Aquinas’ transcendences to Aristotle in the doctrine of essence

Abstract

Aquinas’ philosophy is revolutionary, especially his doctrine of essence within the context of natural philosophy has transcended that of Aristotle. The principal distinctions between the doctrines of Aquinas and Aristotle are demonstrated in four layers which are entity-nature, compositeness, particularity and potentiality of essence. Aquinas not only overturns and reforms the Western traditional view of essence, but also constructs a prominent “joint” connecting essentialism to existentialism in Western philosophy.

摘要

阿奎那哲学具有革命性质, 特别是他在自然哲学的语境中提出的本质学说, 明显地超越了亚里士多德的本质学说。 阿奎那和亚里士多德的本质学说有四个层次的主要区别: 本质的实存性、 合成性、 特殊性和潜在性。 通过这些超越, 阿奎那不仅颠覆和革新了西方的传统本质观, 而且还形成了西方哲学史上从本质主义或者逻辑主义到存在主义的一个“拐点”。