Cajetan’s Notion of Existence by John P. Reilly (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 741 methodological priority of phenomenology to metaphysics. Even when Wild argued for the primacy of metaphysics in his realist period against the tendency in recent philosophy to establish a logic and a theory of knowledge independent of metaphysics, Wild insisted that the revival of metaphysics be preceded by careful and detailed phenomenological descriptions. But, whereas in his classical realist period Wild took these descriptions to be descriptions of the objects of awareness, in his present existentialist period he requires that these descriptions be descriptions of the awarenesses themselves along with subjective feelings such as care and guilt, and in general the data of the human existential situation. Admittedly, in a book of this sort, devoted as it is to exposition, criticism should be kept to a minimum. At the same time, however, since criticism is often a fruitful means to clear exposition, Reck's purposes would have been even better served had he made more use of criticism than he did. For example, as a way of elucidating Blanchard's notion that an idea is its object in posse one might have raised the objection that the relation between an idea and that which it is the idea of appears more to be one of act to potency than one of potency to act. Presumably, in showing how Blanchard might answer this and perhaps other criticisms, one would be gaining greater insight into that philosopher's thought and doing so by means of criticism. Or again, to gain deeper insight into Lewis's conceptualistic pragmatism one might raise the rather commonsensical objection that, if Lewis holds that it is we human beings who for our own purposes decide what features are to be packed into the meanings of concepts, how can he also hold that the given data provide us with some clue as to what is to be included in the meaning of these same concepts. It appears prima facie as if Lewis is both denying all intelligibility to the given data while at the same time according some intelligibility and determinateness to this data. Now it is precisely by raising and trying to answer a criticism of this sort that one would achieve a clearer picture of Lewis's philosophical program. University of Rhode Island Kingston, R. I. JOHN F. PETERSON Cajetan's Notion of Existence. By JOHN P. REILLY. The Hague: Mouton, 1971. Pp. 131. 25 Dutch guilders. This book, which is divided into six chapters, begins the first chapter with a textual analysis of St. Thomas Aquinas's notion of existence. The point stressed is that existence and participation are the cornerstone of the Thomistic metaphysics. In chapter two, the author presents Cajetan's 742 BOOK REVIEWS explanation of two points: God is essentially subsisting esse; as such he transcends all categories and is infinitely perfect. God as the subsisting act of existing is the First Cause of all other beings. Chapter three is the main section in the book and is composed of three parts: (a) the metaphysical constitution of material substances; (b) the real distinction between essence and existence; and (c) the problem of the supposit. The aim and purpose of the book, and especially of chapter three, is to establish Cajetan's existentialism in his analysis of being 1 and to show that Cajetan's notion of existence is fundamentally the same as that of St. Thomas Aquinas. The texts of Cajetan that are used to prove this point are: In Summa Theologiae Commentarium, In De Ente et Essentia Commentarium, De Nominum Analogia and In De Anima Commentarium. In his textual analysis, the author tries to reconcile texts in Cajetan which imply an essentialism with texts that are existentialist in tone and thua answer the charge of essentialism in Cajetan raised by Gilson. According to Gilson, Cajetan's position on esse is the same as that of St. Albert the Great, where esse is not the act of form but is only the relation of an actual being to its efficient cause. Gilson's view is supported by texts which strongly suggest an essentialism; 2 the view is further supported by Cajetan's use of terms that appear to be those...