Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical Wonders: Essays in Honor of John P. Doyle

385 Pages·2013·1.939 MB·English

by  Victor M. Salas (editor)

HIRCOCERVI & OTHER
METAPHYSICAL W:ONDERS
Hircocervi & Other
Metaphysical WOnders

Hircocervi & Other
Metaphysical WOnders
essays in hOnOr Of
JOhn p. dOyle
Edited by
Victor M. Salas
Marquette studies in philOsOphy
nO. 84
andreW tallOn, series editOr
library Of cOngress catalOging-in-publicatiOn data
Hircocervi & other metaphysical wonders : essays in honor of John P. Doyle / edited
by Victor M. Salas. — first [edition].
       pages cm. —  (Marquette studies in philosophy ; No. 84)
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-0-87462-721-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87462-721-4 (hard-
cover : alk. paper)
1.  Philosophy, Medieval.  I. Salas, Victor M., editor of compilation. II. Doyle, John P.,
1930- III. Title: Hircocervi and other metaphysical wonders.
B720.H57 2013
189—dc23
     2012049690
© 2013 Marquette University Press
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141
All rights reserved.
www.marquette.edu/mupress/
Printed at Thomson-Shore, Dexter, Michigan, USA
Cover portrait, “Jack Doyle.” Oil on canvas, 11 x 17 in. ©2013 Curt Crain.
http://crainpainting.com/gallery.html
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
table Of cOntents
Editor’s Foreword ~ 9
Chapter 1: The Eternity of the World According to Peter of Candia
Stephen Brown ~ 31
Chapter 2: Suárez & Medieval Transcendental Thought
Rolf Darge ~ 65
Chapter 3: John Buridan, Albert of Saxony, Marsilius of Inghen on Chimerae,
& Impossible Objects
Thomas Dewender ~ 95
Chapter 4: “Ut ex etymologia nominis patet?” John Punch on the Nature & the
Object of Metaphysics
Marco Forlivesi ~ 121
Chapter 5: Actions Speak Louder Then Words: What Aquinas Learned from
Maimonides
Jennifer Hart-Weed ~ 157
Chapter 6: Abstraction, Intentionality, & Moderate Realism: Suárez & Poinsot
Daniel Heider ~ 177
Chapter 7: John Duns Scotus’s Approach to Metaphysics
Ludger Honnefelder ~ 213
Chapter 8: Thomistic Ornithology: A Brief Note
Jack Marler ~ 229
Chapter 9: Twenty Years after Suárez: Francisco de Araújo on the Nature,
Existence, & Causes of Entia rationis
Daniel Novotný ~ 241
Chapter 10: Man’s Ability to Understand His Own Understanding: Aquinas,
Kant, & Modern Physics
Michael Renemann ~ 269
6 Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical Wonders
Chapter 11: Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, & Edith Stein on Essential Being
Victor Salas ~ 285
Chapter 12: Augustinian Abstraction & Henry of Ghent’s Metaphysical Argument
Roland Teske, S.J. ~ 309
Post Scriptum: Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical Wonders
John Patrick Doyle ~ 329
About the Contributors ~ 369
Index of Names ~ 373
Index of Terms ~ 377
V
idetur enim aliqua negativa omnino nihil ponere,
et tamen esse vera: ergo verum non universaliter
causatur ab ente, nec convertitur cum ente. Verbi
gratia, si dicam sic, Caesar non est homo: haec enim
(ut dicunt quidam) nihil ponit. Et si dubitatur de
illa, pono istam, tragelaphus non est fligax, vel chimaera non est
hircocervus, quae nec secundum extrema, nec secundum composi-
tionem, videtur supponere aliquod ens: ergo videtur, quod nec hoc
sit verum universaliter, quod verum cum ente convertitur: nec hoc,
quod sicut unumquodque se habet ad esse, ita se habet ad verum:
nec hoc, quod in eo quod res est, vel non est, oratio vera vel falsa est.
—Albertus Magnus, Super Sententiarum
I, d. 46, a. 13 (ed. Borgnet, vol. 26, 449a)
A
trusty servant’s picture would you see/ This figure
well survey, who’ever you be./ The porker’s snout not
nice in diet shows;/ The padlock shut, no secret he’ll
disclose;/ Patient, to angry lords the ass gives ear;/
Swiftness on errand, the stag’s feet declare;/ Laden
his left hand, apt to labour saith;/ The coat his neatness; the open
hand his faith;/ Girt with his sword, his shield upon his arm,/
Himself and master he’ll protect from harm.
—An inscription describing a wall painting
(hanging in Winchester College,
Hampshire, England) called
“The Trusty Servant” (1597) in which is
depicted a Hircocervus
I
don’t think there is any such thing as less than nothing.
Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It’s the lowest
you can go. It’s the end of the line. How can something be
less than nothing? If there were something less than nothing,
then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something:
even though it’s just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is
nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.”
—Wilbur the Pig, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
acknOWledgMents
I
wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for their very
fine scholarship and kind patience throughout the various steps
of publication. I owe a debt of gratitude to the financial support
of Mr. and Mrs. William Dick, whose love for learning and gen-
erous patronage of intellectual and artistic endaevors will be of
benefit for generations to come. Mr. Darren Hogan was an invaluable
resource in helping with the more practical affairs of bringing this vol-
ume to publication. Finally, I am grateful for the support of the Very
Rev. Msgr. Todd Lajiness, Rector-President of Sacred Heart Major
Seminary, whose generosity likewise helped this volume find its way
to publication.
editOr’s fOreWOrd
T
he twelve essays contained in this volume are a tribute to
the career and scholarship of John Patrick Doyle offered
by his former students, colleagues, and friends. Chapter
1, an edition of Peter of Candia’s Commentarium in II
librum Sententiarum, d. 1, q. l, a. 3, which pertains to the
question of the eternity of the world, is Stephen Brown’s contribution to
this volume. In chapter 2 Rolf Darge discusses Suárez’s understanding
of the transcendental character of being and takes pains to distinguish
it from Scotus’s conceptus entis simpliciter simplex. In chapter 3 Thomas
Dewender offers an examination of a subject near and dear to Doyle,
impossible objects, according to the logical and semantic analyses of
John Buridan and his followers, Albert of Saxony and Marsilius of
Ingham. Marco Forlivesi’s contribution, chapter 4, considers the role
epistemology plays for John Punch in determining the proper object
of metaphysics. Chapter 5 offers Jennifer Hart-Weed’s consideration
of how Moses Maimonides’s account of divine actions informs much
of Thomas Aquinas’s analogical theory of religious language. Chapter
6 is Daniel Heider’s contribution, wherein it is argued that Suárez’s
ontological theory of universals, even when compared to John Poinsot’s
theory of universals, proves to be an equivalent—if not stronger—form
of moderate realism than that of the Thomists. Ludger Honnefelder’s
essay, chapter 7, identifies the nature, scope, and peculiar features of
Duns Scotus’s metaphysics, identifying it as a truly transcendental
science. Jack Marler’s contribution, chapter 8, on the De ente et essen-
tia’s ‘phoenix example’ argues that Thomas’s intention is to show how
even (created) individuals that are one of a kind, like the phoenix, are
such that their essence too is really distinct from their esse. In chapter
9 Daniel Novotný places Francisco de Araújo’s theory of entia rationis
into opposition with that of Suárez and argues that, while the former
is not exactly the philosophical equal of the latter, nonetheless, Araújo
improves upon and ultimately holds a more consistent theory than
Suárez. Chapter 10, Michael Renemann’s contribution, argues that
self-consciousness according to Thomas Aquinas is not nerely as