Nature's Cheat Codes? On the Course of Nature and its Laws – Prof. John G. Brungardt

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Prof. John Brungardt explores the concept of laws of nature as partial transcriptions of the natures of physical substances, emphasizing the interplay between philosophical tradition, scientific discovery, and metaphysical causality.

This lecture was given on May 30th, 2025, at Mount Saint Mary College.

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About the Speakers:

John G. Brungardt is an associate professor of philosophy at the School of Catholic Studies at Newman University.

As a philosopher, Catholic layman, and Dominican tertiary, his studies, teaching, and scholarship aim at continuing the philosophical tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, and their heirs. He attempts to bring their insights into meaningful dialogue with modern theories. His central interests lie in the philosophy of nature, the philosophy of science, as well as the philosophy of technology.

Keywords: Aristotelianism, Causality, Course of Nature, Divine Providence, Experimental Science, Human Reason, Metaphysics, Scholasticism, Scientific Laws, The Consolation of Philosophy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks to donors like you, Aquinas 101 is setting the world aflame with the truth,
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0:22.8	below to give today.
0:28.4	Welcome to the Timistic Institute podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual
0:33.6	tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:42.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tomistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:47.0	to mystic institute.org.
0:51.1	You might be thinking, look, one of the principles of rhetoric is to make your audience disposed and affable, which is a kind of love and inspire even a bit of hope that there is a possibility of understanding.
1:11.3	But equations inspire fear.
1:15.1	And fear is the weapon of fearful men.
1:23.5	Do not be afraid.
1:26.2	I come in peace.
1:37.3	It's one of the goals of the talk is to assure you that it's not all about the math. The physical reality of the things is actually the intelligible that we're after.
1:47.4	On the one hand. On the other hand, unfortunately, the math does help. The math does help.
1:57.2	So to illustrate that how how scientists and philosophers, sometimes we speak about the laws of nature,
2:07.6	to account for or explain how things happen, you could look at the ideal gas law that's at the upper left.
2:16.6	Father, I forgot my water.
2:18.5	Could you trouble you for that?
2:22.6	So I want you to notice how if, in order to explain that to you, thank you.
	...

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