Devoir de Philosophie

Cajetan (Thomas de Vio)

Publié le 22/02/2012

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Thomas de Vio, better known as Cajetan, has long been considered to be the outstanding commentator on the philosophical thought of Thomas Aquinas. He has had a great influence not only on discussions about Aquinas' theory of analogical predication regarding God and creatures but also on discussions about Aquinas' fundamental notions of essence and existence. On both counts his interpretations are at variance with Aquinas himself. He also set himself in opposition to Aquinas when he denied in his later writings that the immortality of the human soul could be demonstrated, arguing that it is a doctrine that must be accepted simply on faith, like the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. His explication of Aquinas' cognitive psychology is an interesting development that goes beyond Aquinas.

« word for the analogous things and the notion connected to the common term is wholly the same.

However, the analogous things share unequally in the nature involved, for example, 'body' as found in corruptible bodies on the surface of the earth and 'body' as found in the heavenly bodies, which Cajetan (following Aristotelian tradition) takes to be incorruptible.

Since the notion of body is wholly the same, namely a substance subject to three dimensions, the logician considers the analogous things to be univocal.

On the other hand, the philosopher studies the actual natures of the analogous things and therefore takes the analogous things to be equivocal (different in kind).

The second type of analogy, analogy according to attribution, involves things of which there is a common name and also a notion that is the same.

The distinguishing feature of this type of analogy is that there are different notions involved, according to the different relationships between the analogous things and that common name.

An example is the term 'healthy' , when it is applied to an animal, a medicine and urine.

Only the first of the analogous things actually has the perfection, namely health as pertaining to the animal, whereas the perfection is said of medicine and other things by an extrinsic denomination, that is, by a term denoting an external relationship such as 'cause of' or 'sign of' . Finally there is analogy of proportionality, which Cajetan considers to be analogy properly so-called.

The name or term and the notion are the same only proportionally.

What is involved in proportionality is a comparison of proportions; for example, eight is to four as six is to three.

Cajetan explains that philosophers have extended the term 'proportionality' to any similarity of proportions, so that one can say substance is to its existence as accident is to its existence.

He believes that only this type of analogy enables us to know the intrinsic being, goodness and truth of things.

Accordingly, he ranks analogy of proportionality above the other two types of analogy.

Indeed, he judges that those who do not know and accept it are incapable of successfully studying metaphysics.

Cajetan's position in fact stands in opposition to that of Thomas Aquinas, who held to analogy of proportionality only in his Quaestiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth) .

Otherwise Aquinas only maintained the analogy of proportion based on attribution or reference to one First Being, namely God, and on all things other than God participating in an existence given them directly by God ( Language, Renaissance philosophy of ). 3 Natural philosophy In an early question entitled 'Whether Mobile Being is the Subject in Natural Philosophy' , finished at Milan in 1499, Cajetan states that the limits of natural philosophy extend to and include the human soul, which is partly separated from and partly joined to matter.

Neither the Intelligences that cause the motion of the heavenly bodies nor the angels are studied in natural philosophy.

However, philosophers disagree as to whether their subject-matter is mobile being, mobile body, natural body or sensible substance.

Cajetan takes the followers of Thomas Aquinas to hold that mobile being (which includes more than mobile body) is the true subject of natural philosophy. Accordingly, things are studied in natural philosophy from the formal aspect of their mobility ( Vernia, N.

§3 ).. »

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