Among our many goals, the Lyceum Institute strives to retrieve the forgotten or ignored wisdom of the past. Within that aim, we are making available important and insightful texts that have fallen out of print, and making them affordable in the process. Using modern print-on-demand services, and selling these volumes at cost, we are able to ensure the important thoughts of great thinkers remain available in printed editions.
The Cursus Theologicus of John Poinsot
The work of John Poinsot, also known as Joannes a Sancto Thoma (though as John Deely noted, his name has often been given in many other variations, across English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin), has long been the victim of great neglect. His Cursus Philosophicus was critically-edited and published in the 1930s under the blessed endeavor of Beatus Reiser, O.S.B., and reprinted in 2008 by Olms Verlag. Currently, his Cursus Theologicus is undergoing a similar critical evaluation and re-publication.
Though the facsimile reprint volumes here are taken from the non-critical and therefore somewhat unreliable Latin text Vives edition of the 1880s, they are presented in full and affordably. The far superior critical Solesmes edition has thus far reached only the fifth volume (in 2015) and sits outside the price-range of many.
However, in the meantime and in an effort to promote the study and understanding of Poinsot, these ten volumes (the tenth being the index to the whole series) are presented as-is, in a reasonably durable, reasonably affordable set. All the volumes are entirely in Latin. Note that only the first four volumes were completed in Poinsot’s lifetime. The rest were compiled and edited by followers of his posthumously after his sudden death in 1644, drawing from notes he had left behind.
The Disputationes Metaphysicae of Francisco Suárez
Francisco Suárez (5 January 1548–1617 September 25) became one of the most prominent figures in the Jesuit order and a leading philosopher and theologian of the late Scholastic period. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1564 and received his education in Salamanca, where he was deeply influenced by the Scholastic tradition, particularly the works of Thomas Aquinas. Suárez went on to teach theology at various prestigious institutions, including universities in Rome, Alcalá, Salamanca, and Coimbra.
His scholarly work, characterized by rigorous analysis and synthesis of Scholastic thought, culminated in his most famous work, the Disputationes Metaphysicae, published in 1597. This work comprehends all the most-prevalent discussions of metaphysics hi Suárez’s day, and exercised a significant influence on philosophical thought, influencing both Catholic and Protestant traditions. Suárez’s efforts in these metaphysical questions, especially his treatments of being, essence, causation, beings of reason, and relation marked him as a key transitional figure between medieval and modern philosophy.