Генрих Гентский: Жизнь и философские взгляды схоластического доктора.

Scholastic philosopher

Henry of Ghent ( 1217 – 29 June 1293), also known as Henricus de Gandavo and Henricus Gandavensis, was a scholastic philosopher who acquired the nickname of Doctor Solemnis (the "Solemn Doctor").

Henry was born in the district of Mude, near Ghent. He is supposed to have belonged to an Italian family named Bonicolli, in Dutch Goethals, but the question of his name has been much discussed (see authorities below). He studied at Ghent and then at Cologne under Albertus Magnus. After obtaining the degree of doctor he returned to Ghent, and is said to have been the first to lecture there publicly on philosophy and theology. Attracted to Paris by the fame of the university, he took part in the many disputes between the orders and the secular priests, on the side of the latter. Following the publication of the papal bull Ad fructus uberes by Pope Martin IV in 1281, Henry supported the secular clergy against the Mendicant Orders over the question of the 'reiteration of confession' (the obligation to confess to their parish priest, at least once a year, sins already confessed to a friar). Henry was engaged in this violent controversy for the rest of his life. He died at Tournai (or Paris).

Henry argued that not only do individual creatures have a being corresponding to their essence the being of essence or esse essentiae, they also have a 'somethingness' (aliquitas). The being created by God is not the being of actual existence, but the being of essence, also called esse latissimum (being in the widest sense), or esse communissimum, the most general form of being. The determination of essence respecting its being made actual is a delimitation, or specification, of that being. Thus, esse essentiae comes first, then comes esse aliquid per essentiam, being a something through essence, finally the whole essence thus made up is put into actuality.

An intentional distinction is where the very same thing is expressed by different concepts in different ways (Quodl. V, q. 12). Unlike a purely logical distinction, an intentional distinction always implies a sort of composition, although it is minor with regard to that implied by a distinction in reality. For example, rational and animal, as they are found in man, is not a distinction of reason, since one is not a definition of the other. Nor is a real distinction, otherwise the conjunction of 'animal' and 'rational' in some particular person would be purely accidental (per accidens). Therefore, there must be some intermediate distinction, which Henry defines as 'intentional'. This principle was later developed by Scotus into the formal distinction.

Henry's doctrines are infused by a strong Platonism. He distinguished between knowledge of actual objects and the divine inspiration by which we cognize the being and existence of God. The first throws no light upon the second. Individuals are constituted not by the material element but by their independent existence, i. e. ultimately by the fact that they are created as separate entities. Universals must be distinguished according as they have reference to our minds or to the divine mind. In the divine intelligence exist exemplars or types of the genera and species of natural objects.

Henry of Ghent's Summa of Ordinary Questions. Article One: On the Possibility of Knowing Translation with an introduction and notes by Roland J. Teske, S. J. South Bend, St. Augustine Press, 2008. Henry of Ghent's "Summa": The Questions on God's Existence and Essence (Articles 21 24). Translation by Jos Decorte (†) and Roland J. Teske, S. J. Latin Text, Introduction, and Notes by Roland J. Teske, S. J. (Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations 5). Louvain/Paris: Peeters, 2005. Henry of Ghent's "Summa": The Questions on God's Unity and Simplicity (Articles 25 30). Latin Text, Introduction, Translation, and Notes by Roland J. Teske, S. J. (Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations 6). Louvain and Paris: Peeters, 2006. Juan Carlos Flores, Henry of Ghent: Metaphysics and the Trinity; with a Critical Edition of Question Six of Article Fifty Five of the Summa Quaestionum Ordinariarum, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2006. Henry of Ghent, Quodlibetal Questions on Free Will. translated by Roland J. Teske, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1993. Henry of Ghent, Quodlibetal Questions on Moral Problems, translated by Roland J. Teske, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2005.