“Some Italian scholars…have already tried to give a synthetic overview of my philosophy of alethic logic. William Slattery is the first non-Italian scholar to do so, and I sincerely think that his attempt is the best, both for completeness and intellectual depth. So it is a pleasure to present his work and to recommend it to all who are concerned with the contemporary discussion about truth.” ‒ Msgr. Antonio Livi, Dean Emeritus of Faculty of Philosophy, Pontifical Lateran University, Rome.
“Fr. William J. Slattery gives us a clear, rigorous, deep, and complete study of the questions raised by one of the most interesting philosophical currents of our times: the philosophy of sensus communis of Antonio Livi.
“Whoever already knows something of Livi’s thought will find here the possibility of valuable critical instruments for an ever greater awareness of the range and value of the philosophy of sensus communis; those who have never had contact with this philosophical orientation will benefit from a very good text that will greatly facilitate their direct contact with the works of Livi.” ‒ Prof. Dario Sacchi, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan.
“Scholastic logic was taught in two parts: formal logic, the ‘lesser’ logic or Summulae (title of the popular 13th-century textbook of Peter of Spain) and ‘greater’ logic, also called ‘dialectics’ or ‘material’ logic: debates over logic itself and metaphysical and noetic studies of the structure of reality with a view to determining the foundations of ‘science’ and so of truth.
“Formal logic today lies in substantive continuity with the ‘lesser’ logic but the ‘greater’ logic is little practiced or studied. In his fine work on the logic ‘of truth’, Father Slattery examines, in the light of St. Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics of cognition, the ‘alethic’ logic of Msgr. Antonio Livi, a ‘material’ logic ‘of contents’. In this view, the first two acts of the mind, apprehension and judgment, are stressed; the third, formal inference, is complementary. The ‘material’, the content apprehended and judged, is the pre-philosophical, ‘common-sense’, experience of certainties beyond cultural difference.
“Today there are many ‘informal’ logics, critical thinking, the new rhetoric, pragmatic logic…, but the alethic logic of Livi and Slattery is unique, based explicitly on sound philosophical analyses. The Logic of Truth, I believe, will reward the reader with important insights in the tradition of the ‘greater’ logic.” ‒ Dr. Walter Redmond, Austin, Texas.
“Readers will better understand the relevance of Livi’s philosophy thanks to The Logic of Truth placing it in its historical context and by its analysis of the chief objections raised against it. Furthermore, Slattery succeeds in the gigantic task of thoroughly comparing Livi’s alethic logic with Aquinas’s theory of knowledge, something that others had only partially done.
“This was long overdue, and Slattery accomplishes it with analytic depth and great accuracy, providing us with an excellent tool not only to introduce us to Livi’s philosophy, but also to render explicit St. Thomas’s position vis-à-vis critical realism.” ‒ Professor Thomas Rego, Catholic University of La Plata, Argentina.