How to read it
- 1Define essence, being, substance, accident, form, and matter before moving quickly.
- 2Watch how created composition points beyond itself.
- 3Read it beside the arguments from contingency and participation.
Metaphysical treatise
De ente et essentia
A short treatise on being, essence, existence, substance, accident, form, matter, and individuation.
Date
c. 1252-1256
Why it matters
It is compact, but it supplies vocabulary needed for Aquinas's later arguments about creatures and God.