THE HISTORICAL NON-SIGNIFICANCE OF SUAREZ'S THEORY OF BEINGS OF REASON: A LESSON FROM HURTADO

The present paper deals with the theory of beings of reason of the Basque Jesuit Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza (1578-1641) who was a younger colleague of Francisco Suarez at the Salamanca College. Hurtado takes up beings of reason in Metaphysical Disputation 19, published in two versions: first in his Disputations in Entire Philosophy (1615/19) and later in his Entire Philosophy (1624). Although the two versions overlap, they also differ significantly. The paper analyzes both the earlier and the later expression of his theory in order to determine the development of his thinking. The final section of the paper summarizes the results of these comparative analyses and shows that Hurtado's theory essentially differs from that of Suarez.