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Complete Dissertation VU Research Portal Neither Solitary Nor Diverse Harris, J.L. 2019 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Harris, J. L. (2019). Neither Solitary Nor Diverse: Transcendental Multiplicity in Thomas Aquinas. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Neither Solitary Nor Diverse Transcendental Multiplicity in Thomas Aquinas ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor of Philosophy aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam en Institute for Christian Studies, op gezag van de rector magnifici prof.dr. V. Subramaniam en prof. R. Kuipers, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen op maandag 16 september om 11.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Joshua Lee Harris geboren te San Diego, Verenigde Staten van Amerika promotoren: prof.dr. R.S. Sweetman prof.dr. M. Martijn Acknowledgements I am grateful for the attentive support of Marije Martin, whose impressive scholarly abilities are clearly supplemented by the rare and invaluable prudentia of a gracious co- promoter. Her guidance, along with that of many helpful and patient staff members at the VU, was a critical, necessary condition for the culmination of this process. I am also grateful for friendships developed at the Institute for Christian Studies, and for the opportunity to carry on its beautiful institutional legacy in this small way. The relentless generosity of Bob Sweetman occasioned the original set of questions this dissertation considers, and sustained the long and tumultuous journey of answering them. Our many hours of conversation logged over the course of several years remain a continued source of insight and encouragement for me. His is a soul worthy of aemulatio, as our friendship has taught me well. Finally, the love and friendship of my wife Sarah is the first principle by which our life together has taken shape since the beginning of this adventure and before. The constancy of her will to endure the many trials and oddities of these years together—and to make sacrifices seen and unseen on my behalf—is worthy not just of gratitude but of inspiration. Samenvatting In dit proefschrift behandel ik de achtergrond en de systematische ontwikkeling van het begrip multitudo transcendens in het denken van Thomas van Aquino. Ik betoog dat volgens Thomas multitudo een transcendentaal kenmerk van het zijn is, wat wil zeggen dat alle dingen relationeel geconstitueerd zijn door hun toegeordend zijn aan andere dingen. Met andere woorden, niets staat, inzoverre het zijn heeft, op zich. Het betoog volgt de ontwikkeling van het tijdloos wijsgerig probleem van het ene en het vele zoals eerst behandeld in de metafysica van Aristoteles en Avicenna en daarna in verscheidene Latijns Scholastische commentaren over de Sententiae van Lombardus. Ik laat zien dat in de leer van de multitudo transcendens van Thomas deze twee in andere opzichten uiteenlopende tradities duidelijk bijeenkomen. Daarmee toon ik ook aan dat er een intieme en wederzijds vormgevende relatie is tussen de metafysica van Thomas en zijn Trinitaire theologie. Zo wordt duidelijk dat bestudering van de multitudo transcendens-leer van Thomas een sterkargument levert voor de creatieve mogelijkheden die de integratie van wijsbegeerte en theologie biedt in het denken van Thomas, waardoor een opmerkelijke verscheidenheid naar voren komt in het geheel van de middeleeuwse wijsbegeerte. Abstract This dissertation considers the background and systematic development of the notion of multitudo transcendens in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. I argue that, according to Aquinas, multitudo is a transcendental feature of being, which is to say that all things are relationally constituted by their being ordered to others. In other words, nothing is solitary—at least not insofar as it has being. The argument proceeds by tracing the perennial philosophical problem of “the one and the many” as it is addressed in the metaphysics of Aristotle and Avicenna, and then in various Latin Scholastic commentaries on Lombard’s Sentences. I show that Aquinas’ doctrine of multitudo transcendens marks a clear convergence of these two otherwise disparate commentary traditions, thereby indicating an intimate, mutually informing relationship between Aquinas’ metaphysics and Trinitarian theology. Above all, Aquinas’ doctrine of multitudo transcendens is a powerful case study showcasing the creative potential that is present in the integration of philosophy and theology in Aquinas’ thought, and in the remarkable diversity of medieval philosophy as a whole. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 Multitudo transcendens ............................................................................................................... 5 Status quaestionis ........................................................................................................................ 8 The Structure of the Argument .................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 1: What is a Transcendental in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas? ................... 23 “He Who Is”: I Sent, 8.1.3 ......................................................................................................... 26 Contracting ens: De veritate 1.1 ................................................................................................ 33 Perfection and transcendentality: Summa theologiae 1.5.1 ....................................................... 39 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 2: The Opposition of Unity and Multiplicity in Metaphysics Γ.2, Δ.6 and I.3-6 48 Γ.2: Being and Unity are the Same ............................................................................................ 50 Δ.6: “One” is said in many ways ............................................................................................... 65 I.3-6: τὸ ἓν and τὰ πολλὰ: Two Oppositions ............................................................................. 74 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER 3: The Opposition of Unity and Multiplicity in Ilāhiyyāt III .............................. 82 III.1-2: Avicenna, the Aristotelian ............................................................................................. 84 Existence and Unity as Necessary Concomitants ...................................................................... 90 III.3-5: Number and Multiplicity ............................................................................................... 95 III.6: The Circularity Problem ................................................................................................. 100 Averroes’ Criticism of Avicenna ............................................................................................. 107 Averroes on Number and Multiplicity .................................................................................... 110 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 116 CHAPTER 4: Aquinas among his Aristotelian Interlocutors .............................................. 117 Metaphysics as φιλοσοφία θεολογική ..................................................................................... 118 Aquinas on Metaphysics Γ.2.................................................................................................... 122 Aquinas on Metaphysics I........................................................................................................ 131 Aquinas’ Averroesianism: De veritate 21.5 and Summa theologiae 1.6.3 .............................. 135 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 145 CHAPTER 5: The ratio multitudinis in the Early Aquinas ................................................... 148 Ambiguities in the Sentences Commentary ............................................................................. 150 Transcendental aliquid in De veritate 1.1 ............................................................................... 171 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................
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