Abstract

This chapter deals with the theory of beings of reason of Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (1606-82). Caramuel was a Spanish-Luxemburgian-Bohemian Cistercian, who distanced himself from all established philosophical schools of the Baroque era (he often praised Thomas Aquinas but explicitly denied being a Thomist). Caramuel takes up beings of reason on several occasions, for the last time in his essay Leptotatos (1681). The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part discusses Caramuel's views on the nature of beings of reason; the second turns to his views on other issues, namely the causes and the division of beings of reason; and the final part briefly evaluates his theory. The aim of this chapter is to identify Caramuel's main contribution to the debates about beings of reason. It is shown that Caramuel takes Self-Contradictorism, according to which beings of reason are nothing but self-contradictory items, as a point of departure and then he argues for their complete elimination.

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