Date of Award

2023

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (College of Philosophy and Theology)

Schools and Centres

Philosophy and Theology

First Supervisor

Professor Tracey Rowland

Second Supervisor

Professor Michael Hanby

Abstract

This thesis proposes a new ontological foundation to the activities of teaching and research particularly as they are undertaken within the context of the Catholic university. We begin by way of an examination of the metaphysical implications of the basic doctrines of the Catholic-Christian faith, namely the fact of creation ex nihilo, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ the Logos, and the revelation of God’s Trinitarian nature as love. The resultant ontology or logic of being presented is characterised best by the concept of relation. This relational ontology, then, is contrasted with alternative ontologies of modernity which, though often hidden or implicit and thus largely unexamined, remain no less operative and, it is argued, skew one’s perception of reality, effecting a reduction in both what is considered to be worthy of reasoned inquiry, and one’s understanding of the nature of reality as such. What becomes evident is that the relational ontology argued for offers a more grand and capacious paradigm most adequate to reality as such, and which can account not only for the breadth of subjective human experience but also the objective ‘facts’ of nature as understood by modern science.

In contrast to the operative technological ontologies of modernity, characterised by mechanism, radical individualism, and an externalising of all relations, the relational ontology and coinciding metaphysics of gift recognises that all that exists is given as gift from a loving Creator-God, who Himself is an eternal communion of love. Created entities then, being given their existence at each moment are perpetually in relation, both to the God who creates and to the rest of the creation. This logic of being broadens the scope of what is considered reasonable and allows for a more throughgoing examination of reality.

What we seek to bring to light in the study which follows is firstly how the unexamined ontological framework of modern and postmodern cultures is insufficient in its accounting for what is real, in and of itself; and, that only an ontology which accounts for the elevated status iv of relations alongside substance can provide an adequate foundation from which to carry out the investigations into the real that are the business of the university proper.

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