Abstract & Overview
Our purpose is to show the philosophical reasons that led Martin Heidegger to introduce Suárez’s metaphysics in the formation of his existential ontology. We will take as a guiding principle the history of “Being” and more specifically of its being forgotten in favor of “being”, which Heidegger developed in several writings of him as a negative moment, but at the same time fundamental and previous to the presentation of his conception of metaphysics. In this account we will point out to the crucial role that was played, in the Heideggerian project of reinterpreting metaphysics, by the idea of Greek metaphysics and in particular of Aristotelian metaphysics. We shall address this issue at some length because we hold that the concept of Suárez’s metaphysics in the view of Heidegger is very much determined by his understanding of Aristotle’s metaphysics. This should be summarized in his well-known onto-theological interpretation. Ultimately, the weight of Heidegger’s reflections on the metaphysics of Suárez rests on the concept of existence and its mode of apprehension, which is regarded as a modern and imperfect antecedent of the Dasein as the gateway to Being