knowledge and Avicennian Medicine.” 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University.
– May 10, 2012. “Aquinas on Praise and Blame.” 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– August 20, 2012. “Aquinas on the Pleasures of Benefiting Others.” International Congress of Medieval Philosophy: Pleasures of Knowledge.” Freising, Germany.
– May 11, 2013. “Aquinas and the Definition of Pleasure.” 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– July 3, 2013. “Thomas Aquinas’s Comparison of Bodily and Spiritual Pleasure.” International Medieval Congress. University of Leeds, England.
– June 8, 2014 comment on Silvia Donati, “Albert the Great on Sleep and Dreams in the Liber De somno et vigilia.” Cross-Cultural Dialogues: The Parva Naturalia in Greek, Arabic and Latin Aristotelianism. 2014 Conference, Gothenburg Sweden 6-8 June.
– October 10, 2014. “Beginning with St. Anselm Again.” 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C.. Session on “The Thought of Robert Sokolowski.”
– March 5, 2015. “Malice in the Light of Reason: Aquinas on Anger, Envy, and Hatred.” The Maynooth Annual Aquinas Lecture (Maynooth University, Ireland).
– May 16, 2015. “Aspects of Esse in the Thomistic Metaphysics of Joseph Owens.” 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– July 27, 2015. “Two Beginnings: The prologues of Augustine’s Confessions and Anselm’s Proslogion.” Meeting of the International Association for Anselm Studies, “Reading Anselm: Context and Criticism.” Boston College July 27-30, 2015.
– November 6, 2015. “Observing Formalities with Lawrence Dewan.” Symposium on The Philosophy of Lawrence Dewan: Metaphysics and Ethics. Dominican University College, Ottawa, Canada.
– May 14th, 2016. “Being and Time in Thomistic Metaphysics: On an Exchange between Lawrence Dewan and Joseph Owens.” 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
Organization of Scholarly Meetings
- September 2-4, 1994. “Jean Capreolus (1380-1444) et la vie intellectuelle dans le Rouergue et le Midi au XVe siècle.” Co-organized with Guy Bedouelle and Romanus Cessario.
– May 5, 2005. “Teaching the History of Medieval Philosophy.” Special Session of 40st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
– May 5, 2006. “Teaching the History of Medieval Philosophy.” Special Session of 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.
Direction of Doctoral Dissertations
1. Barbara J. Freres, “Ens Per Accidens and Divine Providence in Thomas Aquinas’s Aristotelian Commentaries” (defended in 1993).
2. Michael J. Sweeney, “Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on De anima 429a10-429b5 and The Argument for the Immateriality of the Intellect” (defended in 1994).
3. John Tomarchio, “The Modus Principle in the Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas” (defended in 1996).
4. Christopher Albrecht, “The Doctrine of Subsistence and Attendant Issues in the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas” (defended in 1997).
5. Mark D. Gossiaux, “The Metaphysical Structure of Finite Being According to James of Viterbo” (defended in 1998).
6. Jun Inoue, S.V.D., “On the Development of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Theory of the Knowledge of the Separated Soul” (defended in 2000).
7. Douglas C. Fortner, “The Doctrine of Virtue in the Philosophical Writings of Lucius Annaeus Seneca” (defended in 2002).
8. Peter A. Kwazniewski, “‘Extasis’ in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas” (defended in 2002).
9. Michael E. Rombeiro, “Impressed Intelligible Species in Some Late Thirteenth-Century Theories of Knowledge” (defended in 2005).
10. Sean B. Cunningham, “Natural Inclination in Aquinas.” (defended in 2013).
11. Daniel J. Pierson, “Thomas Aquinas on the Principle Omne Agens Agit Sibi Simile” (2015).