The transcendental good in the Summa fratris Alexandri. Background and projections

Abstract

The Summa fratris Alexandri represents one of the main texts in which a systematization of the medieval doctrine of the transcendentals prior to that elaborated by Thomas Aquinas can be found. The integration of conceptual elements from the neo platonic tradition, from the Summa de bono of Philip the Chancellor and from Avicennian metaphysics, allows us to reconstruct a vast set of doctrinal elaborations that constitute in themselves a complete ontology, continued, and elaborated later by Thomas in De veritate, thus being a key text among the various developments of metaphysics in the thirteenth century. The present paper analyzes the transcendental concept of good elaborated in the Summa, its historical-doctrinal antecedents and its immediate projections.