Ubaghs, Gerhard Casmir

(1800–75)

   Theologian.

   Ubaghs was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louvain, Belgium. He was the editor of the Revue Catholique and the author of several books propounding traditionalist ontologism. These included Logicae seu Philosophiae Rationalis Elementa and Ontologiae seu Metaphysicae Generalis Elementa. The traditionalists, such as F.R. de lamennais, taught that all knowledge of God is based on an ancient revelation handed down in an unbroken tradition and thus human reasoning has no real part in the process. Ubaghs and the Louvain school combined this with ontologism, taught by rosmini and others, that human knowledge of God is derived from an immediate intuition of Absolute Being. The ‘Errores Ontologistarum’ were condemned by the Papacy in 1861 and Ubaghs’ own teaching was censured in 1864. Ubaghs submitted to the decree and retired from academic life.

   Catholic Encyclopaedia of America, New Catholic Encyclopaedia (1967).