Metaphysics

Name, definition, object, importance, and division of Ontology (Fundamental Metaphysics) as the philosophical science of being as being.

The nature of ideas or concepts; universal ideas and their inferiors; the five predicables; and the special status of transcendental ideas that exceed the ordinary limits of universality.

Being as a transcendental idea predicable of everything; the analogy of being; the modes of analogy; and the manner in which being is affirmed of its inferiors by attribution and proportionality.

The primary division of being into real being (independent of the created mind) and logical being (dependent on the mind); the kinds of logical being and their philosophical role.

The distinction between actuality (ens in actu) and potentiality (ens in potentia) in finite being; the types of each; the axioms they generate; the nature of intrinsic and extrinsic possibility; and the requirements of becoming or change.

The meaning of essence (physical and metaphysical) and existence; their real distinction in finite beings; the identity of essence and existence in God; the knowability of real essences against Nominalism and Conceptualism.

Unity as a transcendental property coextensive with being; the kinds of transcendental and quantitative unity; individuality and the principle of individuation; identity and distinction.

Truth as a transcendental property of being; ontological, logical, and moral truth; the ground of all truth in the Divine Mind; ontological and logical falsity.

Goodness as a transcendental property coextensive with being; the classifications of goodness; the nature of evil as privation of good.

Beauty as a most general (though not strictly transcendental) property of being; its objective and subjective elements; classification; and the relation of art to morality.

The meaning of perfection; the classification of perfections (absolute/relative, entire/partial, pure/mixed, formal/virtual/eminent); and the phases of perfection contrasting the Infinite Being with creatures.

The need and basis of the categories; Aristotle's ten categories as the supreme classifications of real finite being.

The definition, classification, and knowledge of substance; the existence of real substances; faulty doctrines; subsistence, supposit, and person; the human substance.

Detailed study of the nine accidents: quality, relation, quantity, action, passion, motion, place, space, and time.

The meaning of principle and of cause; the distinction of cause from reason, occasion, and condition; the classification of causes into four major (material, formal, efficient, final) and certain minor causes.

The material cause (prime matter and secondary matter) and the formal cause (substantial form and accidental forms) as the intrinsic determining principles of bodily effects.

The efficient cause (its existence vindicated against occasionalists, sensists, and positivists; its seven classifications); and the final cause (finality, its types of ends, and key axioms).

De Ente et Essentia · Ch. 1