Francisco Suárez, between modernity and tradition.

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Abstract

The article pursues two lines of investigation. The first line of investigation is historical in nature and considers the relation between the philosophy of Suárez and Philosophical Augustinianism: in particular his relation with Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus. This section concludes that this influence is the main explanation for the differrences between Suárez and Thomas Aquinas. In fact, insofar as Suárez accepts certain influences from Philosophical Augustinianism, which was the main inspiration of the 1277 condemnation of Aquinas in Paris, he puts himself at odds with Thomas. The second line of investigation considers some aspects of the philosophical system he works out in the Disputationes metaphysicae, concluding that: 1) his concept of physical substance is virtually akin to what Descartes will call res extensa; 2) his concept of accident paves the way for a certain strand of modern phenomenism; 3) his actualist theory of being, by denying the existence of potency, and therewith the real distinction between essence and esse, paves the way for the rationalist reduction of being to essence alone, and of essence to the status of an objective concept or, to put it another way, to rational objectivity.