Ventimiglia presents new book
After rigourous peer-review, Palgrave Macmillan published "Aquinas after Frege". In it Giovanni Ventimiglia suggests to read anew the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas through some insights of Gottlob Frege.
Aquinas after Frege is a book about Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics, read afresh in the light of certain insights of Gottlob Frege.
The reason for this new reading is simple: through Fregean glasses one sees Aquinas better then through Gilsonian glasses (assembled, unbeknownst to Thomists, by the Heidegger Company!).
In particular, Aquinas’s doctrine of being can be better understood in the light of Frege’s distinction between the “there is” sense and the “present actuality” sense of being, as interpreted by Peter Geach and Anthony Kenny.
Aquinas’s notion of essence becomes clearer in the light of Frege’s distinction between object and concept and of his notion of concept as function.
Finally, Aquinas’s doctrine of transcendentals is more understandable thanks to Fregean notions concerning assertion and negation.
Aquinas after Frege is a new Aquinas, more faithful both to Thomas’s texts and their historical context, and of greater philosophical interest.