Abstract
As for every other mediaeval author, also for St. Thomas the main source of his logic is Aristotle.1 This may be directly evidenced from the fact that the greatest part of the logical works written by the Scholastics, among them Aquinas, are commentaries to one or more of the six books of the Organon (The Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, On sophistical Refutations).
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References
Cf. L. LACHANCE, “Saint Thomas dans l’histoire de la logique”, Etudes d’histoire litteraire et doctrinale du XIIIe siècle, vol. 1 (1932) pp. 61–103.
Cf. C. VASOLI, La filosofia medioevale, Milano 1961, pp. 88–98;
M. D. CHENU, La théologie au douzième siècle, Paris 1957, pp. 90–107;
M. LOSACCO, “Dialettici e antidialettici nei secoli IX, X, XI” in Sophia 1933, pp. 525–529.
VASOLI, op. cit., p. 314.
So far the best study on St. Thomas’ Logical thought is R. W. SCHMIDT’s The Domain of Logic according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Hague 1966. In this work the author, putting aside what scholastic textbooks are inclined to present as Aquinas’ logic, seeks to establish his authentic teaching in this field, especially with regard to the object of logic (genus subiectum). While defining the scope of his essay, R. W. Schmidt writes: “This study is an exegetical and historical one. It seeks to discover and expound the doctrine of St. Thomas in the domain of logic, not to speculate independently on what the domain of logic should be or to evaluate the speculations of Aquinas. Its direct concern is historical truth rather than absolute philosophical truth. Whether the two coincide or diverge in this case is a question that can be left for some other more strictly philosophical study or for the private conclusions of the reader” (p. vi). — Our purpose in the present chapter is even more modest than Schmidt’s. We shall restrict our inquiry and reconstruction of Aquinas’ logical thought in as far as we are able to recover it from the Scripta super libros Sententiarum.
“Duplex est cognitio, una speculativa, cuius finis est Veritas... alia cuius finis est operatio, quae est causa et regula eorum quae per hominem fiunt” (In III Sent. d. 35, q. 1, a. 1, sol. 2).
“(Veritas) habet fundamentum in re, sed ratio eius complete per actionem intellectus, quando scilicet apprehenditur eo modo quo est. Unde dicti Philosophus (VI Metaph. text. 8), quod verum et falsum sunt in anima, sed bonum et malum in rebus. Cum autem in re sit quidditas eius et suum esse, Veritas fundatur in esse rei magis quam in quidditate, sicut et nomen entis ab esse imponitur, et in ipsa operatione intellectus accipientis esse rei sicut est per quamdam similationem ad ipsum, complete relatio adaequationis in qua consistit ratio veritatis. Unde dico quod ipsum esse rei est causa veritatis, secundum quod est in cognitione intellectus. Sed tarnen ratio veritatis per prius invenitur in intellectu quam in re” (In I Sent. d. 19, q. 5, a. 1). On this matter see J. MARITAIN, Court traité de l’existence et de l’existent, Paris 1947 (E. t., Existence and the Existent, New York 1948).
SCHMIDT, op. cit., pp. 316–317.
SCHMIDT, op. cit., p. 317.
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© 1975 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Mondin, B. (1975). The Logic of Rationate Being. In: St. Thomas Aquinas’ Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1679-7_2
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