La apropiación de la concepción de substancia en santo Tomás

Abstract

The privileged status of the notion of substance in Aristotle’s metaphysics is well known. It is also known that St. Thomas took this conception in the heart of his thought. It will allow him to delve not only into the mystery of being but also in the mysteries of faith, including the mystery of the Trinity. This is well known to his commentators and there are numerous examples highlighting it. However, we believe that although Aristotle’s metaphysics was taken beyond its limits by Aquinas, its reception was not submitted to the same critical scrutiny in all of his works, in the sense of a more comprehensive integration within a thought that succeeded in distinguishing the being in the core of each reality as something different from that which shapes it and from itself. What is substance proper? How do the essential and the accidental articulate within the same existence? What makes this individual singular ultimately? How does understanding appropriate the act of being? After a century that may have focused on the singular existence, we deem necessary to confirm whether our belief is right or wrong and following the steps of the medieval Doctor, unveil a St. Thomas whose most novel richness is still current.