Background
Coffey, Peter was born on April 9, 1876 in Rathrone, Ireland.
Coffey, Peter was born on April 9, 1876 in Rathrone, Ireland.
St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. and University of Louvain.
1902-1943, Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Although Coffey was a minor figure in the history of twentieth-century philosophy, he was much read in his day and probably influenced more readers than some of his more important contemporaries. He was one of the first to disseminate Louvain’s scholasticism in the English-speaking world, partly through his translations of De Wulf, and partly through the excellent textbooks, listed above, which were read and relied upon by generations of students. He was not innovative or controversial, but he was a clear and erudite exponent of the revitalized scholasticism from which later and greater thinkers were to emerge. His steadfast orthodoxy can sometimes disappoint: his Ontology (1914) is rather wooden, although the chapter on essence and existence displays considerable subtlety. His heart probably lay in some of the areas covered in his Epistemology (1917). The chapters on Kant are lucid and vigorous. His works were at one time well regarded as textbooks, but are not read now. Sources: Who Was Who.