by Revista Espíritu | 157-2019
This article aims to show the relationship between the entitative and the intelligible in Saint Thomas Aquinas’ thought in the light of Francisco Canals. We will expose how in Aquinas the entitative and the intelligible differ just in virtue of the finitude of the being. The different grades of intelligibility derived from the ontological perfection of being will be examined: the human soul, the separate substances and God. Following Canals, the argumentation will lead to identify self intellection with the presence of the act to itself, overcoming the paradigm of subject-object opposition. Finally, some considerations in relation to human knowledge are posed.
by Revista Espíritu | 149-2015
The present note has arisen in response to the review of the book Metaphysics of intelligibility and self-consciousness in Thomas Aquinas, written by David Torrijos Castrillejo, and published in issue 148 of this magazine.
by Revista Espíritu | 151-2016
In the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, saint Thomas affirms that the soul always understands itself and God in an indeterminate way and that an indeterminate love follows this knowledge. To comprehend these affirmations in coherence with the rest of Aquinas’ philosophy, the sentence has to be read in line with what has been affirmed in De Veritate, q. 10, a. 8: distinguishing between an existential knowledge and an essential knowledge. The knowledge that the soul always has of itself and of God is in the order of the act of being not of the essence and that’s why this indeterminate character doesn’t entail potentiality.
by Revista Espíritu | 154-2017
In this article, I will try to read Aristotle’s brilliant affirmation, “all men by nature desire to know”, from theperspective of Saint Thomas’ metaphysics of the being. Specifically, I will try to highlight the relationship between being and operation underscored by Cajetano in defining understanding as “quoddam esse”. Continuing with the thought of Francisco Canals, I will point out that, in justifying the desire to know from the metaphysics of St. Thomas, the very notion of cognoscent nature itself requires being rethought.
