Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) was one of the most important philosophers and theologians of Early Modern 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 I, which is introductory and devoted to the nature of metaphysics itself. In it, Suárez first specifies this science’s object and nature (Sections 1 and 2) and then discusses its unity (Section 3), its end, utility and functions (Section 4), its status as the most perfect natural science and true wisdom (Section 5), and finally the thesis that it is the science most of all desired by means of a natural appetite (Section 6). Those interested in late scholastic conceptions of metaphysics and their influence on the better known metaphysical systems of the seventeenth century – e.g., Descartes’s – will find the volume especially useful. 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.

The Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suarez (1548-1617) was an eminent philosopher and theologian whose Disputationes Metaphysicae was first published in Spain in 1597 and was widely studied throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The Disputationes Metaphysicae had a great influence on the development of early modern philosophy and on such well-known figures as Descartes and Leibniz. This is the first time that Disputations 17, 18, and 19 have been translated into English. The Metaphysical Disputations provide an excellent philosophical introduction to the medieval Aristotelian discussion of efficient causality. The work constitutes a synthesis of monumental proportions: problematic issues are lucidly delineated and the various arguments are laid out in depth. Disputations 17, 18, and 19 deal explicitly with such issues as the nature of causality, the types of efficient causes, the prerequisites for causal action, causal contingency, human free choice, and chance.

This is the first time that the Disputations 20-22 have been translated into English. They deal with the divine action of creation, conservation and concurrence.

Fabro's Introduction to Saint Thomas is much more than simply a life of Aquinas; imbued with the reflections of a lifetime of philosophical and theological research, the Stigmatine presents not only the life and works of Aquinas, but also a detailed study of the Thomistic schools throughout the centuries, and explains how Aquinas can enter into dialogue with the philosophical world of today.

Although the importance of Francisco Suárez has been, for some time already, generally recognized even outside the circles of historians of scholasticism, the wider context of his thought – i.e., the rich and diverse Renaissance and Baroque scholasticism – remains largely unexplored. This book is an attempt to contribute to the quest of putting Suárez’s metaphysics (a mere fragment of the whole of his intellectual legacy) into context, historical and systematic. Being the fruit of an international conference held in Prague in October 2008, it puts together a systematically ordered selection of papers devoted to general and specific topics of Suárezian metaphysics, with special respect to its sources and further impact. Part One explores in the first place the notion of being and the nature of metaphysics in general; Part Two then deals with more specific metaphysical topicssuch asthe problem of universals, causality, relations, and God. The book will be of value not just to Suárez-scholars, but to anyone interested in the history of ideas in general and in the the intricacies of metaphysical thought at the verge of modernity in particular.

ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT In Spring of 1968 a research project concerning the scholastic philosophy in the Iberian Colonies of America was submitted to the Institute of Latin American Studies in the University of Texas by Dr. Ignacio Angelelli, of the Department of Philosophy of the same University. I should like to quote some relevant passages from the proposal by way of historical back ground. In the last decade, leading philosophical historiography has become more and more interested in the "minor" figures and the "traditional" schools which flourished between 1500 and 1800. Historians of philosophy are interested not only in men like Descartes and Kant, but also in the less brilliant and more "conservative" authors. It is also interesting to note in this regard that the late Professor P. Wilpert (Cologne), editor of the new edition of Ueberweg, intended to divide the section on the Neuzeit into two volumes, one for the major figures and the other for the exponents of the various forms of scholasticism of the period 1500-1800. One of these conservative philosophical movements is what has been called the seconda scolastica, which developed in Catholic countries and particularly in Spain and Portugal. Naturally, this "traditional" thought in Europe after 1500 was bound to have an impact on the Spanish and Portuguese Colonies. Indeed, the amount of scholastic philosophy taught in the American Colonies between 1530 and 1800 is impressive. This fact has not yet been acknowledged by international historiography.