Dr. Michael W. Tkacz is the Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J. Professor of Christian Philosophy at 91³Ô¹ÏÍø University and President of the Society for Thomistic Natural Philosophy. He did his doctoral research under the direction of the noted historian and philosopher of science William A. Wallace, O.P. Professor Tkacz specializes in the history of medieval philosophy and the philosophy of nature. Much of his research is devoted to recovering the ground-breaking contributions of the thirteenth-century thinker Albertus Magnus to the development of scientific method and the metaphysical foundations of empirical research. Professor Tkacz also contributes to contemporary efforts to reestablish natural philosophy as a discipline linking scientific research and metaphysics.
Scholarly Articles
"Albertus Magnus and the Animal Histories: A Medieval Anticipation of Recent Developments in Aristotle Studies," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 87 (2013): 103-13.
"Agustin, creacion, ocasionalismo, y la analogia del arquitecto," Revista Augustinus 60 (2015):313-320. [Translation of "Occasionalism and Augustine's Builder Analogy for Creation."]
"Thomistic Reflections on Teleology and Contemporary Biological Research," New Blackfriars 94 (2013): 654-75.
"Occasionalism and Augustine's Builder Analogy for Creation," Studia Patristica 70 ([2011] 2013): 521-27.
"Albertus Magnus and the Error of Ptolemy: Metaphysics and the Origins of Empirical Research Programs," International Philosophical Quarterly 53 (2013): 147-60.
"St. Augustine's Appropriation and Transformation of Aristotelian Eudaimonia," in The Reception of Aristotle's Ethics, ed. Jon Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 67-84.
"Albert the Great on Logic, Knowledge, and Science," in A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, ed. Irven M. Resnick. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2013, 507-40.
"Agustin, el Timeo y la falacia cosmogonica," Revista Augustinus 56 (2011): 205-12. [Translation of "Augustine, the Timaeus, and the Cosmogonical Fallacy."]
"Albertus Magnus and the Recovery of Aristotelian Form," Review of Metaphysics 64 (2011): 735-62.
"Augustine, the Timaeus, and the Cosmogonical Fallacy," Studia Patristica 49 ([2007] 2010): 15-20.
"Albert the Great and the Aristotelian Reform of the Platonic Method of Division," The Thomist 73 (2009): 399-435.
"Albert the Great and the Revival of Aristotle's Zoological Research Program," Vivarium 45 (2007): 30-68.
"Scientific Reporting, Imagination, and Neo-Aristotelian Realism," The Thomist 68 (2004): 531-43.
"The Retorsive Argument for Formal Cause and the Darwinian Account of Scientific Knowledge," International Philosophical Quarterly 43 (2003): 159-66.
"Faith, Science and the Error of Fideism," Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 5 (2002): 139-55.
"Neo-Darwinians, Aristotelians, and Optimal Design," The Thomist 62 (1998): 355-72.
"The Multicultural West: Ethnicity and the Intellectual Foundations of Western Civilization," The Intercollegiate Review 33 (1997): 10-17.
"Albert the Great and the Interpretation of Aristotle's Historia animalium," Proceedings of the Conference on Patristic, Medieval & Renaissance Studies 18 (1994): 217-27.
Articles in Reference Works
"Philosophy of Social Science," in Catholic Social Thought, Social Science and Social Policy: An Encyclopedia, ed. J. Varacalli, S. Krason, R. Myers, and M. Coulter. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, 2007, q.v.
"Aristotle in Late Antiquity," "Augustine's Knowledge of Aristotle," and "Augustine and the Peripatetic School," in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, q.v.
"Michael of Ephesus" and "Robert Grosseteste" in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Alexander Kazhdan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, q.v.
Textbooks
The Second Liberal Art: Basic Elements of Traditional Logic. Dubuque: Kendall-Hunt Publishing, 2010.
Augustine: The Political Writings. Translated with Douglas Kries. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1994.