Being and Participation: The Method and Structure of Metaphysical Reflection according to Cornelio Fabro Vol II PDF

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PONTIFICAL ATHENAEUM REGINA APOSTOLORUM FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY Jason A. Mitchell, L.C. BEING AND PARTICIPATION The Method and Structure of Metaphysical Reflection according to Cornelio Fabro Volume II Dissertatio ad Doctoratum in Facultate Philosophiæ Pontificii Athenaei Regina Apostolorum Rome 2012 ...

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PONTIFICAL ATHENAEUM REGINA APOSTOLORUM

FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY

Jason A. Mitchell, L.C.

BEING AND PARTICIPATION The Method and Structure of Metaphysical Reflection according to Cornelio Fabro

Volume II

Dissertatio ad Doctoratum in Facultate Philosophiæ Pontificii Athenaei Regina Apostolorum

Rome 2012

Vidimus et adprobavimus ad normam statutorum Pontificii Athenæi Regina Apostolorum Prof. P. Jesús Villagrasa, L.C. Prof. P. Alain Contat Prof. P. Rafael Pascual, L.C.

Imprimi potest P. Rafael Pascual, L.C. Decanus Facultatis Philosophiæ P. Benjamin Dueñas, L.C. Secretarius Generalis

Romæ, ex Pontificio Athenæo Regina Apostolorum, die vi mensis septembris anni 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Jason A. Mitchell, L.C. MITCHELL JASON A., L.C. Being and Participation: The Method and Structure of Metaphysical Reflection according to Cornelio Fabro – Tesi dottorato. Filosofia 14 – 2 volumi. Roma : Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, 2012. I vol. 432 pp.; II vol. 416 pp.; 17x24 cm. In testa al front.: Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum. ISBN: 978-88-96990-09-4 Finito di stampare nel mese di dicembre 2012 dalla Tipografia Città Nuova della P.A.M.O.M.- Roma

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME II Chapter Four: The Emergence of esse ........................................................................... 437 1. Metaphysical resolution as a process of foundation (PC, 7-66) .................................... 443 2. The emergence of esse (PC, 214-238) ........................................................................... 453 3. Metaphysical reflection and predicamental causality (PC, 330-358) ............................ 466 4. Metaphysical reflection and transcendental causality .................................................... 471 4.1 Predicamental causality and transcendental causality .......................................... 472 4.2 Divine causality and the derivation of created ens ............................................... 485 4.2.1 The multiplicity of divine ideas and exemplars ...................................... 486 4.2.2 The “double participation” of essence and esse ...................................... 487 4.2.3 “Mediated” derivation of the created essence ......................................... 493 5. Metaphysical reflection and analogy (PC, 499-526) ..................................................... 495 5.1 The role of analogy in the metaphysical reductio ad unum .................................. 497 5.2 Analogy of proportionality and analogy of attribution ......................................... 501 5.3 The semantics of metaphysical analogy ............................................................... 510 5.4 The metaphysical foundation of analogy .............................................................. 517 6. Summary ........................................................................................................................ 527 Chapter Five: The Reduction to Fundament ................................................................ 531 1. Metaphysical reflection (1961-1969)............................................................................. 532 1.1 The determination of act in Thomistic metaphysics (1961).................................. 532 1.2 The metaphysical fundament of the Fourth Way (1965) ...................................... 540 1.3 Notes for the metaphysical foundation of being (1966) ....................................... 551 1.4 The transcendentality of ens-esse (1966).............................................................. 560 1.5 The existence of God and the tension of ens-essentia-esse (1967) ....................... 571 1.6 Thomistic esse and the revival of metaphysics ..................................................... 576 1.7 Knowledge of esse (1967) .................................................................................... 586 1.8 Summary............................................................................................................... 589 2. Metaphysical reflection (1970-1979)............................................................................. 593 2.1 The return to fundament (1972-1973) .................................................................. 593 2.2 The Thomistic notion of participation (1967-1974) ............................................. 599 2.3 The new problem of being and the foundation of metaphysics (1974)................. 608 2.4 The interpretation of act in Aquinas and Heidegger (1974) ................................. 621 2.5 La svolta antropologica di Karl Rahner (1974) ................................................... 625 2.6 Summary............................................................................................................... 627 3. Metaphysical reflection (1980-1995)............................................................................. 629 3.1 The emergence of the act of being (1983) ............................................................ 630 3.2 The emergence of esse in Fabro’s Thomistic theses (1983) ................................. 632 3.3 Problematic of Scholastic Thomism (1983) ......................................................... 647 3.4 On the search for the foundation of Metaphysics (1986)...................................... 652 3.5 The emergence of Thomistic esse over Aristotelian act (1989-1990) .................. 655

435

3.6 Conference on the originality and emergence of esse (1991) ............................... 660 4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 662 Chapter Six: The Method of Metaphysical Reflection ................................................. 665 1. The nature of resolutio according to Fabro .................................................................... 666 1.1 Resolutio as metaphysical method ........................................................................ 666 1.2 Resolutio and the judgment of separation ............................................................. 667 1.3 Resolutio and demonstration ................................................................................ 667 1.4 Resolutio and argumentation ................................................................................ 668 1.5 Resolutio and analogy........................................................................................... 669 1.6 Resolutio and participation ................................................................................... 670 1.7 Resolutio and emergence ...................................................................................... 671 1.8 Resolutio and causality ......................................................................................... 671 2. Resolutio as a rational movement from ens to esse ....................................................... 672 3. Types of resolution according to Fabro ......................................................................... 677 4. Evaluation of Fabro’s proposal ...................................................................................... 679 Chapter Seven: The Structure of Metaphysical Reflection .......................................... 689 1. The initial notion of ens ................................................................................................. 694 1.1 Ens as primum cognitum....................................................................................... 694 1.2 Phenomenological reflection on being ................................................................. 705 2. Passage to the methodological notion of being .............................................................. 708 2.1 The problem of multiplicity, change and movement ............................................ 708 2.2 Constitution of the genus subiectum of metaphysics ............................................ 712 3. The methodological notion of being .............................................................................. 715 3.1 The real distinction between essence and esse ..................................................... 716 3.2 Formal, predicamental causality ........................................................................... 725 4. Passage to the intensive notion of being ........................................................................ 725 4.1 Formal resolution of participated perfections ....................................................... 726 4.2 Real reduction of esse participatum to Esse per Essentiam ................................. 732 4.2.1 Principle of the emergence of act ............................................................ 732 4.2.2 Principle of separated perfection............................................................. 738 4.2.3 Principle of participation......................................................................... 746 4.2.3.1 Causal participation and creation ................................................ 748 4.2.3.2 Participative structure of created ens .......................................... 780 5. The intensive notion of esse........................................................................................... 786 5.1 Intensive esse ........................................................................................................ 786 5.2 The transcendental properties of being ................................................................. 791 5.3 Analogy: the semantics of participation ............................................................... 796 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 813 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 827

436

Chapter Four

THE EMERGENCE OF ESSE

In NMP, Fabro explored the theme of static participation and the “metaphysical structure of the creature”, yet promised to continue his investigations and later publish a work on dynamic participation in terms of the Thomistic synthesis of Platonic participation and Aristotelian causality1. In 1954, he fulfilled his promise in the Chaire Cardinal Mercier lectures held at the University of Louvain on “the metaphysical foundation of causality”2 and “causal-dynamic participation”3. These lectures were edited and published in Italian and French towards the end of 1960 and beginning of 19614. 1

See C. FABRO, PC, 9. Fabro characterizes the studies of NMP and PC as follows: “Also for this study on the metaphysical foundation of causality, as in the preceding one on the metaphysical structure of the creature, one is immediately struck by the impression of the profound simplicity and coherence that an assiduous, direct and critically ordered reading of St. Thomas’s work presents” (PC, 41). 3 See C. FABRO, “The Intensive Hermeneutics of Thomistic Philosophy…”, 450-451 n. 3: “The complex and difficult notion of dynamic participation is the subject matter of my second volume devoted to the study of Thomistic participation […] [It] contains the results of twenty years of research”. See H. JOHN, The Thomist Spectrum, 97: “In this massive volume, the principles of Partecipazione, which emphasize ‘static’ or structural participation, are extended to consideration of the problems of causality, seen as ‘dynamic participation.’ Similarly, where Partecipazione explored St. Thomas’ relation to his immediate sources, the Mercier lectures offer a confrontation of the Thomistic doctrine of being with the whole history of Western philosophy, from the Pre-Socratics to Heidegger”. 4 C. FABRO, Participation et causalité selon s. Thomas D’Aquin, Éditions Nauwelaerts, Paris-Louvain 1961; Partecipazione e Causalità secondo S. Tommaso d’Aquino, Società Editrice Internazionale, Torino 1960. Fabro notes that the Italian version contains further developments in the text and notes and some slight modifications in the arrangement of the material (See PC 10). I will be quoting from the Italian version. Several sections of the work were published before 1960: “Actualité et originalité de l’esse thomiste” (1956); “Per una semantica originaria 2

437

BEING AND PARTICIPATION

PC is divided into three parts. Part One, “The Formation of Thomistic esse”, deals with the problem of ei=nai in Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato and Aristotle, and the Thomistic “emergence” of esse – namely, how we come to know esse as actus essendi in metaphysics. Part Two is entitled “The Causality of Being” and deals with Thomistic causality as a synthesis of Platonic participation and Aristotelian causality, the predicamental, formal causality of becoming (fieri), and the transcendental causality of esse. Part Three is entitled “The Dialectic of Causality” and deals with the role of analogy in a metaphysics of participation, confronts St. Thomas’s thought on participation and esse with that of Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino and Hegel, and deals with how Thomistic esse was obscured in the Scholasticism that followed St. Thomas’s death. The Conclusion of PC summarizes the results of NMP and PC on participation, structural composition, causality and analogy5. Part Two and the beginning of Part Three of the French and Italian editions of PC are notably different in structure. The rearrangement of the French text in the Italian version and the occasional additions to the Italian version make it somewhat difficult to follow the logic behind Fabro’s exposition of predicamental and transcendental causality in the Italian version. Interpreting the Italian version in light of the arrangement of the French version will help to overcome this difficulty. Consequently, before speaking about metaphysical reflection in the work, it is helpful to look at a concordance between the two versions, based on the original French version:

Concordance between Parts Two and Three of the Italian (1960) and French Versions (1961) of Participation and Causality Deuxième partie: La causalité de l’être Section I: La causalité prédicamentale La causalità verticale platonica La causalità orizzontale aristotelica

397-404

319-328

404-410

328-334

La causalità della forma

323-330

335-343

La causalité verticale platonicienne La causalité horizontale aristotélicienne La causalité synthétique thomiste

dello esse tomistico” (1956); “L’obscurcissement de l’esse dans l’école thomiste” (1958); “Dall’ente di Aristotele all’esse di S. Tommaso” (1958); and “Influenze tomistiche nella filosofia del Ficino” (1959). 5 These conclusions may also be found in an Italian article, “Elementi per una dottrina di partecipazione” (1967), and an English article, “The Intensive Hermeneutics of Thomistic Philosophy: The Notion of Participation” (1974).

438

CHAPTER FOUR: THE EMERGENCE OF ESSE

Section II: La causalité prédicamentale univoque Causalità formale dell’esse (forma dat esse) La forma come principio dell’esse specifico e la struttura dinamica del concreto

330-341; 345-349

344-359

355-358

359-362

La causalité de la forme (forma dat esse) La causalité de la forme et l’émergence de l’esse

Section III: La causalité transcendantale -La causalità dell’esse e la struttura dell’ente finito Causa prima e causa seconda: La fondazione della libertà creata I teoremi della causalità

La causalità orizzontale aristotelica -Il principio della totalità e l’espansione della causalità I gradi della causalità creata Processioni divine e partecipazione causale La causalità trascendentale dell’esse e la libertà umana

358-367

363-374

435-444

La causalité de l’esse La causalité de l’esse et la structure 374-380 de l’être fini Causalité prédicamentale et 381-397 transcendantale La structure de la causalité 397-409 prédicamentale et transcendantale Troisième partie: La dialectique de la causalité Section I: L’immanence de la causalité

307-318

413-426

367-372 448-462

318-322; 255-272 410-418 418-424 380-386 386-396; 424 424-434; 463-466

426-451 452-461 461-468

La transposition de la causalité aristotélicienne La transposition de la causalité platonicienne Le principe de totalité La causalité des corps

468-488

Causalité créée et processions divines

488-508

Causalité créée et causalité divine

Section II La sémantique de la participation thomiste La reductio ad unum e l’analogia di attribuzione Analogia di proporzionalità e analogia di attribuzione La semantica dell’analogia metafisica: somiglianza e analogia La semantica dell’esse: dall’esse formale all’esse attuale Il parmenidismo avicenniano di Meister Eckhart Il parmenidismo pitagorico del Cusano Dialettica hegeliana, analogia eckhartiana e analogia thomistica Causalità, partecipazione e analogia La semantica della partecipazione La ripresa dell’attualità dell’esse

499-505 505-514; 517

509-537

Participation, causalité, analogie

518-526 527-539

537-551

539-553

551-567

553-567

567-581

581-586 581-609

Dialectique hégélienne, analogie eckhartienne et analogie thomiste

610-622

Thématique de la participation

586-602 630-636 636-640

La sémantique de l’esse: de l’esse formel à l’esse actuel L’immanence éléate de l’esse d’après Eckhart L’intensité de l’esse chez Nicolas de cuse

439

BEING AND PARTICIPATION

As the concordance shows, the main section on predicamental causality in the Italian version is limited to pages 330-341, 345-349 and 355-358, while the section on transcendental causality is found in the Italian version on pages 358-372, 435-444 and 448-462. With regard to Fabro’s thought on the method of metaphysical reflection, Fabro builds on what he established in NMP as “intensive metaphysical abstraction (reflection)”6. NMP concentrated on the structure of finite ens and, consequently, on the first stages of metaphysical reflection. This reflection, as we have seen, is configured above all as a dialectical comparison of form and esse in the line of act and structural participation and as a twofold resolution of essence (according to participated perfection) and esse. In PC, two themes dominate his reflections on the method of metaphysical reflection: the problem of the foundation of participated esse and the relationship between ens and esse in metaphysical resolution. I have divided this chapter on metaphysical reflection in PC into five sections which correspond in large part to the development of the principal sections of the work: 1. Metaphysical resolution as a process of foundation: In the Introduction (PC, 11-68), Fabro critiques the theory of Thomists who attribute knowledge of esse as actus essendi to the act of judgment. Subsequently, he argues that we come to know esse as actus essendi through a process of reduction and resolution. 2. The emergence of esse: In the section on “The Thomistic emergence of esse” (PC, 215-239), Fabro considers how ens is “determined” in metaphysics and, thus, indirectly with the problem of metaphysical method. He characterizes the determination of ens as a progressive intensification of both ens and esse and refers to a twofold resolution of esse formale and actus essendi. He looks at the problems which stem from attributing our knowledge of actus essendi to judgment and points out that our knowledge of esse as actus essendi involves understanding it in the transcendental couplet “ens per participationem et Esse per essentiam”. Our metaphysical knowledge of esse, therefore, embraces the entire itinerary of metaphysics and includes the latter stages of metaphysic...