THE RECENTIOR NOMINALIS OF LEIBNIZ’S DISPUTATIO METAPHYSICA DE PRINCIPIO INDIVIDUI:
FULGENTIUS SCHAUTHEET AND HIS CONTROVERSIA AGAINST THE THOMISTIC DOCTRINE ON THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUATION
Chiara CATALANO*
Abstract. In his Disputatio metaphysica de principio individui (1663), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) supports his own account of the principle of individuation on the basis of the authority of many Nominalistic (the nominales) theologians and philosophers. Among them he quotes a recentior nominalis, Fulgentius Schautheet (1623 – 1708), the author of the Controversiae philosophicae inter scholasticorum principes D. Thomam, Ioannem Scotum et Gregorium Ariminensem nominalium antesignanum (1660). Indeed, in the Preface of his work, Schautheet points out that he aims at reconstruct the Scholastic controversies by following in the footsteps of Gregory of Rimini (1300-1358), which is considered by him the antesignanus of the nominales. Leibniz refers to the Fifth Controversy of the second book, where Schautheet addresses his criticism against the Thomistic account of the principle of individuation. In this article I analyze Schautheet’s Controversia in order both to reconstruct the theory of the author and to compare it with Leibniz’s one.
Keywords: Schautheet, Leibniz, individuation, designated matter, nominales