This paper examines Aertsen's view on the transcendentality of the individual (individuum). Western Medieval Thinkers refer to concepts such as the being (ens), the one (unum), the true (verum), and the good (bonum) as transcendentia or transcendental concepts. Many studies have focused on these transcendentia. One of the most important ones is Jan A. Aertsen's Medieval Philosophy and the Transcendentals : The Case of Thomas Aquinas (Brill, 1996). Aquinas enumerates six transcendental concepts—the being, the thing (res), the one, something (aliquid), the true, and the good—in his earlier work, Disputed Questions on Truth (Quaestiones disputatae de veritate). In addition, he says that the many (multitudo) belongs to transcendentia in some places, such as in his most important work, Summa theologiae. According to Aertsen, Aquinas describes the individual in the same terms in which he describes the transcendental one (and something). Furthermore, Aertsen suggests the convertibility of the individual and the being.
The first task is to comprehend his argument and examine it critically (Section 1–3). The next task is to confirm Aertsen's view from another point: one that Aertsen does not mention. The point is that transcendental concepts are not restricted to the ten Aristotelian categories (Section 4–5). These tasks enable us to rethink the meaning of the individual in Aquinas's metaphysical thought (Section 6–7).
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