Francisco Suárez as the forerunner of modern rationalist natural law theories? / ¿Francisco Suárez como precursor de la ley natural del racionalismo moderno?

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Szilárd Tattay

Resumen

Resumen

La teoría de la ley natural de Francisco Suárez ha sido objeto de interpretaciones radicalmente divergentes. Como norma general, los comentaristas que acusan o alaban a Suárez por apartarse de Tomás de Aquino y por adoptar principios filosóficos nominalistas, generalmente lo consideran un voluntarista, mientras que los estudiosos que ven en él un innovador creativo dentro del ala tomista, se inclinan por considerarlo como una especie de racionalista que rechaza claramente el voluntarismo de Ockham y Escoto. Un tercer tipo de interpretación sugiere que Suárez se apartó de la tradición tomista de la ley natural en una dirección opuesta, de modo tal que preparó el camino para el racionalismo moderno y la teoría secularizada de la ley natural. El punto de partida de esta última lectura reside en que él "concede lo esencial" (Jean-François Courtine), o “está cerca de conceder la substancia” (Thomas Pink) de la posición intelectualista de Gabriel Vázquez, o "es llevado al umbral de” su aceptación (John Finnis). Por tanto, “fundamentalmente, las voluntad divina sigue estando también en Suárez ligada a la naturaleza racional de las cosas. […] Al bien o mal existente en sí mismo, la voluntad de Dios solo añade la obligación especial de la ley divina” (Hans Welzel), visión que está a solo un paso de la famosa hipótesis del “etiamsi daremus” de Grocio. Este artículo intenta principalmente refutar esta línea de argumentación. Defenderé que los elementos voluntaristas de la síntesis de Suárez excluyen absolutamente tal interpretación, no solo su bien conocido concepto general de ley, sino también su habitualmente descuidada noción de 'ley eterna', a la que atribuyo un papel clave a este respecto.

Palabras clave: Francisco Suárez; voluntarismo; intelectualismo; rarionalismo; ley natural.

Abstract

Francisco Suárez’ theory of natural law has always been the object of radically divergent interpretations. As a general rule, those commentators who blame or praise Suárez for departing from Aquinas and adopting nominalist philosophical principles generally regard him as a voluntarist, while scholars seeing in him a creative innovator inside the Thomist camp are inclined to consider him as a kind of rationalist who clearly rejected the voluntarism of Ockham and Scotus. A third type of interpretation suggests that Suárez deviated from the Thomistic natural law tradition in the opposite direction, so that he prepared the way for modern rationalism and secularized natural law theory. The starting point of this latter reading of Suárez is that he “concedes the essence” (Jean-François Courtine), or “comes close to conceding the substance” (Thomas Pink) of Gabriel Vázquez’ intellectualist position, or „is brought to the brink of” accepting it (John Finnis). Thus, “fundamentally, the divine will remains also in Suárez bound to the rational nature of things. […] To the self-existing good or evil God’s will only appends the special obligation of divine law” (Hans Welzel), which view is only one step from Grotius’ famous “etiamsi daremus” hypothesis. This paper is mainly intended to refute this line of argumentation. I will argue that the voluntarist elements of the Suárezian synthesis absolutely preclude such an interpretation – not only his well-known general concept of law but also his often neglected notion of ‘lex aeterna’ to which I attribute a key role in this respect.

Keywords: Francisco Suárez; Voluntarism; Intellectualism; Rationalism; Natural Law.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17398/1886-4945.12.191

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Tattay, S. (2017). Francisco Suárez as the forerunner of modern rationalist natural law theories? / ¿Francisco Suárez como precursor de la ley natural del racionalismo moderno?. Cauriensia. Revista Anual De Ciencias Eclesiásticas, 12, 191–211. Recuperado a partir de https://www.cauriensia.es/index.php/cauriensia/article/view/XII-EMO9
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Estudios Monográfico 1
Biografía del autor/a

Szilárd Tattay, Institute for Legal Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Department for the Study of Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law

Citas

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