Francisco Suárez
Francisco Suárez, SJ (5 January 1548 – 25 September 1617) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement. His work is considered a turning point in the history of second scholasticism, marking the transition from its Renaissance to its Baroque phases. According to Christopher Shields and Daniel Schwartz, "figures as distinct from one another in place, time, and philosophical orientation as Leibniz, Grotius, Pufendorf, Schopenhauer and Heidegger, all found reason to cite him as a source of inspiration and influence."[2]
Francisco Suárez
5 January 1548
25 September 1617 (aged 69)
Doctor Eximius
The object of metaphysics is being insofar as it is real being[1]
Influence[edit]
The contributions of Suarez to metaphysics and theology exerted significant influence over 17th and 18th century scholastic theology among both Roman Catholics and Protestants.[18]
Thanks in part to the strength of Suárez's Jesuit order, his Disputationes Metaphysicae was widely taught in the Catholic schools of Spain, Portugal and Italy.
It also spread from these schools to many Lutheran universities in Germany, where the text was studied especially by those who favoured Melanchthon rather than Luther's attitude towards philosophy. In a number of seventeenth-century Lutheran universities the Disputationes served as a textbook in philosophy.
In a similar way, Suárez had major influence in the Reformed tradition of German and Dutch schools for both metaphysics and law, including international law. His work was highly praised, for example, by Hugo Grotius (1583-1645).
His influence is evident in the writings of Bartholomaeus Keckermann (1571–1609), Clemens Timpler (1563–1624), Gilbertus Jacchaeus (1578–1628), Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), Antonius Walaeus (1573–1639), and Johannes Maccovius (Jan Makowski; 1588–1644), among others.[19] This influence was so pervasive that by 1643 it provoked the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Revius to publish his book-length response: Suarez repurgatus.[20] Suárez's De legibus was cited as among the best books on law by the Puritan Richard Baxter,[21] and Baxter's friend Matthew Hale drew on it for his natural-law theory.[22]
Criticism[edit]
The views of Suarez upon the human origin of political order, and his defense of tyrannicide emanating from popular dissent were heavily criticized by English philosopher Robert Filmer in his work Patriarcha, Or the Natural Power of Kings. Filmer believed Calvinists and Catholics like Suarez to be dangerous opponents of divine right monarchy, legitimized by the supremacy of fathers upon their offspring, which Filmer claimed could be traced back to Adam.[23]
In the 18th century, the Venice edition of Opera Omnia in 23 volumes in folio (1740–1751) appeared, followed by the Parisian Vivès edition, 26 volumes + 2 volumes of indices (1856–1861); in 1965 the Vivés edition of the Disputationes Metaphysicae (vols. 25–26) was reprinted by Georg Olms, Hildesheim.
From 1597 to 1636 the Disputationes Metaphysicae were published in seventeen editions; no modern edition of Suárez's complete works is yet available and only few of Suárez's Disputations have been translated into English.