Selections from De Anima

On the Nature of the Soul in General - On the Immateriality and

ISBN: 978-3-88405-101-6

First English Translation by John Kronen and Jeremiah Reedy
Introduction and explanatory notes by John Kronen

English translation of the first Scholastic monography on the Soul.

Suarez’s De Anima is his second  most important  philosophical work after his celebrated Metaphysical Disputations, and like the  Disputations, it is incredibly thorough.  Indeed, it is the most complete treatment of the nature of living beings from an Aristotelian point of view ever penned.  In it  Suarez treats questions we would now ascribe to such separate disciplines as metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of biology. 

The selections translated here, the first English translation of any part of the De anima, give the reader a good sample of some of the central metaphysical questions treated in the  De anima.

The first selection, consisting of all of Disputation I, provides Suarez’s solution to difficult questions concerning the nature of the soul in general; specifically it addresses the way it is first act, its quidditative definition, and its relation to the body, the composite, and the essential accidents of the living organism it partially constitutes. 

The second selection, consisting of question 3 of Disputation 2, reviews  and defends all the philosophical arguments, whether metaphysical or moral, found in the Christian  tradition for the conclusion that the rational soul is immaterial and  immortal. 

Translating Authors:

Jeremiah Reedy Professor Emeritus of Classics specialized in textual criticism and Indo-European linguistics at the University of Michigan. His current interests include Latin and Greek (languages and literature), mythology, and Greek philosophy. His publications include translations and editions of both Greek and Latin works, plus articles on many aspects of Greek philosophy. Since retiring in 2004 he has been doing research, writing, and teaching at the U. of St. Thomas as an adjunct professor.

John Kronen, Professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota, is the author of several articles in the areas of metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, baroque scholasticism, and Indian philosophy.  He is the co-translator, with Jeremiah Reedy, of Suarez’s On the Formal Cause of Substance, Metaphysical Disputation XV, published by Marquette University Press, 2000, and the co-author, with Eric Reitan, of God’s Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism, Published by Continuum, 2011. 

Areas of interest:  Philosophy of Mind / Philosophical Psychology / Philosophy of Nature / Metaphysics / Post Medieval Philosophy / Philosophy of the 16. Century

189 pp, Bibliography Modern Translations of Suarez’s Works