Scholastic Metaphysics A Contemporary Introduction

328 Pages·2014·1.65 MB·English

by  Edward Feser

editiones scholasticae
Volume 39
Edward Feser
Scholastic Metaphysics
A Contemporary Introduction
Edward Feser
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1 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 5
0. Prolegomenon 6
0.1 Aim of the book 6
0.2 Against scientism 10
0.2.1 A dilemma for scientism 11
0.2.2 The descriptive limits of science 13
0.2.3 The explanatory limits of science 20
0.2.4 A bad argument for scientism 23
0.3 Against “conceptual analysis” 27
1. Act and potency 34
1.1 The general theory 34
1.1.1 Origins of the distinction 34
1.1.2 The relationship between act and potency 39
1.1.3 Divisions of act and potency 42
1.2 Causal powers 45
1.2.1 Powers in Scholastic philosophy 45
Edward Feser
2 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
1.2.2 Powers in recent analytic philosophy 51
1.2.2.1 Historical background 52
1.2.2.2 Considerations from metaphysics 58
1.2.2.3 Considerations from philosophy of science 69
1.2.2.4 Powers and laws of nature 75
1.3 Real distinctions? 79
1.3.1 The Scholastic theory of distinctions 80
1.3.2 Aquinas versus Scotus and Suarez 85
1.3.3 Categorical versus dispositional properties
in analytic metaphysics 87
2. Causation 97
2.1 Efficient versus final causality 97
2.2 The principle of finality 101
2.2.1 Aquinas’s argument 101
2.2.2 Physical intentionality in recent analytic
metaphysics 111
2.3 The principle of causality 116
2.3.1 Formulation of the principle 116
2.3.2 Objections to the principle 120
2.3.2.1 Hume’s objection 120
2.3.2.2 Russell’s objection 126
Edward Feser
3 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
2.3.2.3 The objection from Newton’s law of inertia 130
2.3.2.4 Objections from quantum mechanics 133
2.3.2.5 Scotus on self-motion 140
2.3.3 Arguments for the principle 142
2.3.3.1 Appeals to self-evidence 142
2.3.3.2 Empirical arguments 143
2.3.3.3 Arguments from PNC 148
2.3.3.4 Arguments from PSR 152
2.4 Causal series 161
2.4.1 Simultaneity 161
2.4.2 Per se versus per accidens 165
2.5 The principle of proportionate causality 171
3. Substance 177
3.1 Hylemorphism 177
3.1.1 Form and matter 177
3.1.2 Substantial form versus accidental form 181
3.1.3 Prime matter versus secondary matter 189
3.1.4 Aquinas versus Scotus and Suarez 194
3.1.5 Hylemorphism versus atomism 196
3.1.6 Anti-reductionism in contemporary
analytic metaphysics 204
3.2 Substance versus accidents 210
Edward Feser
4 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
3.2.1 The Scholastic theory 210
3.2.2 The empiricist critique 213
3.2.3 Physics and event ontologies 218
3.3 Identity 220
3.3.1 Individuation 220
3.3.2 Persistence 223
3.3.2.1 Against four-dimensionalism 223
3.3.2,2 Identity over time as primitive 230
4. Essence and existence 234
4.1 Essentialism 234
4.1.1 The reality of essence 234
4.1,2 Anti-essentialism 240
4.1.3 Moderate realism 247
4.1.4 Essence and properties 254
4.1.5 Modality 261
4.1.6 Essentialism in contemporary analytic
metaphysics 263
4.2 The real distinction 267
4.2.1 Arguments for the real distinction 267
4.2.2 Objections to the real distinction 273
4.3 The analogy of being 284
Bibliography 292
Edward Feser
5 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Rafael Hüntelmann for his kind invitation to write
this book, as well as for his other acts of kindness and his patience
in waiting for delivery of the book. I thank my beloved wife and
children — Rachel, Benedict, Gemma, Kilian, Helena, John, and
Gwendolyn — for their patience and self-sacrifice in tolerating the
many hours I put into writing this book. And I thank my dear friend
David Oderberg, to whom this book is dedicated, for his work, for
our many hours of conversation about philosophy and much else,
and for our friendship itself. If this book leads the reader to study
David’s work, I will have done well.
Edward Feser
6 Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction
0. Prolegomenon
0.1 Aim of the book
The title of this book, Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary
Introduction, was chosen quite deliberately, and each word merits
a brief comment. Scholasticism is, of course, that tradition of
thought whose most illustrious representative is Thomas Aquinas
(c. 1225-1274) and whose other luminaries include John Duns
Scotus (c. 1266-1308), William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347),
Thomas de Vio Cajetan (1469-1539), and Francisco Suarez (1548-
1617), to name only some of the most famous. By no means only a
medieval phenomenon, the Scholastic tradition was carried
forward in the twentieth century by NeoScholastics like Desire
Joseph Mercier (1851-1926) and Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
(1877-1964), and Neo-Thomists such as Jacques Maritain (1882-
1973) and Etienne Gilson (1884-1978). In contemporary analytic
philosophy it finds sympathizers among writers sometimes
identified as “analytical Thomists” (Haldane 2002b; Paterson and
Pugh 2006).
The philosophical core of the mainstream of the Scholastic tradition
is Aristotelian, with key insights drawn from the Neoplatonic
tradition but suitably Aristotelianized. This book has been written in
that vein. More specifically, its point of view is Thomist, but
Scotist, Suarezian, and Ockhamist positions on matters of dispute
among Scholastics are discussed as well.
It is Scholastic metaphysics that is the subject of the book, not
Scholastic theology (whether dogmatic theology or natural
theology), nor Scholastic views on epistemology, logic, ethics,
philosophical psychology, or even philosophy of nature per se.
Edward Feser