Philosophy of Francisco Suarez

During the seventeenth century Francisco Suarez was considered one of the greatest philosophers of the age. He was the last great Scholastic thinker and profoundly influenced the thought of his contemporaries within both Catholic and Protestant circles. Suarez contributed to all fields of philosophy, from natural law, ethics, and political theory to natural philosophy, the philosophy of mind, and philosophical psychology, and--most importantly--to metaphysics, and natural theology. Echoes of his thinking reverberate through the philosophy of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and beyond. Yet curiously Suarez has not been studied in detail by historians of philosophy. It is only recently that he has emerged as a significant subject of critical and historical investigation for historians of late medieval and early modern philosophy. Only in recent years have small sections of Suarez's magnum opus, the Metaphysical Disputations, been translated into English, French, and Italian. The historical task of interpreting Suarez's thought is still in its infancy. The Philosophy of Francisco Suarez is one of the first collections in English written by the leading scholars who are largely responsible for this new trend in the history of philosophy. It covers all areas of Suarez's philosophical contributions, and contains cutting-edge research which will shape and frame scholarship on Suarez for years to come--as well as the history of seventeenth-century generally. This is an essential text for anyone interested in Suarez, the seventeenth-century world of ideas, and late Scholastic or early modern philosophy.

During the 17th century Francisco Suarez was considered one of the greatest philosophers of the age and now he is re-emerging as a subject of major critical and historical investigation. This book explores his work on ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and theology.

During the seventeenth century Francisco Suarez was considered one of the greatest philosophers of the age. He was the last great Scholastic thinker and profoundly influenced the thought of his contemporaries within both Catholic and Protestant circles. Suarez contributed to all fields of philosophy, from natural law, ethics, and political theory to natural philosophy, the philosophy of mind, and philosophical psychology, and--most importantly--to metaphysics, and natural theology. Echoes of his thinking reverberate through the philosophy of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and beyond. Yet curiously Suarez has not been studied in detail by historians of philosophy. It is only recently that he has emerged as a significant subject of critical and historical investigation for historians of late medieval and early modern philosophy. Only in recent years have small sections of Suarez's magnum opus, the Metaphysical Disputations, been translated into English, French, and Italian. The historical task of interpreting Suarez's thought is still in its infancy. The Philosophy of Francisco Suarez is one of the first collections in English written by the leading scholars who are largely responsible for this new trend in the history of philosophy. It covers all areas of Suarez's philosophical contributions, and contains cutting-edge research which will shape and frame scholarship on Suarez for years to come--as well as the history of seventeenth-century generally. This is an essential text for anyone interested in Suarez, the seventeenth-century world of ideas, and late Scholastic or early modern philosophy.

Benjamin Hill received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 2003 and has taught at the University of Western Ontario since 2005. He works mainly on John Locke and seventeenth-century metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind.

Henrik Lagerlund received his PhD from Uppsala University in 1999 and is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. He has published extensively on medieval philosophy, including the monograph Modal Syllogistics in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2000). Among his edited books are Rethinking the History of Skepticism (Brill, 2010) and Representation and Objects of Thought in Medieval Philosophy (Ashgate, 2008). He is also the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy (Springer, 2011).

Introduction

I: Background and Influence

1. Suárez in a Late Scholastic Context: Anatomy, Psychology and Authority, Michael Edwards

2. Descartes and Leibniz as Readers of Suárez: Theory of Distinctions and Principle of Individuation, Roger Ariew

II: Metaphysics

3. Shadows of Being: Francisco Suárez's Entia Rationis, Christopher Shields

4. Suárez on Continuous Quantity, Jorge Secada

III: Natural Philosophy

5. Suárez on Propinquity and the Efficient Cause, Dennis Des Chene

6. Suárez's Last Stand for the Substantial Form, Helen Hattab

IV: Mind and Psychology

7. Suárez, Immortality, and the Soul's Dependence on the Body, James B. South

8. Suárez on Self-Awareness, Cees Leijenhorst

9. Unity in the Multiplicity of Suárez's Soul, Marleen Rozemond

V: Ethics and Natural Law

10. Reason and Obligation in Suárez, Thomas Pink

11. Suárez and Natural Law, James Gordley

Bibliography

Index