Being and Goodness: The Concept of the Good in Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology PDF
Preview Being and Goodness: The Concept of the Good in Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology
Being and Goodness Being and Goodness THE CONCEPT OF THE GOOD IN METAPHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY EDITED BY Scott MacDonald Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON Copyright© 1991 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1991 by Cornell University Press. International Standard Book Number o-8014-2312-o Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 90-55197 Printed in the United States of America Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information appears on the last page of the book. I§ The paper in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39·48-1984. This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufactured using toner in place of ink. Type and images my be less sharp than the same material seen in traditionally printed Cornell University Press editions. Contents Contributors Vll Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Texts lX Introduction: The Relation between Being and Goodness Scott MacDonald Part One: The Concept of the Good in Metaphysics The Metaphysics of Goodness and the Doctrine of the Transcendentals Scott MacDonald 2 Good as Transcendental and the Transcendence of the Good Jan A. Aertsen 3 Saint Thomas on De hebdomadibus Ralph Mcinerny 74 4 Being and Goodness Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann g8 5 The Transcendentality of Goodness and the Human Will Mark D. Jordan 129 v I vi Contents 6 Evil and the Transcendentality of Goodness: Suarez's Solution to the Problem of Positive Evils Jorge J. E. Gracia 151 Part Two: The Concept of the Good in Philosophical Theology 7 Aquinas on Faith and Goodness Eleonore Stump 179 8 A General Problem of Creation: Why Would God Create Anything at All? Norman Kretzmann 208 9 A Particular Problem of Creation: Why Would God Create This World? Norman Kretzmann 229 1 o The Best of All Possible Worlds William E. Mann 11 Metaphysical Dependence, Independence, and Perfection Thomas V. Morris Appendix: Boethius's De hebdomadibus Translated by Scott MacDonald 299 Bibliography Index Contributors jAN A. AERTSEN is Professor of Medieval Philosophy and Modern Cath olic Philosophy at the Free University, Amsterdam. JoRGE J. E. GRACIA is Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York, Buffalo. MARK D. JoRDAN is Associate Professor in the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. NORMAN KRETZ MANN is Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. ScoTT MACDONALD is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Univer sity of Iowa. RALPH MciNERNY is Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. WILLIAM E. MANN is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont. THOMAS V. MoRRIS is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the U niver sity of Notre Dame. ELEONORE STUMP is Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Vll Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Texts CH Bonaventure, Collationes in Hexaemeron DH Boethius, De hebdomadibus Disp. Francisco Suarez, Disputationes metaphysicae DM Thomas Aquinas, De malo DN Albert the Great, Super Dionysium De divinis nominibus DP Thomas Aquinas, De potentia DV Thomas Aquinas, De veritate /MD Bonaventure, ltinerarium mentis in Deum InDH Thqmas Aquinas, In Boetii De hebdomadibus expositio In Sent. Bonaventure, Commentarium in Sententias PL Patrologiae Latinae Cursus Completus SB Albert the Great, Summa de bono sec Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles SENT Albert the Great, Commentarii in libros Sententiarum ST Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae Super Sent. Thomas Aquinas, $criptum super Sententias lX Being and Goodness INTRODUCTION The Relation between Being and Goodness Scott MacDonald Since the tg6os scholarship in medieval philosophy has begun to flourish, and the field now displays such vigor that it seems reasonable to hope that we will soon witness a recovery and appreciation of medi eval philosophy equal to that already achieved in the neighboring fields of ancient and early modern philosophy. The attention now being given to philosophy in the Middle Ages is unprecedented, but the recovery and evaluation of the medieval philosophical achievement is only just beginning: most medieval philosophical texts have not yet received critical editions, let alone translation or the sort of philosophi cal commentary and analysis that would open them up to the contem porary philosophical community. Hence, we remain ignorant of many of the positions and arguments central to a tradition comprising a thousand years of our philosophical heritage. This collection of essays is intended as a first step toward removing that ignorance with respect to one important topic, the metaphysics of goodness. A long and rich philosophical tradition, stemming from ancient Greek philosophy and running through the Middle Ages, has been guided by the intuition that there is some sort of interesting necessary connection between being and goodness. This intuition has come to the surface in the history of philosophy in various ways. Plato argued, for example, that the Form of the Good gives being to all the other Forms; Aristotle maintained that the good is spoken of in as many ways as being; Augustine's famous doctrine that evil is merely the privation of good is a corollary of his view that everything that exists is good insofar as it exists; and thirteenth-century philosophers such as Albert the
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