Inaudita Ars: la questione dell'ars logica nell'epistemologia della scuola aristotelico-tomista

In contemporary thought, the matter of metaphysics is commonly addressed and resolved on the grounds of pure logic. It was the emergence of mathematical logic that determined this contemporary configuration of metaphysical issues. According to neopositivist thinkers, the discipline of mathematical logic offers the tools necessary to definitely negate the very possibility of a theoretical metaphysics. Thomists respond to the logical elimination of the First Philosophy by denying the logistic the status of true logic. The Thomist position is based on a precise philosophy of logic. The main aim of Inaudita Ars is to explore this philosophy with a particular analytical focus on the demiurgic model that Thomist scholars have developed, beginning from the notion of ars logica. The primary theses of Inaudita Ars might be expressed as follows: a) The demiurgic model that Thomists use in their efforts to define the nature of analytical methods provides a simple analogical approximation of the being of reason, consequently utterly failing to resolve the issues surrounding the epistemic quiddity of logic. b) Nevertheless, the purely analogical response provided by the demiurgic model constitutes an important achievement within the Aristotelian-Thomist school. As a matter of fact, neither Artistotle nor Peripatetics effectively clarify which of the three epistemic types outlined in their Wissenschaftslehre comprises analytical methods. Indeed, the notion of organon does not refer to an epistemological genre but rather an epistemic function that can be exercised by any discipline, whether it be theoretical, practical or poietic in character. c) With an awareness of the intrinsic limits of the demiurgic conception of logic, St. Thomas enriches the Aristotelian terminology of epistemic types by introducing the notion of rationalis scientia, which he uses as a foundation on which to construct a new model that allows him to univocally define the quiddity of analytical methods. d) In refining Thomas’ scientific model, J. Deely develops a semiotic-type model, thus demonstrating that the discipline represented by Aquinas’ rationalis scientia should properly be considered part of the epistemic sphere of the doctrine of signs. The main conclusion of Inaudita Ars is that Thomism has developed no less than three models for defining the quiddity of logic, with the end result of formulating a theory powerful enough to univocally determine both the epistemic genre of analytics and the ontological nature of the objects this discipline addresses.