Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas

303 Pages·2016·21.2 MB·English

by  John F. Wippel

Studies in Philosophy
and the History of Philosophy
Volume 10
Metaphysical Themes
in Thomas Aquinas
by John F. Wippel
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 1984
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wippel, John F.
Metaphysical themes in Thomas Aquinas.
(Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy; v. 10)
Includes index.
1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274-Metaphysics-Addresses, essays,
lectures. 2. Metaphysics-History-Addresses, essays, lectures. 1. Title.
II. Series. B21.S78 vol. 10 [B765.T54] 100s [110'.92'4] 83-7296
ISBN 0-8132-0578-6
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..... .. ........................... VII
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
CHAPTER I: THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE PROBLEM OF
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1: Etienne Gilson and Christian Philosophy ... ..... ............. 2
2: Personal Reflections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
PART I
THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS AND ITS SUBJECT-MATTER
CHAPTER II: AQUINAS AND A VICENNA ON THE RELA
TIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRST PHILOSOPHY AND THE
OTHER THEORETICAL SCIENCES (In De Trin.,
q. 5, a. 1, ad 9). ..... ................. .................. 37
CHAPTER III: "FIRST PHILOSOPHY" ACCORDING
TO THOMAS AQUINAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER IV: METAPHYSICS AND SEPARATIO
IN THOMAS AQUINAS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
PART II
THE METAPHYSICS OF CREATED AND UNCREATED BEING
CHAPTER V: ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE IN THE
DE ENTE, CH. 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 107
A Reply to Fr. Owens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 120
CHAPTER VI: ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE
IN OTHER WRITINGS ............................... 133
1: The "Genus"Argument ................ .... .............. 134
2: God-to-Creatures Argumentation .................... ... .... 139
3: Arguments Based on Participation .......................... 150
4: Argumentation Based on the Limited Character of
Individual Beings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 157
CHAPTER VII: THOMAS AQUINAS, HENRY OF GHENT,
AND GODFREY OF FONTAINES ON THE REALITY OF
NONEXISTING POSSIBLES.. ... .... .. ............ .... 163
CHAPTER VIII: THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE
POSSIBILITY OF ETERNAL CREATION...... ......... 191
CHAPTER IX: QUIDDITATIVE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 215
V
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER X: DIVINE KNOWLEDGE, DIVINE POWER,
AND HUMAN FREEDOM IN THOMAS AQUINAS AND
HENRYOFGHENT .... .. ... , .. ' .. .. , .... , .. ......... 243
1: Thomas Aquinas .... .. .. , . , ... ... ...... .... , ......... ,. 243
1.1: God's Knowledge of Future Contingents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 244
1.2: The Causal Character of God's Knowledge and God's Will . .. 255
2: Henry of Ghent .. , .......... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 263
BIBLIOGRAPHY. , , ......... , ......... ,. .. ............... 271
INDEX OF NAMES ......... ....... .... , .. , ............. ,. 281
INDEX OF TOPICS ...... .............. ... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 285
Acknowledgments
The previously published articles included in this volume are herewith
listed together with the original publication information.
1. "Etienne Gilson and Christian Philosophy," in Twentieth-Century
Thinkers, John K. Ryan, ed. (Staten Island, N.Y.: Alba House, 1965),
pp. 59-87.
2. "Teaching Metaphysics: The Value of Aquinas for the Seminarian
Today," in Philosophy in Priestly Formation, Ronald D. Lawler, ed.
(Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1978), pp.
101-29. Mimeographed reproduction.
3. "Thomas Aquinas and Avicenna on the Relationship between First
Philosophy and the Other Theoretical Sciences: A Note on Thomas's Com
mental) on Boethius's De Trinitate, Q. 5, art. 1, ad 9," in The Thomist 37 (1973),
pp. 133-54.
4. "The Title First Philosophy According to Thomas Aquinas and His
Different Justifications for the Same," in The Review of Metaphysics 27
(1974), pp. 585-600.
5. "Metaphysics and Separatio According to Thomas Aquinas," in The
Review of Metaphysics 31 (1978), pp. 431-70.
6. "Aquinas's Route to the Real Distinction: A Note on De ente et essentia,
c. 4," in The Thomist 43 (1979), pp. 279-95.
7. "The Reality of Nonexisting Possibles According to Thomas
Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines," in The Review of
Metaphysics 34 (1981), pp. 729-58.
8. "Did Thomas Aquinas Defend the Possibility of an Eternally Created
World? (The De aeternitate mundi Revisited)," in Journal of the History of
Philosophy 19 (1981), pp. 21-37.
9. "Quidditative Knowledge of God According to Thomas Aquinas," in
Graceful Reason: Essays in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Presented to Joseph
Owens, CSSR, on the Occasion of His 75th Birthday, Lloyd Gerson, ed. (Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983), pp. 273-99.
10. "Divine Knowledge, Divine Power and Human Freedom in Thomas
Aquinas and Henry of Ghent," in Divine Omniscience and Omnipotence in
Medieval Philosophy, Tamar Rudavsky, ed. (Dordrecht, Holland, and Boston,
U.S.A.: D. Reidel Publishing Company, forthcoming): Proceedings of the
Vll
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Conference on Divine Omniscience and Omnipotence in MedievalJewish,
Christian, and Islamic Philosophy, held at The Ohio State University,
March 3 and 4, 1982, for which this paper was originally prepared.
Introduction
The studies included in the present volume treat of a number of different
topics having to do with Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical thought. This
variety in subject-matter is only to be expected, since these essays were
originally written at different times and for different purposes.
Nonetheless, enough of them deal with related issues to enable me to im
pose some order upon this collection. The first chapter combines into one
two articles which appeared a number of years apart, but each of which
deals with the same theme - the twentieth-century controversy concerning
the appropriateness of describing Thomas's philosophical thought as
"Christian philosophy." This discussion is important for anyone who would
study Thomas's metaphysics; for it really centers around a question of
methodology - the appropriate way to approach his writings in order to
glean from them the elements of his metaphysical thought while taking into
account the fact that they were written by one who was by profession a
theologian. Chapters II and III treat of fairly fine points relating to
Thomas's understanding of the nature of metaphysics (or first philosophy).
Chapter II investigates his usage of Avicenna in explaining the interrela
tionship between first philosophy and other theoretical sciences. Chapter
III examines his different reasons for naming this discipline "first
philosophy." Chapter IV concentrates heavily on a technical operation
named "separation" by Aquinas himself, and one which plays a critical role
in his account of the way one reaches a metaphysical understanding of be
ing, and hence of the subject of metaphysics. These three last-mentioned
chapters, therefore, have this in common, that they are concerned with prob
lems relating to the nature of metaphysics and the discovery of its subject.
In the subsequent chapters issues are considered which are more properly
metaphysical in content rather than methodological or propaedeutic to
metaphysics. Chapter V examines a well-known but frequently disputed
text from one of Thomas's early works, ch. 4 of his De ente et essentia, and the
argumentation offered there for real distinction between essence and exis
tence in created beings. The second half of this chapter appears here for the
first time. It contains my response to some difficulties and questions raised
by Fr. Joseph Owens about the interpretation proposed in the first part of
Chapter V. Chapter VI, without making any claim at being exhaustive,
IX
x INTRODUCTION
examines a number of other approaches used by Aquinas in reasoning to or
defending real distinction between essence and existence in creatures. It,
too, has been written especially for this volume.
Chapter VII is devoted to an examination of the ontological status of
possibles in Aquinas, but also in two other later thirteenth-century thinkers
Henry of Ghent and Godfrey of Fontaines. In part this reflects my interest
in these thinkers as well as in Thomas; but consideration of their views on
this always intriguing topic will serve, it is hoped, both to illustrate the
variety of solutions proposed for this problem by thirteenth-century thinkers
and to cast Aquinas's own solution into sharper historical relief. Chapter
VIII is not unrelated to Chapter VII, in that it concentrates on a particular
version of the question of possibility - Thomas's views concerning the
possibility of an eternally created universe. While it is generally conceded
that Thomas denied that one can prove that the world began to be, the issue
raised here is slightly different. Did Thomas also maintain that an eternally
created world is possible? If so, this would mean that he defended an even
stronger position and, wlthm the doctrmai circumstances ot his time, one
that was more controversial.
Chapter IX is addressed to a difficult problem concerning Thomas's
views about philosophical knowledge of God: In this life can we know what
God is in any way? Chapter X concentrates on the issues of divine knowledge,
divine power, and human freedom in Thomas and in Henry of Ghent.
In sum, therefore~ the second part of Chapter V and all of Chapter VI
appear here for the first time. Because Chapter I is based on two previous ar
ticles, a certain amount of editing has been required to unite these into one
chapter. Apart from some editorial changes, some bibliographical updating,
and some omissions in order to eliminate unnecessary repetition, the other
chapters are substantially the same as their originally published versions.
At this point I would like to express my thanks to the various journal
editors and publishers who have given permission for these articles to be
reprinted in this volume. I would also like to acknowledge a debt of grati
tude to Jude P. Dougherty, Dean of the School of Philosophy at Catholic
University, for having encouraged me to bring these studies together in
their present form. He originally suggested that I assemble a collection of
previously published articles for inclusion in the Catholic University of
America series Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy. It
soon became clear that many of my recent publications cluster around two
different focal points - the metaphysical thought of Aquinas, and later
thirteenth-century metaphysical thought. Included here are studies of the
first type. Perhaps at some future date it will be possible for me to bring out
another collection focusing on the post-Thomistic period. In any event, it is
my hope that the present volume will be of some value to those who are cur
rently interested in Aquinas's thought.
Introduction Xl
I would like to single out for special mention those many colleagues both
here at Catholic University and from various other universities in North
America and Europe who have taken the time and trouble to read one or
more of these essays either before or after publication and who have been
good enough to pass on their comments to me. Though they are too
numerous for me to name each of them individually, their reactions, sug
gestions and criticisms are deeply appreciated. Of all of these no one else
has read more of this material in its prepublication form than one of my col
leagues here at Catholic University - Thomas Prufer. I am especially
grateful to him for his many insightful comments over the years.
Finally, special thanks are due to Catholic University librarians Carolyn
T. Lee, David J. Gilson, and Bruce Miller for their generous assistance in
obtaining many scattered sources; to Mr. Frank Hunt for his careful copy
reading of the manuscript; a~d to Dr. Therese-Anne Druart, Sister Patricia
Flynn, and Elisabeth Lippens for their conscientious attention to many of
the details involved in the final stages of preparing the text for publication.
Washington, D.C.
April, 1983