Francisco Suárez
Metaphysics can be organised as a complete system, nations are bound by a common law, and political power comes from the people.
Placement
Jesuit and leading figure of late scholasticism: his systematic metaphysics shaped the school philosophy of Europe, his theory of law the law of nations.
Key ideas
- Metaphysics as a system
- Natural law and the law of nations
- Power rests with the people
Influence
Influenced by 4
Aristotle
influenced by
Suárez’s Metaphysical Disputations (1597) treat Aristotle’s metaphysics no longer as a commentary but by topics, with an index matching his questions to Aristotle’s books. F. Suárez, Disputationes metaphysicae (1597), with the Index locupletissimus in Metaphysicam Aristotelis; SEP “Francisco Suárez”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Thomas Aquinas
influenced by
Suárez lectured on Aquinas’ Summa and wrote within the Thomist tradition, yet departed from it, denying a real distinction between essence and existence (Disputationes metaphysicae XXXI). F. Suárez, Disputationes metaphysicae (1597), disp. XXXI; SEP “Francisco Suárez”
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
John Duns Scotus
influenced by
Suárez discussed Scotus at length in the Metaphysical Disputations (1597), drawing on Scotist intrinsic modes for his modal distinction while rejecting haecceity as principle of individuation. F. Suárez, Disputationes metaphysicae (1597), disp. V–VII; SEP “Francisco Suárez”
Evidence: AI draft
John Duns Scotus › c. 1266–1308
Francisco de Vitoria
influenced by
Suárez developed the law of nations of the School of Salamanca, begun by Vitoria, treating ius gentium as human law common to peoples (De legibus II, 1612). F. Suárez, De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612), book II; SEP “School of Salamanca”
Evidence: AI draft
Francisco de Vitoria › c. 1483–1546
Influenced 3
Hugo Grotius
influenced
Grotius cited Suárez’s De legibus (1612) in On the Law of War and Peace (1625); in a letter he praised his acuity in philosophy and theology. H. Grotius, De iure belli ac pacis (1625); letter to J. Cordesius (in Epistolae, 1687); F. Suárez, De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612); SEP “Francisco Suárez”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Hugo Grotius › 1583–1645
René Descartes
influenced disputed ✓
In the Fourth Replies (1641) Descartes cited Suárez’s Metaphysical Disputations on material falsity, the one place he names him; how far Suárez shaped him is disputed. R. Descartes, Fourth Replies (1641); F. Suárez, Disputationes metaphysicae (1597); R. Ariew, Descartes and the Last Scholastics (1999)
René Descartes › 1596–1650
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
influenced ✓
Leibniz recalled reading scholastics such as Suárez in his youth; his dissertation On the Principle of Individuation (1663) defended, with Suárez, individuation by the whole entity. G. W. Leibniz, Disputatio metaphysica de principio individui (1663); Vita Leibnitii a se ipso breviter delineata; SEP “Francisco Suárez”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz › 1646–1716
Works
Fifty-four disputations – often regarded as the first systematic metaphysics detached from commentary on Aristotle.
Position
Suárez’s Metaphysical Disputations are often regarded as the first comprehensive metaphysics arranged by topics rather than as a commentary on Aristotle. Its subject is being as such; between a thing’s essence and its existence he saw no real distinction, only one drawn by thought, and every individual is individual through its whole being. The work became a textbook at Catholic and Protestant universities alike and shaped Descartes, Leibniz and Wolff. In his theory of law he distinguished natural law from the law of nations and argued that God gives political power to the community as a whole, which then transfers it to rulers – a position directed against the divine right of kings.
Life & context
Francisco Suárez was born in Granada in 1548, joined the Jesuits while a student at Salamanca and taught theology at Segovia, Valladolid, Rome, Alcalá and Salamanca. In 1597 King Philip II appointed him to the chair of theology at Coimbra, which he held for nearly twenty years. Honored as “Doctor eximius”, the exceptional teacher, he died in Lisbon in 1617.
Further main works
- On Laws and God the Lawgiver (1612)
- Defense of the Catholic Faith (1613)
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