THOMISM. A SYSTEM WITH MANY OPTIONS

Thomism. A System with Many Options

Edited by Mirosław Szatkowski  ⁞  in progress

(i). The topic: “Thomism. A System with Many Options” was divided into Parts I – VII: 

• Part I: Roots of the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas. 
• Part II: Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in Dialogue with other 13^th-Century Philosophical Currents. 
• Part III: Perception of Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in the 14^th -15^th Centuries. 
• Part IV: Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in the second Scholastic period. 
• Part V: Perception of Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in the XVIII^th – XIX^th Centuries. 
• Part VI: The Continuity of the Thomistic Tradition in the 20^th century.  
• Part VII: The Tomistic Movement Today. 

(ii). Prof. Michael Głowala proposed 28 specific issues that should be worked out within the framework of Part IV: “Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in the second Scholastic period”: 

A. Selected topics of the late scholastic Thomistic metaphysics 

1. Transcendentals; theories of analogy of transcendental concepts; analogy in logic, metaphysics, and in the philosophy of mind. 
2. Existence in logic and in metaphysics. 
3. The metaphysics of powers/dispositions.  
4. Formal causality; problems of hylomorphism; are matter and form parts of substances? 
5. Causation and teleology; teleology and the awareness of the aim. 
6. Efficient causality; substances, accidents, and efficient causality; the nature of tools (instrumenta); problems of acting at a distance; analyses of interference and cooperation of causes; efficient causes and the identity of effects. 
7. The nature and kinds of freedom; problems of libertarianism and compatibilism. 
8. Thomism and Molinism on concursus divinus; concursus simultaneus and concursis praevius. 
9. Creation; creation and causality; creation and time; creation and change; creation and conservation. 
10. God’s knowledge and God’s will; potentia Dei absoluta and potentia Dei ordinata. 
11. God as the source of possibilities; the relationship between God’s power and pure possibilia. 
12. Tendencies; natural tendencies within the Aristotelian framework; analyses of the prevention of tendencies; the idea of a forced motion. 
13. Mereology; kids of parts, kinds of wholes; unity of a whole and its sources; problems of holism. 
14. Space, location, extension; the nature and sources of impenetrability; the nature of the spatial relations; the structure and division of continuum; space and matter. 
15. The metaphysics of boundaries (surfaces, lines, points); the status of boundaries in the physical world. 
16. Infinity; kinds of infinity; the possibility of infinity; categorematic and syncategorematic infinity; infinity of possible beings.  
17. The nature of contrariety; the (im)possibility of co-existence of contrary qualities in one and the same subject. 
18. Intensity and the nature of changes of intensity (intensio et remissio formarum). 
19. Relations: categorial relations, transcendental relations, relations secundum dici, relationes rationis. 
20. Change and process: kinds of change, continuity of a change, unity of a change. 
21. Change, causation and agency; non-causal aspects of agency; the relationship between action and its effect. 
22. Time, eternity, enduring, perduring; things and processes; the objectivity of time; reality of the past. 
23. Coming to be and passing away; beginnings and ends of existence; substantial change.  
24. Identity over time; in particular: is it possible to produce one and the same thing again after a period of time? 
25. The concept and nature of life. 
26. The metaphysics of artifacts; the nature of the contrast between natural beings and artifacts; the reality of artifacts. 
27. Universals.
28. The status and role of negativity: the reality of absences, privations, ommissions; causation by absence. 

B. Selected topics of the late scholastic Thomistic metaphysics (In more details)

1. Transcendentals; theories of analogy of transcendental concepts; analogy in logic, metaphysics, and in the philosophy of mind. 
   (a) the distinction between conceptus formalis and conceptus obiectivus; (b) unity of the conceptus formaliscorresponding to a transcendental non-univocal concept; (c) unity od the conceptus obiectivus corresponding to a transcendental non-univocal concept; (d) the issue of the independence of the conceptus obiectivus on the intellectual activity; (e) transcendentals vs universals: instantiation and contraction; (f) the nature of the distinction between various transcendentals; (g) kinds of unity; (h) truth as a property: what are basic bearers of truth (and falsity)? (i) truth as a property of cognitive acts: a relational property? (j) controversies over practical truth 
2. Existence in logic and in metaphysics. 
   (a) existence and actuality; (b) various senses of existence; (c) identity and distinction of actual existences;(d) proper subjects of actual existence; are accidents distinct subjects of actual existence? are modes distinct subjects of actual existence? (e) the distinction between essence and existence and between form and existence; the issue of the separability of essence and existence; (f) actual existence and mereology; (g) is God the only cause of created existence? 
3. The metaphysics of powers/dispositions.  
   (a) powers vs possibilities (potentiae subiectivae vs potentiae obiectivae); (b) the identity and  individuation of powers/dispositions: manifestations and the identity of powers; controversies over common manifestations of distinct powers (Aristotle, Phys. III,3); (c) basic distinctions concerning powers: active vs passive powers; powers having transient and immanent manifestations (potentiae transeunter agentes vs potentiae elicitive actium immanentium); two-way or rational powers; the issue of potentia oboedientialis; (d) controversies over tendencies of powers and their prevention/interference; (e) basic kinds of powers: physical powers, powers of the soul, habitus; (f) directedness of powers and intentionality; (g) formal objects of powers/dispositions; (h) the causal relevance of powers/dispositions. 
4. Formal causality; problems of hylomorphism; are matter and form parts of substances? 
   (a) arguments in favour of forms and the general idea of formal causality; (b) substantial vs accidental forms; (c) the immediacy of formal causality (forma seipsam praebet suo effectui); (d) the alleged composition of form and matter: the controversies over theories of modus unionis of form and matter; (e) the issue of the unity of substantial form in a single substance; (f) forms and essences; (g) forms of artifacts; (h) prime matter and the continuity of substantial change; controversies over the (alleged) idea of prime matter and the possibility of the actual existence of prime matter without any form; (i) the possibility of re-identification of (parts of) prime matter; (j) the unity of prime matter; (k) prime matter and potency; (l) the causality of matter: the concept of matter as a causal concept; (m) does the form depend on matter and its potencies? what does it mean that forms are derived from the potency of matter (forma educitur de potentia materiae?) problems of emergence; (n) the possibility of forms without matter. 
5. Causation and teleology; teleology and the awareness of the aim. 
   (a) controversies over the strictly causal role of telos; (b) how to combine possible non-existence of final cause with its real causal role? (c) teleology, intention, and intentionality; kinds of directedness towards an end; (d) the relationship between final and efficient causality; (e) evil and final causes; (f) the nature and unity of the ultimate end; (g) finality and controversies over fate and fatalism. 
6. Efficient causality; substances, accidents, and efficient causality; the nature of tools (instrumenta); problems of acting at a distance; analyses of interference and cooperation of causes; efficient causes and the identity of effects. 
   (a) agent causality and the causal relevance of causal powers: is there a causal contribution of substance distinct from the contributions of its causal powers? (b) which sorts of accidents can be causally relevant? (c) agent causality, the causal relevance of powers, and the causality of tools/instruments; controversies over the distinction between basic agent causality and the instrumental causality; (d) the distinction between physical and moral efficiency (causa efficiens physica vs moralis); (e) efficient causes of accidents and of substances; (f) controversies over irreflexivity of efficient causality; (g) controversies over action at a distance; kinds of proximity relevant for efficient causality; (h) various kinds of cooperation of efficient causes (concursus causarum); the ideas of a partial and the total cause (causa partialis vs causa totalis); (i) controversies over causal overdetermination and the arguments from causal exclusion; (j) efficient causality and the identity of effects: the directedness of efficient causes towards effects.   
7. The nature and kinds of freedom; problems of libertarianism and compatibilism. 
   (a) causation and necessitation; necessity and freedom; can one and the same action be free (for one agent) and necessitated (for another)? (c) the power of will and the nature of volitions; the relationship between volitions (actus voluntatis eliciti) and external voluntary action (actus voluntatis imperati);  (d) the nature of the impossibility of the coercion of the will; (e) kinds of freedom; (f) freedom and rationality: intellectual cognition as the root of freedom (radix libertatis); (g) the causal relevance of reasons for action and intellectual cognition for free action: does the intellectual cognition cause the act of will? (h) various kinds of voluntarism; (h) controversies over the weakness of will; (i) the directedness of the freedom towards the future and the problem of actual liberty. 
8. Thomism and Molinism on concursus divinus; concursus simultaneus and concursus praevius. 
   (a) problems of concursus Dei generalis vs the problems of grace; (b) the immediacy of the divine concurrence; (c) concursus simultaneus: the issue of indifference; (d) the controversy over concursus praevius; (e) created freedom and the divine concurrence: compatibilism, libertarianism, and other options; (f) charges of occasionalism and mere conservationism; (g) the divine concurrence and the idea of composition of causes; (h) God’s general concurrence and the sources of moral evil; (i) the controversy over scientia media: the truth and truthmakers of counterfactuals; counterfactuals and free action. 
9. Creation; creation and causality; creation and time; creation and change; creation and conservation. 
   (a) Arguments for the existence of God; (b) Arguments for the unicity of God; (c) Creation and other sorts of efficient causality; creation and the use of tools/instruments (the debate over instrumentum creationis); (d) controversies over the relationship between creation and its effects; (e) creation and the temporal beginning of the world; (f) creation and conservation: the problem of “existential inertia”; (g) the nature of the presence and the ubiquity of God. 
10. God’s knowledge and God’s will; potentia Dei absoluta and potentia Dei ordinata.
    (a) the simplicity of God; (b) God and his attributes; (c) the immutability and the eternity of God; (d) the immutability and the divine freedom; the contingency of God’s effects; (e) God’s omniscience; kinds of God’s knowledge; God’s knowledge of futura contingentia and the reality of time; (f) the irresistibility of God’s will; (g) the distinction between God’s voluntas antecedens and voluntas consequens; (h) reasons and God’s will; (i) the distinction between potentia Dei absoluta and potentia Dei ordinata; (j) God’s life. 
11. God as the source of possibilities; the relationship between God’s power and pure possibilia. 
    (a) possibilities, God’s knowledge and God’s will; (b) God and possible worlds; (c) God and the logical space; (d) God and abstract objects; (e) the sovereignty of God. 
12. Tendencies (appetitus, inclinatio); natural tendencies within the Aristotelian framework; analyses of the prevention of tendencies; the idea of a forced motion and forced rest. 
    (a) natural tendencies; analyses of gravitation in terms of natural tendencies; (b) emotion: tendencies stemming from sensual cognition; (c) acts of will: tendencies stemming from intellectual cognition; (d) forms as sources of tendencies; (e) the distinction between inclinatio in actu primo and inclinatio in actu secundo; (f) the relationship between a tendency and its realization; (g) prevention and interference of tendencies: controversies over forced motion (violentia in actu) and forced rest (violentia in cessatione); (h) tendencies and attempts; (i) tendencies and (component or resultant) forces.  
13. Mereology; kinds of parts, kinds of wholes; unity of a whole and its sources; problems of holism. 
    (a) substantial wholes and related wholes; (b) kinds of parts of substances; (c) virtual wholes and virtual parts; (c) the reality of parts of a substance and the problem of holism; (d) mereology and formal causality; (e) analyses of changes consisting in the loss or acquisition of parts; (f) analyses of voluntary exertion of the body. 
14. Substance and related notions. 
    (a) key concepts related to substancehood: suppositum, person, individual; (b) the distinction between substantial and non-substantial individuals; (c) the issue of the distinction between a suppositum and its individuated nature; (d) the connection of  a suppositum and its individuated nature; (e) personhood and the specific nature; (f) controversies over subsistentia and its relationship to existence; (g) suppositum, subsistentia and non-instantiability; (h) the principle actiones sunt suppositorum; (i) theories of nonmaterial created substances in metaphysics: philosophical aspects of angelology; (j) controversies over substantial change. 
15. Space, location, extension; the nature and sources of impenetrability; the nature of the spatial relations; the structure and division of continuum; space and matter. 
    (a) the distinction between substance and its extension; (b) the essence of extension: extension, divisibility,and parthood; (c) pieces and other kinds of parts; (d) identity of extension in qualitative and substantial changes; (e) controversies over intervals of space; (f) extension and impenetrability; (g) the nature of spatial relations; (g) distinct ways of being in a place; the metaphysics of location; (h) the relationship between situs and locus. 
16. The metapysics of boundaries (surfaces, lines, points); the status of boundaries in the physical world. 
    (a) the issue of the distiction between an object and its boundary; (b) the distinction between individibile terminans and indivisibile continuans; (c) controversies over the division into pieces; (d) surfaces and controversies over physical contact; (e) problems of infinity; (f) actuality and potentiality in the metaphysics of boundaries; (g) subjects of points and other sorts of boundaries; (h) identity of boundaries in qualitative and substantial changes; (i) boundaries and intervals of space. 
17. Infinity; kinds of infinity; the possibility of infinity; categorematic and syncategorematic infinity; infinity of possible beings.  
    (a) infinity of number, of magnitude and of intensity; (b) the idea of infinite being; (c) comparability of infinite things; (d) infinity, potentiality and actuality; (e) infinity of power (virtus); (f) infinity, divisibility and continuity. 
18. The nature of contrariety; the (im)possibility of co-existence of contrary qualities in one and the same subject. 
    (a) definitions of contrariety (contrarietas); (b) contrariety vs other kinds of opposition (oppositio); (c) subjects of contrariety; (d) contrariety of changes and motions; (e) contrariety of tendencies; (f) controversies over the possibility of coexistence of contrarieties in one and the same subject; (g) contrary qualities and component forces.  
19. Intensity and the nature of changes of intensity (intensio et remissio formarum). 
    (a) do changes of intensity consist in the acquisition or loss of special kind of parts? (b) changes of intensity and modes of qualities; (c) changes of intensity and the nature of inherence; (d) changes of intensity and actual existence; (e) similarities and differences between changes of intensity, changes of extension and material change; (f) controversies over the minimum and maximum degrees of intensity. 
20. Relations: categorial relations, transcendental relations, relations secundum dici, relationes rationis. 
    (a) the distinction between relatio secundum dici and relatio secundum esse; (b) the distinction between transcendental and categorial relations; (c) the distinction between real relations and relationes rationis; (d) the distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic relations (relatio extrisecus adveniens vs relatio intrinsecus adveniens); (e) arguments for the reality of categorial relations; (f) controveries over particular cases of allegedly extrinsic or intrinsic relations (spatial relations, causal relations); (h) the distinction between a categorial relation and its foundation (fundamentum); (i) identity and individuation of categorial relations; (j) relations and change (can relational properties be immediately acquired?); (k) relations and causality (can relations be immediately caused or cause something?). 
21. Change and process: kinds of change, continuity of a change, unity of a change. 
    (a) identity and individuation of changes; (b) real changes vs Cambridge changes; (c) instantaneous changes vscontinuous changes; (d) divisibility of continuous changes; (e) controversies over the existence of the first and the last instant of change; (f) controversies ove the possibility of motion in instanti
22. Change, causation and agency; non-causal aspects of agency; the relationship between action and its effect. 
    (a) are actions causings? (b) should actions be identified with the caused changes? (c) are actions intrinsic modes of agents? (d) should immanent actions (in particular thinking and willing) be understood as causings of internal states of agents? (e) are actions themselves caused by their agents? (f) the distinction between actio agentis and actio acta; (g) the relationship between an action and its effect in various cases; (h) the distinction between a proper effect and a side effect of an action; (i) concurrence and complicity from a metaphysical and a moral point of view; (j) agency, causality and the responsibility for effects. 
23. Time, eternity, enduring, perduring; things and processes; the objectivity of time; reality of the past. 
    (a) duration (duratio) and actual existence; the distinction between them; (b) eternity as a sort of duration; (c) aevumas a distinct sort of duration; (d) duration of enduring objects in time; (e) duration and succession; controversies over the divisibility od perduring objects; (f) duration and time; (g) the distinction between time and motion; (h) identity and individuation of time; (i) objectivity of time; (j) controversies over instants of time.  
24. Coming to be and passing away; beginnings and ends of existence; substantial change. 
    (a) continuous vs instantaneous coming to be and passing away; (b) the coming to be and passing away of substances; (c) is coming to be an action of the thing that comes to be? (d) is it possible to come to be and pass away at the same moment? (e) continuity in coming to be and passing away; (f) the relationship between coming to be of the terminus ad quem and coming away the terminus a quo; (g) the existence of the first and the last instant in coming to be and passing away; (h) causes of passing away: change and incompatibility. 
25. Identity over time; in particular: is it possible to produce one and the same thing again after a period of time? 
    (a) formal causes and the identity over time; (b) identity over time of substances, forms and of matter; (c) controversies over the possibility of producing one and the same thing again after some time. 
26. The concept and nature of life. 
    (a) the general concept of life in metaphysics: the contrast between living and non-living beings; (b) controversies over the univocity of the concept of life; (b) life and agency; the concept of actus vitalis; (c) life and immanent action; (d) life and intentionality; (e) life and actual existence; (f) identity and individuation of life; (g) the unity of human life.
27. The metaphysics of artifacts; the nature of the contrast between natural beings and artifacts; the reality of artifacts. 
    (a) the distinction between artifacts and natural beings, the production of artifacts and natural generation; (b) formal causes of artifacts; (c) the reality of artifacts. 
28. Universals: intricacies and varieties of “moderate realism”. 
    (a) definitions of universals; (b) reality of universals in extramental world; (c) metaphysical grounds of instantiability.  
29. The status and role of negativity: the reality of absences, privations, ommissions; causation by absence. 
    (a) identity and individuation of absences; (b) the duration of absences; (c) absences and causation; (d) controversies over pure omissions (pura ommissio) in the metaphysics of agency. 

(iii) Prof. Uwe Meixner has grouped these 29 issues into eight chapters: 

1. Categories and transcendentals [1, 2, 20, 28].  
2. The metaphysics of causes (efficient, formal, final, material) [4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 22, 29]. 
3. The metaphysics of time and space [15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25]. 
4. The metaphysics of things, their parts, and their boundaries [13, 14, 15, 16, 27].  
5. The metaphysics of God (knowledge, will, action, source of possibility and actuality, relation to infinity) [8, 9, 10, 11, 17]. 
6. The metaphysics of potentiality and power [3, 11, 12].  
7. The metaphysics of life, action, and freedom [7, 8, 26]  
8. Ontological relations (analogy, negativity, contrariety, identity) and ontological. qualities (intensity, infinity) [1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 29].  

(iv). The division of Part I into six chapters was proposed by Prof. Mirosław Szatkowski: 

1. Aristotelian Roots of the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas.  
2. Platonic and Neoplatonic Aspects of Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics.  
3. Influence of Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics on Thomas Aquinas.  
4. Influence of the Jewish Metaphysics on Thomas Aquinas (Maimonides, …). 
5. Influence of Biblical Metaphysics on Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics.  
6. Church Doctors Influence on Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics?   

(v). Part II still needs to be worked out. However, it seems that the proposed chapters 1- 4 should be part of its content.  

Table of Contents

• Part I: Roots of the Metaphysics of  Thomas Aquinas

1. Aristotelian Roots of the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas   
2. Platonic and Neoplatonic Aspects of Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics  
3. Influence of Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics  on Thomas Aquinas  
4. Influence of the Jewish Metaphysics on Thomas Aquinas (Maimonides, …)  
5. Influence of Biblical Metaphysics on Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics  
6. Church Doctors Influence on Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics?  

• Part II: Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in Dialogue with other 13^th-Century Philosophical Currents 

1. Aquinas’ Doctrine of being and Essence in the Context of 13^th-Century Research. 
2. The Questions on God’s Existence and Nature in the context of 13^th-Century Research. 
3. Aquinas’s theory of Four Causes in the context of 13^th-Century Research. 
4. Aquinas’s theory of the Substance in the context of 13^th-Century Research (Material and Immaterial Substances; Substance and Accidents)   
5. Thomas Aquinas and his Contemporaries on Universals 
6. Thomas Aquinas and his Contemporaries on Transcendentals 
7. Aquinas’s Theory of the Sameness in Dialogue with other 13^th-Century Doctrines 
8. Aquinas’s Theory of the Order of the Universe  in Dialogue with other 13^th-Century Doctrines
9. Aquinas’s Theory of  the Human Soul and the Human Body  in Dialogue with other 13^th Century Doctrines 
10. Why Thomas Aquinas is not an Aristotelian? 

• Part III: Perception of Metaphysics of  Thomas Aquinas  in the 14^th -15^th Centuries.
• Part IV: Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas in the second Scholastic period.       

1. Categories and transcendentals [1, 2, 20, 28] 
2. The metaphysics of causes (efficient, formal, final, material) [4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 22, 29] 
3. The metaphysics of time and space [15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25] 
4. The metaphysics of things, their parts, and their boundaries [13, 14, 15, 16, 27]  
5. The metaphysics of God (knowledge, will, action, source of possibility and actuality, relation to infinity) [8, 9, 10, 11, 17] 
6. The metaphysics of potentiality and power [3, 11, 12]  
7. The metaphysics of life, action, and freedom [7, 8, 26]  
8. Ontological relations (analogy, negativity, contrariety, identity) and qualities (intensity, infinity) [1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 29]  

• Part V: Perception of Metaphysics of  Thomas Aquinas  in the XVIII^th – XIX^th Centuries 
• Part VI: The Continuity of the Thomistic Tradition in the 20^th century  
• Part VII: The Tomistic Movement Today