Aquinas on BeingAnthony Kenny offers a critical examination of a central metaphysical doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the medieval philosophers. Aquinas's account of being is famous and influential: but Kenny argues that it in fact suffers from systematic confusion. Because of the centrality of the doctrine, this has implications for other parts of Aquinas's philosophical system: in particular, Kenny shows that the idea that God is pure being is a hindrance, not a help, to Aquinas's natural theology. Kenny's clear and incisive study, drawing on the scholastic as well as the analytic tradition, dispels the confusion and offers philosophers and theologians a guide through the labyrinth of Aquinas's ontology. |
Contents
Commentary on the Sentences | 51 |
Disputed Questions on Truth | 64 |
Summa contra Gentiles | 81 |
Questions Disputed in Rome | 114 |
I | 131 |
II | 159 |
Commentaries on Aristotles Metaphysics | 172 |
Twelve Types of Being | 189 |
Frege and Aquinas on Existence and Number | 195 |
| 205 | |
| 209 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract accident accidental actuality actus aliquid aliud animal answer Aquinas goes Aquinas says argued argument Aristotelian Aristotle autem Avicenna body Boethius causa cause chapter cogitari colour common concept copula creatures Deus dicitur differentia distinction divine eius ence enim entia entity ergo essentia etiam existence forma Frege G. E. M. Anscombe genus God's essence habet hoc quod homo human idea idem identical ideo igitur illud individual intellect ipsa ipsum kind Latin materia matter and form mean Metaphysics mind modo nature nihil nisi notion objection oportet P. T. Geach passage Peter Geach philosophers phoenix Platonic potentiality potest praedicatum predicate proposition Proslogion pure quae quam question quia quid quiddity rational seems self-evident sense sentence sicut signifies Socrates soul species St Thomas subsistent substance substantial Summa contra Gentiles Summa Theologiae sunt suum theory thesis thing thought tion true universal verb wisdom word