Physical and Metaphysical Aspects of the Doctrine of Light in Saint Bonaventure
Keywords:
Light, Metaphysics, Good, Bonaventure, KnowledgeAbstract
This article analyses the concept of “light” in its historical development between two possibilities of explanation: the physical view considers light as an accident, like a quality of substance; the second, metaphysical view, shows it as a source of divine influence. Specifically, in the case of Bonaventure the doctrine of light appears as a synthesis of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic elements. Bonaventure's option for the Aristotelian hylemorfism is the basis for a universal pluralism of substantial forms, in which light assumes later the role of a transcendental condition for certainty in our knowledge. Also, this certitudinalis cognitio is presented in Bonaventure's thought as a tendency to good. If the light of God has a fundamental inf1uence in the acquirement of truth and human knowledge tends to good as final cause, so there is a connection between good and light. In considering this, an attempt is made to propose the transcendental as essential part of Bonaventure's contribution to one –although not systematic– metaphysics.
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