Between Thomism and Scotism: Francisco Suárez on the Analogy of Being

Abstract

At the beginning of his Church Dogmatics , Karl Barth (in)famously identifies the analogia entis as the 'invention of the anti-Christ' and the principal reason for his inability to become Catholic. This chapter argues that Francisco Suarez's doctrine of analogy is unique in the history of philosophy, and can be reduced neither to a Thomistic analogy nor to an ill-formed Scotistic univocity. It discusses that what makes Suarez's account unique is his particular understanding of the (analogical) concept of being as 'confused' and 'aptitudinal', that is, a concept that confusedly or indistinctly expresses being's 'aptness' to exist, which is to say, its relationship to diverse modes of existence (e.g., infinite-finite, substantial-accidental, real-possible, etc.), all the while prescinding from those modes. The chapter deals with the Suarezian doctrine of analogy as lying somewhere between Thomism and Scotism. Keywords: Francisco Suarez; Karl Barth; philosophy; Scotism; Thomism; Thomistic analogy