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Metaphysical Disputation II
On the Essential Concept or Concept of Being
Early Modern Catholic Sources
Edited by Shane Duarte
Imprint: Catholic University of America Press
Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) was one of the most important philosophers and theologians of early modern Aristotelian 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 II, which is devoted to the nature of real being, the subject of metaphysics. In it, Suárez is especially concerned, first, to argue there is a single nature of being common to all real beings, and second, to show what this nature consists in. 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.
Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement. Shane Duarte is the translator of Metaphysical Disputations I - IV.
"A very welcome contribution. The second of Suárez's Metaphysical Disputations is central to several prominent debates about his philosophy and place in history, and it also introduces a number of themes that receive further treatment in later disputations. We finally have an English translation, and, even more happily, it is a careful, faithful, philosophically astute one. The addition of an insightful, historically informed introduction and of a carefully corrected Latin text on facing pages ensures that this volume should receive much use for a long time to come. Restoring the marginal notes was a pleasing finishing touch."
~Sydney Penner, Asbury University
"Though long neglected, Francisco Suárez’s Metaphysical Disputations is increasingly recognized as a crowning philosophical achievement of the Early Modern period. Shane Duarte’s excellent edition and translation of the Second Disputation on the concept of real being (a similar volume with the First Disputation on the nature of metaphysics was published in 2021), contains the best currently available original Latin text of that work, carefully established from early editions, recording all variants in footnotes; a lucid and readable English translation; and an extensive, intelligent, and eruditely informed philosophical and historical introduction. This book is a major contribution to the history of philosophy, and it will be indispensable to anyone interested in the study of Early Modern metaphysics."
~Jorge Secada, University of Virginia
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