Metaphysical Disputation I: On the Nature of First Philosophy or Metaphysics (Early Modern Catholic Sources)

Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) was one of the most important philosophers and theologians of Early Modern Scholasticism. Although Suárez spent most of his academic career as a professor of theology, he is better known today for his Metaphysical Disputations (Salamanca, 1597). The present volume contains a facing-page English translation of Metaphysical Disputation I, which is introductory and devoted to the nature of metaphysics itself. In it, Suárez first specifies this science's object and nature (Sections 1 and 2) and then discusses its unity (Section 3), its end, utility and functions (Section 4), its status as the most perfect natural science and true wisdom (Section 5), and finally the thesis that it is the science most of all desired by means of a natural appetite (Section 6). Those interested in late scholastic conceptions of metaphysics and their influence on the better known metaphysical systems of the seventeenth century – e.g., Descartes's – will find the volume especially useful. The Latin text contained in this volume introduces a significant number of corrections to the text of the Vivès edition, the one standardly used by scholars of Suárez, and thus more faithfully reproduces the text of the first edition. The volume also contains a lengthy introduction that provides a detailed survey of the disputation's principal claims and arguments. Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Remarks on the Latin Text and the English Translation Latin Abbreviations English Abbreviations Reason for, and Survey of, the Entire Work, to the Reader Proem to the Metaphysical Disputations Metaphysical Disputation I: On the Nature of First Philosophy or Metaphysics Section 1: What the Object of Metaphysics Is Section 2: Whether Metaphysics Is Concerned with All Things according to Their Proper Natures Section 3: Whether Metaphysics Is Only One Science Section 4: How Many Functions Does This Science Have, What Is Its End, and What Is Its Utility? Section 5: Whether Metaphysics Is the Most Perfect Science and True Wisdom Section 6: Whether, among All the Sciences, Metaphysics Is Most of All Desired by the Human Being by Means of a Natural Appetite Bibliography Index Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) was one of the most important philosophers and theologians of Early Modern Scholasticism. He is best known today for his Metaphysical Disputations (1597). This book contains a facing-page English translation of Metaphysical Disputation I, which is devoted to the nature of metaphysics itself. "A parallel, Latin-English, edition of the first volume of Suárez's renowned treatise on metaphysics, with corrected Latin text and comprehensive annotations"-- Provided by publisher