On Divine Simplicity and the Predication of Multiple Attributes in Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

En In I Sent., d. 2, q. 1, aa. 1-3 Tomás de Aquino estudia la simplicidad divina y la predicación de los atributos divinos. Ahí, parece guardar cierta distancia frente a Avicena, concretamente cuando este último afirma que Dios no tiene quididad. Sin embargo, en la Summa theologiae asume, como lo hace previamente tanto en In I Sent., d. 8, q. 1, a. 1 como en De ente et essentia, la identidad entre essentia/quididad y esse en Dios, una afirmación que igualmente provendría de Avicena. Mostraré cómo desde el Comentario a las Sentencias Tomás de Aquino ha detectado la tensión existente entre las dos tesis soste-nidas por Avicena, y analizaré el modo en que trata con ambas.n In I Sent., d. 2, q. 1, aa. 1-3 Thomas Aquinas deals with divine simplicity and the predication of the divine attributes. There, he seems to take some distance from Avicenna, specifically when Avicenna avers that God lacks a quiddity. However, in the Summa theologiae Aquinas assumes, as he previously does both in In I Sent., d. 8, q. 1, a. 1 and in De ente et essentia, that there is an identity between the essentia/quiddity and the esse in God, while this statement would also be held by Avicenna. I will show how back to the Commentary on the Sentences Aquinas has detected the existing tension between the two thesis held by Avicenna, and I will also analyze the way in which he addresses both these theses

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