Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671

Robert Pasnau traces the developments of metaphysical thinking through four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth century through to the seventeenth. At no period in the history of philosophy, other than

Robert Pasnau is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the author of many books and articles on the history of philosophy, including Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature (Cambridge, 2002), which won the American Philosophical Association Book Prize.

1. Introduction
I. Matter
2. Substratum
3. Theories of Prime Matter
4. Matter and Extension
5. Philosophiae Perenne
II. Substance
6. Subjects and Substances
7. The Veiled Subject
8. Cartesian Substances
9. Lockean Substances
III. Accidents
10. Real Accidents
11. Inherence
12. Categories
13. Modes
IV. Extension
14. Quantity and Extension
15. Extension and Impenetrability
16. Mind and Extension
17. Location
18. Entia Successiva
V. Quality
19. Real Qualities
20. Heresy and Novelty
21. Primary Qualities
22. Secondary Qualities
23. Powers and Dispositions
VI. Unity and Identity
24. Substantial Form
25. Unity and Dualism
26. Parts and Wholes
27. Real Essences
28. Permanence and Corruption
29. Identity over Time
30. Locke's Nominal Substances
Tables of Authors
Bibliography of Primary Sources
Bibliography of Secondary Sources