HIRCOCERVI & OTHER METAPHYSICAL W:ONDERS Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical WOnders Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical WOnders essays in hOnOr Of JOhn p. dOyle Edited by Victor M. Salas Marquette studies in philOsOphy nO. 84 andreW tallOn, series editOr library Of cOngress catalOging-in-publicatiOn data Hircocervi & other metaphysical wonders : essays in honor of John P. Doyle / edited by Victor M. Salas. — first [edition].        pages cm. —  (Marquette studies in philosophy ; No. 84)   Includes bibliographical references and index.   ISBN 978-0-87462-721-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87462-721-4 (hard- cover : alk. paper) 1.  Philosophy, Medieval.  I. Salas, Victor M., editor of compilation. II. Doyle, John P., 1930- III. Title: Hircocervi and other metaphysical wonders. B720.H57 2013 189—dc23      2012049690 © 2013 Marquette University Press Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141 All rights reserved. www.marquette.edu/mupress/ Printed at Thomson-Shore, Dexter, Michigan, USA Cover portrait, “Jack Doyle.” Oil on canvas, 11 x 17 in. ©2013 Curt Crain. http://crainpainting.com/gallery.html The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. table Of cOntents Editor’s Foreword ~ 9 Chapter 1: The Eternity of the World According to Peter of Candia Stephen Brown ~ 31 Chapter 2: Suárez & Medieval Transcendental Thought Rolf Darge ~ 65 Chapter 3: John Buridan, Albert of Saxony, Marsilius of Inghen on Chimerae, & Impossible Objects Thomas Dewender ~ 95 Chapter 4: “Ut ex etymologia nominis patet?” John Punch on the Nature & the Object of Metaphysics Marco Forlivesi ~ 121 Chapter 5: Actions Speak Louder Then Words: What Aquinas Learned from Maimonides Jennifer Hart-Weed ~ 157 Chapter 6: Abstraction, Intentionality, & Moderate Realism: Suárez & Poinsot Daniel Heider ~ 177 Chapter 7: John Duns Scotus’s Approach to Metaphysics Ludger Honnefelder ~ 213 Chapter 8: Thomistic Ornithology: A Brief Note Jack Marler ~ 229 Chapter 9: Twenty Years after Suárez: Francisco de Araújo on the Nature, Existence, & Causes of Entia rationis Daniel Novotný ~ 241 Chapter 10: Man’s Ability to Understand His Own Understanding: Aquinas, Kant, & Modern Physics Michael Renemann ~ 269 6 Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical Wonders Chapter 11: Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, & Edith Stein on Essential Being Victor Salas ~ 285 Chapter 12: Augustinian Abstraction & Henry of Ghent’s Metaphysical Argument Roland Teske, S.J. ~ 309 Post Scriptum: Hircocervi & Other Metaphysical Wonders John Patrick Doyle ~ 329 About the Contributors ~ 369 Index of Names ~ 373 Index of Terms ~ 377 V idetur enim aliqua negativa omnino nihil ponere, et tamen esse vera: ergo verum non universaliter causatur ab ente, nec convertitur cum ente. Verbi gratia, si dicam sic, Caesar non est homo: haec enim (ut dicunt quidam) nihil ponit. Et si dubitatur de illa, pono istam, tragelaphus non est fligax, vel chimaera non est hircocervus, quae nec secundum extrema, nec secundum composi- tionem, videtur supponere aliquod ens: ergo videtur, quod nec hoc sit verum universaliter, quod verum cum ente convertitur: nec hoc, quod sicut unumquodque se habet ad esse, ita se habet ad verum: nec hoc, quod in eo quod res est, vel non est, oratio vera vel falsa est. —Albertus Magnus, Super Sententiarum I, d. 46, a. 13 (ed. Borgnet, vol. 26, 449a) A trusty servant’s picture would you see/ This figure well survey, who’ever you be./ The porker’s snout not nice in diet shows;/ The padlock shut, no secret he’ll disclose;/ Patient, to angry lords the ass gives ear;/ Swiftness on errand, the stag’s feet declare;/ Laden his left hand, apt to labour saith;/ The coat his neatness; the open hand his faith;/ Girt with his sword, his shield upon his arm,/ Himself and master he’ll protect from harm. —An inscription describing a wall painting (hanging in Winchester College, Hampshire, England) called “The Trusty Servant” (1597) in which is depicted a Hircocervus I don’t think there is any such thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It’s the lowest you can go. It’s the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something: even though it’s just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.” —Wilbur the Pig, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White acknOWledgMents I wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for their very fine scholarship and kind patience throughout the various steps of publication. I owe a debt of gratitude to the financial support of Mr. and Mrs. William Dick, whose love for learning and gen- erous patronage of intellectual and artistic endaevors will be of benefit for generations to come. Mr. Darren Hogan was an invaluable resource in helping with the more practical affairs of bringing this vol- ume to publication. Finally, I am grateful for the support of the Very Rev. Msgr. Todd Lajiness, Rector-President of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, whose generosity likewise helped this volume find its way to publication. editOr’s fOreWOrd T he twelve essays contained in this volume are a tribute to the career and scholarship of John Patrick Doyle offered by his former students, colleagues, and friends. Chapter 1, an edition of Peter of Candia’s Commentarium in II librum Sententiarum, d. 1, q. l, a. 3, which pertains to the question of the eternity of the world, is Stephen Brown’s contribution to this volume. In chapter 2 Rolf Darge discusses Suárez’s understanding of the transcendental character of being and takes pains to distinguish it from Scotus’s conceptus entis simpliciter simplex. In chapter 3 Thomas Dewender offers an examination of a subject near and dear to Doyle, impossible objects, according to the logical and semantic analyses of John Buridan and his followers, Albert of Saxony and Marsilius of Ingham. Marco Forlivesi’s contribution, chapter 4, considers the role epistemology plays for John Punch in determining the proper object of metaphysics. Chapter 5 offers Jennifer Hart-Weed’s consideration of how Moses Maimonides’s account of divine actions informs much of Thomas Aquinas’s analogical theory of religious language. Chapter 6 is Daniel Heider’s contribution, wherein it is argued that Suárez’s ontological theory of universals, even when compared to John Poinsot’s theory of universals, proves to be an equivalent—if not stronger—form of moderate realism than that of the Thomists. Ludger Honnefelder’s essay, chapter 7, identifies the nature, scope, and peculiar features of Duns Scotus’s metaphysics, identifying it as a truly transcendental science. Jack Marler’s contribution, chapter 8, on the De ente et essen- tia’s ‘phoenix example’ argues that Thomas’s intention is to show how even (created) individuals that are one of a kind, like the phoenix, are such that their essence too is really distinct from their esse. In chapter 9 Daniel Novotný places Francisco de Araújo’s theory of entia rationis into opposition with that of Suárez and argues that, while the former is not exactly the philosophical equal of the latter, nonetheless, Araújo improves upon and ultimately holds a more consistent theory than Suárez. Chapter 10, Michael Renemann’s contribution, argues that self-consciousness according to Thomas Aquinas is not nerely as