Author

Pedro da Fonseca, S.J.

1528–1599

Jesuit

Pedro da Fonseca (Proença-a-Nova, 1528 – Lisbon, 4 November 1599) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian. He was known in his time as the "Portuguese Aristotle". He was a master of Greek and Arabic, whose erudition enabled him to develop his own line of ideas regarding themes developed by Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. His main works were in the areas of logic and metaphysics. He studied at the universities of Coimbra and Évora, and was a professor at the University of Évora. After 1580 he became assistant to the General of the Order, Visitor of the Province and Superior of the Professed House. He was also a member of the committee established by King Philip II of Spain to reform Portugal. He belonged to the Second Scholasticism and the so-called School of Salamanca.

Works

Texts currently available in the library.

Isagoge Philosophica

1591

Pedro da Fonseca's Isagoge is a scholastic work conceived as a systematic introduction to the doctrine of universals and intended for the general use of the sciences. Fonseca presents it as richer in doctrine, more reliable with regard to truth, and better suited to teaching than Porphyry’s work of the same name. Its first part defines and explains the five predicables, while the second compares them, examining their common features and differences; chapters 7 through 11 are devoted individually to each predicable. Although he acknowledges that much of the material derives from the earlier logical tradition, Fonseca regards chapter 12 as especially original, since it addresses kinds of universals unknown to pagan philosophers and related to the nature of Christ. The work thus combines logic, metaphysics, and Christian theology, offering an orthodox and systematic reworking of Porphyry’s Isagoge while maintaining close thematic ties with the Jesuit philosophical tradition and with the later Conimbricenses Commentary.