Content area
Volltext
SUAREZ, Francisco. A Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics or "A Most Ample Index to the Metaphysics of Aristotle." Translated by John P. Doyle. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2004. 430 pp. Paper, $25.00-Noted Suarez scholar John P. Doyle has provided us here with another fine translation and annotation, the seventh Suarez volume in Marquette's Medieval Philosophical Texts in Translation. It should be noted that, this is not a commentary in the sense of a paraphrase or an exposition "by way of comment," but an exposition "by way of question" (pp. 8-9). In this mode, the examination of a text gives rise to relevant philosophical questions, which are systematically asked, arranged, and answered. Commentary on the text itself is therefore kept to a minimum. Moreover, in this particular work, Suarez will often simply refer to the relevant sections of his more famous Metaphysical Disputations rather than present maximally complete answers to the questions raised. Even so, the reader will enjoy Suarez's succinct and satisfactory expositions of the Aristotelian text and, most especially, his teaching concerning certain philosophical and logical issues raised by the text.
Although everything the Eximiant Doctor has to say is worthy of being mentioned, this reviewer will limit himself to the following metaphysical and historical issues.
First, there is the analogicity of being. As is well known, Suarez is a defender of the analogy of intrinsic proportion. He affirms that...