Ens and Intelligibile: a Test for Aquinas’ Metaphysics

Th e aim of the present contribution is to analyse the connection between the concepts of ens and intelligibile in the metaphysics of Th omas Aquinas. In the case of medieval and early modern scholasticism, the relation between intelligible and being is a crucial element to understand the “nature” of metaphysics. Th e understanding of the “nature” of metaphysics requires the understanding of the relation linking being and intelligibility: this relation could probably constitute an ultimate verifi cation for metaphysics, a sort of test for it. We shall proceed as follows: after examining (a) how such a connection is conceived in Th omas’s work, (b) a comparative study of some metaphysical models will be carried out, specifi cally referring to the 14th and 17th centuries, when Aquinas’s view underwent radical changes in its contents and conclusions. Finally (c), we shall return to Th omas to understand better what concept of being and metaphysics is veiled under the connection between ens and intelligibile.