Includes bibliographical references (p. 707-740) and indexes.

Preliminary Material / Jan A. Aertsen -- Introduction / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter One The Concept of Transcendens in Medieval Thought: What is Beyond and what is common / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Two Conditions, Presuppositions and Sources of a Doctrine of the Transcendentals / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Three The Beginning of the Doctrine of the Transcendentals (ca. 1225): Philip the Chancellor / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Four The Doctrine of the Transcendentals in Franciscan Masters / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Five Albertus Magnus: Different Traditions of thought and the Transcendentals / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Six Thomas Aquinas: A First Model / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Seven Henry of Ghent: The onto-theological transformation of the doctrine / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Eight The German Dominican School: Dietrich of Freiberg and Meister Eckhart / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Nine Duns Scotus: A Turn in the Doctrine of the Transcendentals / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Ten Discussions on the Scotist Conception / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Eleven The Doctrine of the Transcendentals in Nominalism / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Twelve Neoplatonic Critiques of Transcendental Metaphysics / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Thirteen The Doctrine of the Transcendentals in Renaissance Philosophy / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Fourteen The “Metaphysical Disputations” of Francisco Suárez: Between Scholasticism and Modernity / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Fifteen The Doctrine of the “Supertranscendentals”: An Alternative Model? / Jan A. Aertsen -- Chapter Sixteen Conclusion: The Importance of the transcendental way of thought for medieval philosophy / Jan A. Aertsen -- Bibliography / Jan A. Aertsen -- Index Nominum / Jan A. Aertsen -- Index Rerum / Jan A. Aertsen.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

The origin of transcendental thought is not to be sought in Kant's philosophy but is a medieval achievement. This book provides for the first time a complete history of the doctrine of the transcendentals, from its beginning in the "Summa de bono" of Philip the Chancellor (ca. 1225) up to its most extensive systematic account in the "Metaphysical Disputations" of Francisco Suárez (1597). The book also shows the importance of the doctrine for the understanding of philosophy in the Middle Ages. Metaphysics is called "First Philosophy", not because it deals with the first, divine being, but because it treats that which is first in a cognitive sense, the transcendental concepts of "being", "one", "true" and "good". Winner of the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize competition for the best book in the history of western philosophy published in 2013.