Table Of Content

SUÁREZ BETWEEN SCHOLASTICISM AND MODERNITY JOSé PEREIRA SUÁREZ BETWEEN SCHOLASTICISM AND MODERNITY Marquette Studies in Philosophy No. 52 Andrew Tallon, Series Editor © 2006 Marquette University Press Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141 All rights reserved. www.marquette.edu/mupress/ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pereira, José, 1931- Suárez : between scholasticism and modernity / José Pereira. p. cm. — (Marquette studies in philosophy ; no. 52) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87462-750-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Suárez, Francisco, 1548-1617. I. Title. B785.S824P47 2007 196’.1—dc22 2006100382 Cover sketch of Suárez by the author. Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofthe AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences— PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992. table of contents Prologue.............................................................................................9 1..Baroque.Scholasticism.&.its.Consummator.Suárez...37 2..The.Philosophy.of.Suárez....................................................67 3..The.Existential.Integralism.of.Suárez.........................97 4..The.Suarezianization.of.Thomism:. . . John.of.St..Thomas.............................................................141 5..The.Impact.of.Suárez.on.Modern.Philosophy.........173 6..The.Impact.of.Suárez.on.the.Rationalists.&.their. Successors.............................................................................225 7..The.Impact.of.Suárez.on.the.Empiricists...................295 Epilogue.........................................................................................311 Bibliography................................................................................313 Index................................................................................................359 IOSEPHO HELLIN (1883-1973) FIDELI DISCIPULO ET OMNIBUS AUDITORIBUS EXIMII DOCTORIS EUROPAE ATQUE ADEO ORBIS UNIVERSI MAGISTRI A FIDELI SECTATORI EIUS IOSEPHO PEREIRA DICATUM Note on the texts and translations of the works of Suárez Quotations from the works of Suárez are from the 26 volumes of his Opera Omnia, Ludovicus Vivès, Paris, 1856-1861. When he is quoted in the foot- notes, only his work is mentioned, without his name. All other authors have their names preceding their works. The works of Suárez generally have a tri- partite division, as liber-caput-numerus (LCN) & disputatio-sectio-numerus (DSN). We have quoted from the following 12 books of the Opera, with the volume indicated in brackets: De Deo Uno [1] LCN, De angelis [2] LCN, De opere sex dierum [3] LCN, De anima [3] LCN, De ultimo fine hominis [4} LCN, De legibus [5-6] LCN, De scientia Dei futurorum contingentium [11] LCN, De fide [12} DSN, De charitate [12] DSN, Defensio fidei Catholicae [24] LCN, Disputationes Metaphysicae [25-26] DSN. In addition, we quote De Gratia [7], Prolegomenon-caput-numerus, and De Incarnatione [17] quaes- tio-articulus-commentarius. All the titles of Suárez’s books are quoted in extenso, except the Disputationes Metaphysicae, which is abbreviated as DM. Reference is first to the divisions of the work (disputation: section: number) and then, in brackets, to the Vivès edition [volume: page]. All the translations are my own. Very little of Suárez’s work has been translated into English, and that almost exclusively of the Disputationes Metaphysi- cae. Of the 54 disputations of this great work, English translations are avail- able of the following: 5 (Jorge Gracia), 6 (J. F. Ross), 7 (Cyril Vollert), 10 & 11 (Jorge Gracia & Douglas Davis), 15 (John Kronen & Jeremiah Reedy), 17-19 (Alfred Freddoso), 20–22 (Alfred Freddoso), 31 (Norman Wells) and 54 (John Doyle). The last two translated disputations are particularly rel- evant, as Wells’s translation treats of what Suárez considers to be real being, and Doyle’s, of fictitious being as contrasted with the real. Wells’s translation is entitled Francis Suárez on the Essence of Finite Being as Such. On the Exis- tence of that Essence and their Distinction. The title of Doyle’s translation is On Beings of Reason (De Entibus Rationis). Both books are published by the Marquette University Press at Milwaukee, the former in 1983 and the latter in 1995. The topic of our work, however, is treated in disputations 2, 28, and 50, besides 31. Prologue I. IMPORTANCE OF SUÁREZ IN THE HISTORY OF THOUGHT 1. Unparalleled vastness of achievement 2. Systematization of metaphysics 3. The creation of Baroque systems 4. Baroque remodeling of the major medieval systems II. SUÁREZ, PHILOSOPHER & THEOLOGIAN 1. Suarezianism, the major Baroque system 2. The Suarezian synthesis 3. The harvest of other Baroque syntheses III. SUÁREZ, MORAL PHILOSOPHER 1. Foundation of moral theology 2. Suárez, champion of democracy 3. Suárez, philosopher of international law 4. Suárez, theologian of religious toleration 5. Suárez, promoter of intra-Christian dialogue 6. Suárez, fulfiller of the Catholic Enlightenment 7. Suárez, inspirer of freedom movements IV. SUÁREZ, FOUNDER OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY 1. Suarezian vocabulary as groundwork for modern philosophy 2. The formal and objective concepts 3. Suarezian themes of the formal concept 4. Suarezian themes of the objective concept I. IMPORTANCE OF SUÁREZ IN THE HISTORY OF THOUGHT Suárez enjoys such a knowledge of medieval philosophy, as to put to shame any modern historian of medieval thought. On each and every question he seems to know everybody and everything, and to Suárez: Between Scholasticism & Modernity 10 read his book is like attending the Last Judgment of four centuries of Christian speculation by a dispassionate judge.1 FRANCISCO SUÁREZ, Europae atque adeo orbis universi magister,2 stands between the maturation of Scholasticism and the rise of modern philosophy. We hope in these pages to show that he is the consummator of the former and the founder of the latter. How shall we describe the significance of the Doctor Eximius (Ex- traordinary or Uncommon Doctor)—the prime theologian and philosopher of the Baroque age—in the history of philosophical and theological speculation? 1. Unparalleled vastness of achievement To begin with, this Iberian genius is the author of the most titanic en- terprise undertaken by any single individual in the history of specula- tive thought. His Opera Omnia (published by Vivès, containing most, but not all, his writings) is not a collection of random and hetero- geneous essays, written in response to particular (and often uncon- nected) problems, but is made up of units of discourse organized in a complete system, each unit assigned its proper place in the total ar- chitectonic structure. The Opera Omnia has 14 books, printed in 26 volumes, containing 4,212 sections, and 22,365 pages, totaling in all, it is said, to 21 million words!3 These volumes include the Doctor’s most celebrated work, the Disputationes Metaphysicae (1597), which exem- plifies the author’s phenomenal erudition: it refers to 245 authors, and has 7709 citations, including 1,735 of Aristotle, and 1,008 of Aqui- nas. It is estimated to contain 1.4 million words.4 Eminent success, in his age, attended Suárez, the consummator of Scholasticism, as can be judged from the fact that, between 1597 and 1636, the two bulky volumes of over 2,000 pages, of the Dispu- 1 Étienne GILSON, Being and Some Philosophers. Toronto: Pontifical Insti- tute of Medieval Studies, 1949, p.99. 2 Part of an inscription in the University of Coimbra, recorded in Joseph H. FICHTER, S. J., Man of Spain, New York: Macmillan, 1940, p. 340. 3 Computation of Joseph FICHTER, Man of Spain: Francis Suárez. New York: Macmillan, 1940, p. 327. 4 Computation of John P. DOYLE (transl. & ed.), The Metaphysical Demon- stration of the Existence of God. Metaphysical Disputes 28-29. Francisco Suárez, S. J. South Bend, Indiana, St. Augustine’s Press 2004, p. xi. Prologue 11 tationes Metaphysicae, went through 17 editions. In contrast the slim and popular Meditationes, of the father of modern philosophy, RENé DESCARTES (1596-1650), published between 1641 and 1700, went through only 9 editions. For at least 50 years Suárez’s work was adapt- ed for metaphysical instruction not just in the Catholic universities of Europe, but also in those of the Lutheran and Calvinist (German and Dutch) persuasion. By the 18th century it was still (in its then ana- morphic form, transformed by the impact of LEIBNIZ) at the root of the understanding that philosophers had of metaphysics, particularly in the form given it by CHRISTIAN WOLff (1679-1754). Disputationes Morales. Had the Uncommon Doctor been able to compose a work with such or similar title, it would doubtless have had the same resonance as his metaphysical masterpiece. It would have crowned the movement promoting freedom, inaugurated around 1500 by Queen ISABEL LA CATóLICA (1451-1504), when she out- lawed the slavery of the Amerindians. The movement was energized by the theologians of Salamanca, who speculated on the theme of freedom and on its basis, reason, a movement that can only be de- scribed as the Catholic Enlightenment, one that anticipated, by two centuries, its secular counterpart, whose main goals were also reason and freedom. The re-examination of these problems was motivated by the conquest of the lands impinged on by the Iberian powers in their world-wide expansion from the late 15th century. In response to this phenomenon, two intellectual movements arose in counterpoint: the Catholic Enlightenment, as we have called it, and its counterpart, which deserves no better title than the Catholic “Dis-Enlightenment” (justifying the oppression of the natives conquered by Christian powers). We shall discuss both movements in more detail in Chapter 2. What Suárez thought on these problems left a profound impress on the Catholic moral theologians of the Baroque age. And his impact on Protestant ethics was second only to that on Protestant metaphysics. Many of the leading modern philosophers from Hobbes to Scho- penhauer studied ethics in textbooks written from a partly Suarezian standpoint. The 17th century witnessed the publication of dozens of manuals of moral philosophy written by both Catholic and Protestant moralists. In most of these textbooks the ethics of Suárez left its mark. Two typical examples are the Dutch Calvinist FRANCIS BURgERSDI- JCk (1590-1635), metaphysician and ethicist, author of a much-used textbook, Idea philosophiae moralis (1644), containing a Protestant