Back to Aquinas Arguments

Metaphysics

Essence and existence

In creatures, what a thing is and that it exists are distinct; in God they are identical.

Guiding question

What explains that this kind of thing is actual at all?

Why it matters

The distinction makes creaturely dependence more precise and prepares Aquinas's accounts of creation and participation.

The argumentative movement

  1. 1A definition can state what a creature is without making the creature exist.
  2. 2Therefore essence does not contain existence in creatures as identical with itself.
  3. 3Created beings receive existence, while God alone is subsistent being itself.