This foundational treatise offers an English text-book on General Metaphysics from the Scholastic standpoint, drawing deeply upon the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. The author addresses the enduring problems of medieval philosophy, translating them into the context of contemporary discussions to prove their ongoing relevance. The volume opens with a general survey of philosophy, establishing its definition as the science of all things through their ultimate reasons and causes.
The work systematically divides philosophy into speculative and practical domains. Practical philosophy is examined through logic, ethics, and esthetics, while speculative philosophy explores metaphysics. The text details the primary determinations of being, analyzing the concepts of reality, existence, and essence. It establishes the foundational distinction between real being and logical being, and explores transcendental attributes including unity, truth, and goodness.
A central focus is placed on the problem of change, or becoming, and its implications. The author investigates the potential and the actual, the relation between active and passive potencies, and the principle that whatever undergoes change is changed by something else. The four great classes of change—local, quantitative, qualitative, and substantial—are analyzed thoroughly to explain corporeal reality and the nature of matter and form.
The volume addresses the distinction between essence and existence in actually existing contingent beings. It evaluates the theories surrounding this distinction, weighing the arguments for a real distinction against those supporting a virtual distinction. The analysis extends to the principles of individuation, examining how universal essences become individualized in concrete reality through matter and form.
Throughout the text, the author maintains that scholastic philosophy alone provides a solid intellectual basis for unifying all facts brought to light by modern sciences. The work avoids treating medieval theories as merely historical, instead demonstrating that every scholastic problem is keenly debated by contemporary thinkers. The volume concludes by providing advanced students with a comprehensive standard of reference for metaphysical inquiries.
