Metaphysics of a forgotten Tradition II. Metaphysical explication of the transcendental concept of “intrinsic modus” by Peter Thomae: The problem of contraction of being and distinction of modus

Abstract

This article is the second part of author’s study of Early Scotist metaphysics and is devoted to a description and analysis of the doctrine of modus intrinsecus in the metaphysics of an early follower of Scotus, the Barcelona Minorite Peter Thomae (circa 1280–1340). The analysis is based on two texts: Question 14 of the recently critically published treatise Questions on Being (circa 1325), in which Peter Thomae discusses the problem of the contraction of the concept of being by intrinsic modes and mentions a number of new characteristics of this concept compared to the doctrine of Scotus, and also — mainly — on the 11th question of the treatise On the Types of Distinctions (circa 1325), translated by the author for the first time from Latin, where Peter Thomae undertakes a special study of the concept of “intrinsic mode”, provides a kind of deduction of the content of the transcendental concept of “intrinsic mode” and analyses in detail the relation of modus and thing or reality to which it belongs, in terms of identity and distinction of quiddity and modus. In addition, Peter Thomae specifically distinguishes the notion of transcendental intrinsic mode from the often almost synonymous notions used by Scotus, i. e., of the “degree of intensity” of some quality and the so-called “magnitude of perfection” or “virtual quantity”, and puts forward the thesis of cognizability of intrinsic mode in its own concept without a thing, which makes his version of the doctrine of intrinsic mode unique among the early Scotists. In conclusion, the author highlights the affinity between the understanding of the intrinsic mode in Scotus and Peter Thomae, as well as the specifics of the development of this theory in the tradition after Scotus using the example of the doctrine of Peter Thomae, which is partly a systematization of and supplement to the Scotus’ beginning, and to a certain extent introduces completely new elements and other accents into the consideration of intrinsic modes.