AQUINAS ON THE QUESTION OF “BEING”:

A REJOINDER TO JOHN D. CAPUTO’S 1982 TEXT, “HEIDEGGER AND AQUINAS: AN

ESSAY ON OVERCOMING METAPHYSICS”

I. INTRODUCTION

One of the breakthroughs in philosophy’s question about Being is Martin Heidegger’s

introduction of the term Onto-theology. Both disciplines of philosophy and theology were
affected by Martin Heidegger’s pronouncement that the entire history of metaphysics in the
West is onto-theological. Heidegger says that “The history of metaphysics is therefore a
history of forgetfulness or “withdrawal”.”1 What is withdrawn or forgotten in the history of
metaphysics is the very concern of philosophical investigation itself, the question of ‘Being’.
But what has been sad in the western philosophy and metaphysics is that the question of
Being has been forgotten.2

Such contention affects philosophy because when Heidegger spoke of metaphysics of

the West, he meant the entire philosophical tradition of the west. At the same time, it affects
theology because of Heidegger’s insistence that philosophical discussion of Being has to be
separated from the talk about God. This can then be taken to mean that any talk about
meaning has to put aside any talk about God. God has become irrelevant in one’s quest for
meaning.

Heidegger’s argument then has been an issue for the commentators of another
author, namely, Thomas Aquinas. If onto-theology is the character of all metaphysics before
him, then that would include Aquinas’ philosophical (metaphysical) teachings. This is
especially true because Aquinas’ philosophy is known to be one of the systematic
metaphysical systems in the history of philosophy. But a more urgent concern for the
commentators of Aquinas is the Heideggerian call to separate the talk of Being from the talk
of God. This resolution to the problem of onto-theology runs in direct contrast to the
Thomistic system of Christian philosophy. Christian philosophy claims for the possibility of
knowing God through the use of reason. More importantly, the peak of philosophical inquiry
for Christian philosophers is the knowledge of God.

1
Charles Guignon, ed, The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1993), 42.
2
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie & Edward Robinson, 7th ed.
(Tubingen: Neomarius Verlag, 1963), 41. This work will henceforth be referred as BT.

1
 In contrast, Heidegger explicitly criticizes the practice of Christian philosophy. He

said that “Christian philosophy is a round-square and a misunderstanding.” 3 This is

particularly clear in his claim to separate God from Being. He says that God is oftentimes

used as an alibi in an argument thereby reducing the true quality of a philosophical

argument into a Deus ex Machina fallacy. He says in his Introduction to Metaphysics:

Anyone for whom the Bible is a Divine revelation and truth has the answer
to the question, “why are there essents rather than nothing?” even before
it is asked: everything that is, except God himself has been created by
Him. God himself, the increate creator, “is.” One who holds to such faith
can in a way participate in the asking of our question, but he cannot
question without ceasing to be a believer and taking all the consequences
of that step. He will only be to act as if…4

Yet, most Thomistic scholars are also insistent in saying that Aquinas has a solid

philosophical system. Josef Pieper writes, “The question is whether we can wholly isolate

the theological from the philosophical elements in the works of Thomas, and can consider

the one apart from the other. Gilson says that the theology of St. Thomas is a

philosopher’s and his philosophy is a theologian’s.”5 This then calls for a rethinking, if not a

re-evaluation of the philosophical system set by Thomas Aquinas. Hence, the birth of

works, like that of Caputo, which aim at doing a dialogue between the philosophical

systems of Martin Heidegger and Thomas Aquinas.

This present paper then is an attempt, not to directly confront the Aquinas-

Heidegger tension on the talk of Being, but to look at one particular book relevant to this

issue: Heidegger and Aquinas: An Essay on Overcoming Metaphysics.6

This paper then will endeavor to answer the following questions: What is the

significance of the term onto-theology in the philosophies of Aquinas and Heidegger? How

did Caputo resolve the Aquinas-Heidegger tension on Being? What are the strengths and
3
Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics. (London: Yale University Press, 1959), 7.
Henceforth, this work shall be referred to as IM.
4
IM, 7 – italics added.
5
Josef Pieper, Guide to Thomas Aquinas. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991), 143.
6
John D. Caputo, Heidegger and Aquinas: An Essay on Overcoming Metaphysics. (Indiana:
Indiana University Press, 1982).

2
weaknesses of Caputo’s argument in resolving the tension on Being in Aquinas and

Heidegger? What alternative arguments other than Caputo’s can possibly resolve the issue

of onto-theology in Aquinas and Heidegger?

This paper is then aimed to contribute to the issue about Being in both Aquinas and

Heidegger. Furthermore, this work will also endeavor to highlight the notion of freedom

and voluntariness in the philosophy of Aquinas, arguing that to better appreciate Aquinas’

philosophy, there is a need to look into his view on man’s existence on earth: as this

existence is both man’s tribute to his God, and his own expression of his quest for

meaning. Aquinas’ philosophy is an invitation for people to become more authentic in their

choices, and to become more mindful of the things that they do.

Many people nowadays are contented with mediocre living thereby failing to

manifest their full potential in doing their task for the society. This takes note of the

Heideggerian call for authenticity. We are all called to evaluate ourselves by looking at our

choices and measure ourselves up as to whether we have fully utilized our freedom to

realize ourselves. Without the development of one’s potential, and the practice of

authentic freedom, progress becomes a far-fetched ideal.

II. STATING THE PROBLEMATIC: METAPHYSICS AS ONTO-THEOLOGY

a. Heidegger’s charge against onto-theology
Before we proceed in our investigation of Caputo’s argument, it would be helpful for

us to first define the very word that has caused the tension: onto-theology. What does

Heidegger mean when he criticized metaphysics and philosophy as an onto-theology.

There are particular works of Heidegger that directly speaks of this concept. In his

Introduction to Metaphysics, Heidegger traces the history of philosophy of the West and

says that it has missed its real task. Heidegger says that the task of philosophy is to raise

the question of Being, which for Heidegger is nameless and temporal. Far from doing its

task, philosophy, in Heidegger’s assessment, raises not the question of Being but of being.

For Heidegger there is a significant difference between Being and being. The former is

3
unnamed: it reveals and conceals itself at the same time. But this Being is not a what:

Being is not a thing or a substance. What is substantial and entitative is not Being but

being. 7 The former is the real concern of philosophy and not the latter. But what happens

in the history of metaphysics is that, being (the entity or the substance) has become the

topic of inquiry, while leaving Being into oblivion. William Barret asserts that “it is

Heidegger’s contention that the whole history of Western thought has shown an exclusive

pre-occupation of the first member of these pairs, with the thing-which-is8 and has let the

second, the to-be9 of what is, fall into oblivion.”10 Further, Charles Guignon says that

“entities obtrude as actually existing as having essential properties while being11 remains

concealed.”12 Further, Guignon says, “as a result to the first dawn of history, being comes

to be thought of as what endures, what is permanent, what is always there. It is the

continuous presence of the substance, that which remains through all changes.”13 These

comments are affirmations to what Heidegger has argued about the forgetting or oblivion

of Being in the history of metaphysics. In Heidegger’s Being and Time, he traces the start

of the oblivion of Being, or what he calls as onto-theology, in the metaphysics of Plato.

Heidegger expresses, “metaphysics begins when Plato separates the realm of Being (the

Forms or Ideas) and the realm of time (becoming, existence).”14 From this Platonic theory

of Ideas, Heidegger continues to trace the continuation of the forgetting of Being to the

time of Aristotle. Aristotle shatters the two-world theory of Plato and argues that there is

only one real world, and that is the world where we are in. But Aristotle continues to view

Being through the Platonic conception of Ideas. For Aristotle, Ideas are housed in a thing,

7
Heidegger employs the distinction of Being and being. The former, according to
Heidegger, should be the concern of philosophy, with the latter simply as referring to a thing
or entity, which he said to have become the sole concern of metaphysics.
8
This thing-which-is is Barret’s term for being, substance or entity.
9
To-be is Brret’s semantic expression for Being.
10
William Barret, Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy. (USA: Doubleday and
Company, Incorporated, 1958), 212.
11
Though Guignon did not capitalize the first letter of the word, he means the Being of
Heidegger in this particular context.
12
Guignon, 17-18.
13
CCH, 18.
14
Martin Heidegger, On Time and Being trans. Joan Stambaugh. (New York: Harper and
Row Publishers, 1972), p. ix. Henceforth this work will be referred to as TB.

4
which for him is a substance. The notion of the substance further reduces Being into being

because substance has become another word for a thing or entity. The concept of the

substance has become a vital turn in the history of metaphysics that Frede speaks of it as

Heidegger’s main challenge: “substance remained the central term in traditional ontology,

and substances or things, natural entities with attributes and the capacities to interact

causally with one another, remained the building blocks – and became Heidegger’s main

challenge.”15

Such forgetting or withdrawal of Being has continued through the time of the

Scholastics. In Scholasticism, Being has taken the form of a cause. Being is named as the

First Cause, the Uncaused Cause, and even the First Being. “But the withdrawing does not

exhaust itself in this concealment. Rather, inasmuch as it conceals its essence, being

allows something else to come to the fore, namely ground/reason, in the shape of arxai,

aitiai, of rationes, of causae, of Principles, Ursachen (causes) and rational grounds.” 16

Being then has become the first cause and by virtue of this, it has become the Primum

Ens, which can be translated in English as the First being, or First Substance. This First

being or First Substance is what Christian philosophy names as God. God is equated to

Being but with this equation, Being is spoken of as a thing, though the most perfect and

the first of all things.

Furthermore, with this equation of Being and God, metaphysics has become clearly

onto-theological, that is, both a theology and an ontology. It is a theology because

metaphysics has become a science of God, and it is ontology because metaphysics is first

a science of the Being of beings. “When metaphysics thinks of beings with respect to the

ground that is common to all beings as such, then it is logic as onto-logic. When

metaphysics thinks of beings as such as a whole, that is, with respect to the highest being

which accounts for everything, then it is logic as theo-logic.”17 With this pronouncement

then, Heidegger says that metaphysics is, by its very constitution, onto-theological.
15
CCH, 45.
16
Martin Heidegger, The Principle of Reason, trans. Reginald Lilly. (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press,
1991), p.110. This work will henceforth be referred to as PR.
17
Ibid., p.70-71.

5
 Onto-theology may then have the following nuances: First, it means the “oblivion of

Being.” Philosophy is guilty of this oblivion because since the time of Plato, Being has been

named as being, like in the case of the theory of Ideas of Plato or the theory of Forms of

Aristotle. From that time on, Being has always been equated to one particular concept, like

God in the Scholastics, Spirit in Hegel, and many other. Second, it may mean the

entanglement of Being and God thereby making theology and philosophy a single

discipline. This is especially true in the time of the Scholastics who practice Christian

philosophy. Traditional interpretation about the problem of Being in Thomas Aquinas and

Martin Heidegger revolves around this basic understanding of the term onto-theology.

The Heideggerian criticism however does not stop with the Christian philosophy of
the Scholastics. Heidegger continues to subject modern philosophy under his scrutiny. He
criticizes Descartes for example because of the latter’s coinage of the Cogito ergo Sum. The
Cartesian test for certitude, that is, the self as the measure of certainty, has added a
subjective leaning on the issue of being. Steiner relates, “In Descartes, says Heidegger
pointedly, transcendence becomes rescendence. Everything is referred back to the human
viewer. The cogito becomes the sum; thought precedes being.”18

The Cartesian paradigm is inherited by the whole stretch of the modern period, which
is pre-occupied with the self or the subject. But as Heidegger will claim, this is another
transformation of the concept of Being. The determinant of meaning becomes the self, and
no longer the outside world. This is especially true with Kant’s categories of the mind,
whereby the mind contains the categories of space and time which it projects to the outside
reality which it perceives.

However, there is a problem in this development. With the self becoming the
determinant of meaning, Being has been equated with the subjective self. This equation
furthers the oblivion of Being since the subjective self, which has been equated with Being
by the modern philosophy, is still a being and not Being. This equation of Being and self, is
then a confusion of Being and being (self), and Heidegger calls this as the oblivion of the
ontological difference of Being and being. Hence, even in modern philosophy, there is one
more facet of onto-theology, and that is, the oblivion of the ontological difference of Being
and being. Thus, there are three facets of philosophy that has surfaced: (1) oblivion of
Being, (2) entanglement of Being and God, (3) and the oblivion of the ontological difference

18
George Steiner, Martin Heidegger. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 70.

6
of Being and being. The entire tradition of western philosophy is an onto-theology because
of these three respects.

b. The Case of Aquinas and Onto-theology

How has Aquinas become part of the onto-theological tradition? What are the
particular allegations or criticisms of Martin Heidegger against Thomas Aquinas in relation to
the issue about onto-theology?

After articulating the definition of onto-theology and naming the extent of this
Heideggerian criticism, what remains to be seen is the relation of this criticism to the
philosophical system set by Thomas Aquinas. The principle of sub-alternation in Logic, which
says that what is true of the universal is also true of the particular, will allow us to argue that
if the entire philosophical tradition of the west is an onto-theology, then the philosophy of
Thomas Aquinas, which is part of the western philosophical tradition, is also an onto-
theology. But in particular, Heidegger mentions Aquinas as part of the representative of the
Schoolmen, together with Scotus and Suarez. The offenses of the Schoolmen, and therefore
of Aquinas, is two-fold: (1) the concept of existentia and (2) the notion of God.

c.1. Aquinas on Existentia

The philosophical system of Aquinas contains Aristotelian elements. It manifests
traces of the Aristotelian hylemorphism. Hylemorphism, to recall, argues that everything is
composed of matter and form. A stone, a chair, a bike and even man, have matter and form.
The substantial form is also the essence of the substance, and such essence is defined as
that by which a thing is as it is. This essence is also rendered as quiddity or that “whatness”
of things.19 The essence then constitutes the reality of the thing.

Following the Aristotelian tradition, Aquinas also employs the dualism of matter and
form. But Aquinas, together with other Schoolmen, added the concept of existence, which is
popularly equated with Aquinas’ esse. This concept of esse has added more color to the
controversy of Being between Aquinas and Heidegger. The commentators of Aquinas are at
variance with Martin Heidegger in interpreting the concept of esse in Thomas Aquinas.
Heidegger equated all Schoolmen in their views about existence. Most schoolmen consider
existence to be simply a mode of essence. It is not distinct from essence. Gilson’s review20

19
Cf. John Wippel, The Metaphysical Thoughts of Thomas Aquinas. (Washington: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2000), 24.
20
Cf. Gilson, Etienne. The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1994.

7
shows the practice of essentialism in western philosophy. In essentialism, the only
constitutive element of a thing is its essence, and existence is simply an add-on.

Essentialism argues that the reality of the thing is constituted by its essence. If one
knows the thing’s essence, then one knows what the thing is. However, Aquinas is not part
of them. Aquinas’ reflection of esse separates him from the essentialist tradition of his
contemporaries. For Aquinas, there is a real distinction between essence and esse
(existence).

Hence, with the Thomistic distinction of essence from existence, Heidegger argues
that the ontological difference of Being and being is also blurred. Being is not really named
in Scholastic philosophy because Scholasticism is essentialist, which means that Being is
equated with essence. Essence, however, is a being and not Being. Essence is a static
concept, it is that which endures, and is permanent, the congealed concept that is present in
all things of the same species. So, with the essentialism of the Scholastics, Being again is
reduced to being.21

In addition, Heidegger argues that the essence-existence distinction of the

Scholastics was traditionally taken as equivalent for the ontological difference of Being and
being. But Heidegger argues that the former is not enough to serve as conceptual
equivalent of the latter. In the Heideggerian project of reviving the question of Being in
philosophy, he proposes an ontical turn in order to ask the ontological question of Being.
Heidegger himself says, “If we are to formulate our question explicitly and transparently, we
must first give a proper explication of an entity (Dasein), with regard to its Being.”22 Patricia
Johnson writes of this in her book Heidegger where she says, “Heidegger suggests that in
order to raise the question of Being in a meaningful way, we must interrogate the right
entity.”23 This right entity is the only entity that is able to raise the question of Being, and
that entity is Dasein, which can be roughly equated with man. This is the reason why the
first part of Being and Time is mainly aimed at articulating the structure of the Dasein. The
inquiry over Dasein is the ontical turn that has to be taken in order to raise the ontological
question of Being.

It is in this ontical requirement of the ontological question of Being that the

inadequacy of the Scholastic essence-existence distinction has become clear. Heidegger

21
Cf. Gilson, 41ff.
22
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. by John Macquarrie and Edward Roinson. (Tubingen: Neomarius
Verlag, 1963), 27 – parenthetical note added. This work will henceforth be referred to as BT.
23
Patricia Alternbend Johnson, On Heidegger, (United States of America: Wadsworth), 2000, p.13-14.

8
says that the essence-existence distinction is inadequate because it is not enough even to
ask the nature of the ontical Dasein. The Dasein is known to be a special entity, and is the
only entity that is capable of raising the question of Being. Heidegger himself says, “Dasein
is an entity which, in its very Being, comports itself understandingly towards that Being.”24
The Dasein is isolated, and is special of all the beings (entities) in the world. Heidegger
continues to express this when he says, “Dasein is an entity which does not just occur
among other entities. Rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being,
that Being is an issue for it.”25 This special place of the Dasein is not satisfied by the
essence-existence distinction of the Scholastics. The Dasein is not answerable by the
question of whatness (essence) or thatness (existence). Rather, the Dasein is an issue of
whoness. The Dasein is an answer to the question, who is it? Its thatness is defined by a
whoness, and not of a whatness. This means then that every Dasein is different from any
other Dasein, unlike the table which can be said to be essentially the same regardless of its
color, size and other properties.
Hence, with this insight, Scholastics, including Aquinas, is guilty of onto-theology.

c.2. Aquinas on Christian Philosophy

This is one aspect of onto-theology that is directly concerned with Aquinas. Aquinas

is a Christian philosopher. His metaphysics is aimed at articulating God. In fact, his Summa

Theologiae is both a theological and philosophical treatise. It is theology because it is a

discussion of things pertaining to God. Thomas would call such God as the Primum Ens26,

the First Substance. With this, it is almost obviously implied that this being, who is God, is

not the Being which Heidegger wishes to become the subject of true philosophical

thinking. Rather, God is a being that is only among beings, although the most perfect and

the highest of all beings. Therefore, as the Heideggerians would say, Aquinas’ metaphysics

is clearly an onto-theology.

On the other hand, Aquinas’ Summa is also philosophical. It is clearly philosophical

in approach. It makes use of the Aristotelian concept of matter, form, and even essence. It

also makes use of the Aristotelian categories. This means then that the Summa uses

24
BT, 78 – italics is mine.
25
BT, 32.
26
God as the Primum Ens is even already visible in Aquinas’ arguments or ways of proving the existence of God.
In the fourth way especially, God earns the topmost rank in the levels of perfection, and yet this could still be taken
to imply that God is among the beings, though the highest one. Cf. ST I, q.2, art. 3.

9
philosophy as an instrument. Such is however a striking characteristics of Christian

philosophy, which uses philosophy to forward theological arguments. Hence, in Aquinas’

use of Christian philosophy, he has become part of what Martin Heidegger calls as onto-

theological tradition.

Further, Aquinas also employs the term First Cause and Primum Ens. These terms

are direct targets of the Heideggerian critique. For example, in Aquinas’ argument for the

existence of God, the fourth way speaks of God as the most perfect being; and in his

second way, Aquinas speaks of God as the First Cause or the Uncaused Cause.

Thus, it has been shown that Aquinas’ metaphysics contains some elements which

are targets of the Heideggerian criticism. It is in this respect that Aquinas is said to be

guilty of onto-theology, and so there is the real need to thoroughly study Aquinas and see

whether such accusation could be accepted as true.

III. CAPUTO’S RESOLUTION

a. Naming the Issue: Caputo’s perception
Caputo’s assessment about the issue is another breakthrough in the scholarship about
Being in Aquinas and Heidegger. Caputo does a good survey of the views of the
commentators of both Aquinas and Heidegger. He has discussed the defenses of the
Thomists and has deepened the reflections on the Heideggerian criticism. Caputo has
pointed out the earlier reflections about the Oblivion of Being in the history of metaphysics.
In the second chapter of his work, Heidegger and Aquinas, he has forwarded the
Heideggerian critique against the Scholastic system of the Middle Ages, which includes the
metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas. Caputo has noted the fact that the Heideggerian criticism
against Scholasticism is not simply on the oblivion of Being understood as essentialism that
is, the mere reduction of the Being into being. Caputo has pointed out Aquinas’ departure
and even critique against the ontological argument of St. Anselm, which is a clear reduction
of Being – equated with God – into being, though perceived to be the highest being and
higher of which nothing can be thought of. Caputo argues that Heidegger has not fully seen
and appreciated this Thomistic departure from the system of St. Anselm. He said,
“Heidegger himself, however, is not fully aware, I think, of the extent of St. Thomas’
rejection of the ontological argument.”27 Caputo agrees with Gilson in saying that it is only

27
H & A, 66.

10
Aquinas, among the Scholastics, who has taught that esse is not a mere mode of essence.
To quote him in length here, Caputo says:

He rightly points out that St. Thomas’ objection to the Anselmian argument is
not that esse does not belong to the order of essentia but rather that we do
not know the essence of God. And this implies for Heidegger that the
argument fails only because of some kind of contingent failing of the human
intellect. Were the human mind able to know the definition of God, Heidegger
says of St. Thomas, then one could indeed deduce his existence from his
essence. But that is not what St. Thomas is saying. For St. Thomas, to know
God in some way other than through a nominal and imperfect definition would
imply that we were in a position to have an intuitive knowledge of his
essence- which in fact is a subsistent act of existence (ipsum esse subsistens).
But that has nothing to do with finding esse as one of the predicates in the
divine essentia… I do not think that Heidegger appreciates at all the
“existential” quality of the Thomistic doctrine of esse and the abyss which
separates it from the ontological argument.28

The foregoing long quotation attests to Caputo’s own criticism versus Heidegger’s
reading of the metaphysics of Aquinas. Heidegger would have been wrong if he would
simply argue that Thomas’ departure from the Anselmian ontological argument is still
caught within essentialism. Instead, Caputo argues, Gilson can be right in arguing that the
metaphysics of Aquinas is also another breakthrough in his time, for it is only in Aquinas that
the esse, which is roughly transliterated as Being, is thought to be truly distinct from
essence. With this then, we cannot say that the onto-theology of Thomas Aquinas is within
the nuance of essentialism.

This brings Caputo then to confront the Gilsonian defense against the Heideggerian
critique. As can be recalled from above, Gilson argues that Thomas Aquinas is a philosopher
of Being par excellence because he has thought of Being as esse and not as an essence.
Aquinas has made a good advance in the study of Being because he translated the being-
essence equation to being-esse equation. So, if Caputo has to probe further the
Heideggerian critique, he is faced with one more concern, that is to prove that the
Heideggerian critique is beyond the Gilsonian reply.

This is why Caputo has devoted a chapter of his work to deal with the deeper nuance
of the Heideggerian critique. Caputo argues that onto-theology is not merely the oblivion of
Being, but can even be more important than that. Caputo tries to argue that for Heidegger,
onto-theology is also the oblivion of the ontological difference between Being and being. The
history of philosophy, according to Heidegger, has forgotten this distinction. Caputo says,
“Yet this is precisely what Heidegger holds about the “thought of Being.” What Being
28
Ibid.

11
means, Heidegger says, has fallen into neglect or oblivion, precisely because the difference
between Being and beings has been concealed.”29 So, Caputo would say that Thomists may
not simply content themselves with the Gilsonian type of defense because the Heideggerian
critique takes deeper nuances than simply essentialism. Therefore, for Caputo, if we are to
make a serious dialogue between Heidegger and Aquinas, then we need to put forward the
other nuances of the Heideggerian critique against Western philosophy including Aquinas.

b. The Depth of Heidegger’s Criticism

With the foregoing statements, we can observe that Caputo has departed from the trend
of confronting the issue of Being in Heidegger and Aquinas by finding an equivalent notion
of the Heideggerian Being in Aquinas. Caputo seems to argue that Aquinas is in no way
exempted in the talk of onto-theology if we would solely depend on the metaphysics of
Aquinas. Even the Thomistic metaphysics of esse is still part of the onto-theology. In fact, in
his introduction of the book, Heidegger and Aquinas, Caputo exclaims:
Hence, all those protestations that Thomas is the philosopher of Being par
excellence because he thinks Being as act, far from eluding Heidegger’s
critique, in fact substantiate it. For Thomas, to be is to be in act, and to be in
act is to be capable of action and of rendering other beings actual. To the
extent that a being is in act, it is causally efficacious… St. Thomas does not
practice a quiet, meditative savoring of the presencing of Being; he has
instead reduced presencing to realitas, causalitas, actualitas.30

According to Caputo, Scholasticism cannot overcome the fact that Heidegger views
Being as that which reveals and conceals itself at the same time, the Being that sways, that
facilitates the possibility of the giving of the gift, the dif-ference of the difference. All of this
simply means that the Thomisitic metaphysics remained in the oblivion of that one facet of
Being, and that is, the granting of the possibility of the difference between Being and being.
This is what Heidegger would call as the Austrag or the dif-ference of Being from beings. It is
this “dif-ference” that Aquinas is oblivious of. Caputo further says, “the oblivion is not that
Thomas has “forgotten” something, but that the dif-fering itself has withdrawn from what is
opened up in the difference.”31

If Gilson defended Aquinas by developing the Thomistic metaphysics of esse, for Caputo
such apologetic is insufficient because Heidegger’s criticism is not only limited to
essentialism. The latter Heidegger speaks of the Austrag, as that clearing which grants the
thinking of Being possible. Even if Thomists would succeed in showing that the metaphysics

29
Ibid., 2.
30
Ibid., p.6.
31
Ibid., 149.

12
of Aquinas is not essentialist, but rather of esse, still such defense is insufficient because it
does not take into mind the dif-ference of Being and beings.

Further, the Heideggerian critique highlights the condition and role of man as important
in raising the question of Being. Heidegger says that metaphysics, especially that of the
Scholastics, asks the question about the whatness and thatness of beings. In fact, Caputo
was clear in commenting that this Scholastic distinction is often mistakenly confused with
the ontological difference between Being and beings. 32 But the essence-existence split of
Scholasticism is insufficient to account for the Being of beings. This is especially true for one
special entity, the Dasein. The Dasein is not answerable by the question of whatness
(essence) and thatness (existence) but rather of whoness. Caputo has this to say, “The
Dasein, cannot at all be interrogated as such by the question What is this? We gain access
to its beings only if we ask: Who is it? The Dasein is not constituted by whatness but – if we
may coin the expression – by whoness.”33

Hence, in Caputo’s view, there is now then the need to go beyond the question of
essentialism in Aquinas. It is not enough to show that Aquinas’ metaphysics is that of esse
not of essentia or ens. Rather, there is now the task for the Scholastics to confront this one
facet of onto-theology: the dif-ference of Being and beings. Along with this task is the need
to account for a Thomistic interpretation of man, and see whether Aquinas can accept the
belief that man can be the bearer of Being.

c. Caputo’s Resolution: Aquinas’ Way Out

Seeing the lack in the approaches of those who previously confront the Being issue in
Aquinas and Heidegger, Caputo proposed another view in this dialogue. He is ready to
accept that the metaphysics of Aquinas may not really be exempted from onto-theology.
Aquinas is guilty of what Heidegger charged of him, and the Thomists are wrong in denying
this. Caputo says, “In its own historical acuity, St. Thomas’ thought, as metaphysical
theology, is guilty of the charges which Heidegger makes against metaphysics.” 34 Even the
Thomistic metaphysics of esse remains to be a metaphysics, and is therefore still onto-
theological in its very constitution.

But Caputo is not also ready to accept that Thomas is altogether oblivious of the dif-
ference of Being. Thomas is not guilty of the oblivion of Being, even of the dif-ference of
Being. Caputo’s approach however is no longer metaphysical. He finds Aquinas’ orientation
32
Cf. Ibid., p.76.
33
Ibid., 120.
34
Ibid., 247.

13
to Being not through the latter’s metaphysics, but through his mystical tendencies and
orientations. Caputo says, “My argument will be that there is a more profound non-
metaphysical tendency inscribed within the essence of St. Thomas’ metaphysics which
needs to be made explicit… there is an orientation within his metaphysics, toward a non-
metaphysical experience of Being, a tendency within Thomistic metaphysics to transform
itself, not, to be sure, into what Heidegger calls “thought,” but into mysticism.”35 With this,
Caputo does a retrieval of Thomistic metaphysics by tracing the mystical elements in
Aquinas’ thought. This is what Caputo would call as religious aletheiology. Caputo argues
that there is always in Aquinas a desire to commune with the Divine. This desire for
Communion with God is, for Caputo, Aquinas’ questioning of Being.

That Aquinas desires communion with God can be seen both in the life and in the
writings of Aquinas. First, there is an instance in the life of Aquinas when he experiences a
temporal union with God after which Aquinas stopped writing his Summa. It has been
recorded that after this incident, Aquinas proclaims: “What I have written seems like straw
to me compared to what I have seen and has been revealed to me.” 36 This narration attests
that Aquinas has been consistently preparing for that union with the Divine, and all his
works have to be interpreted in view of that end, which is communion. Secondly, the
Thomistic notion of intellectus attests that Aquinas himself provides pages of his
metaphysical for reflection about the mystical union. The intellectus is different from ratio in
the sense that the former is unitive while latter is a kind of a discursive thought. Aquinas’
reflection for intellectus gives us a glimpse of his belief about communion with the Divine,
thereby attesting that Aquinas’ thinking transcends metaphysics to give way to mysticism.

Caputo now then says that this mysticism may not be the thought that Heidegger
wants philosophy to take heed, but this mysticism in Aquinas provides him the occasion and
the clearing to experience Being. In short, Aquinas, as a mystic, could not be said to be onto-
theological. In the end, Caputo says that there can hardly be a way to establish a dialogue
between Aquinas and Heidegger. Aquinas can be said to be truly guilty of Heidegger’s
charge against metaphysics. However, Heidegger also missed to see that Aquinas is also a
mystic and is thereby granted an authentic encounter of Being. Aquinas then is mindful of
the dif-ference of Being which grants him the possibility for an authentic type of thinking.
Aquinas then is in no way a deserter to task of a philosopher. He is not naïve of Being, and
should not be equated with the rest of onto-theologians in the history of metaphysics.
Caputo has this in the concluding paragraph of his work where he says:
35
Ibid., 247.
36
Ibid., p.253. see also James Weisphl, Friar Thomas de Aquino: His Life, Thoughts and Works. (Garden City New
York: Doubleday Publishing, Inc., 1974) p. 321.

14
 It is a mistake to conflate the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas with the
rationalist systems of modern metaphysics, to forget its essentially religious
and mystical inspiration. It is a mistake to remain only in the level of what
Aquinas has explicitly said and to pay no heed to what is unsaid. And if
Thomists are wrong to insist that the doctrine of esse as the actualitas
omnium actuum is as it stands a response to Heidegger – instead of a
confirmation of his worst suspicions – the Heideggerians are wrong to think
that the doctrine of actualitas is all that there is for this thinker. Oddly
enough, the Heideggerians have not listened attentively enough to what is
unsaid in these sayings, das im Sagen Ungesagte, not even when they are put
on warning by Thomas himself.37

IV. CRITIQUE AGAINST CAPUTO

a. In Praise of Caputo
As what has already been noted, Caputo makes a breakthrough in the reflection about
the issue of Being between Heiedegger and Aquinas. For one, Caputo helps us to see that
the term onto-theology which is readily understood to mean simply as the tradition of
essentialism, still has many other nuanced connotations. Caputo initiates the realization that
onto-theology means the oblivion, not just of Being, but even of the ontological difference of
Being and beings, and even of the ontological dif-ference of Being and beings. The latter
nuances were not seen by previous Thomists, which became the reason why these thinkers
have not fully confronted the Heideggerian critique. The failure to see the problem leads to
an insufficient response. Caputo does a good part in clarifying the problem for those who are
interested with this issue at hand.

Secondly, Caputo initiates another style of responding to the problem. Whereas

previous apologists of Aquinas endeavors to establish equivalence in the concepts of
Aquinas and Heidegger, Caputo leads us to an alternative way of seeing the unsaid things to
argue for the philosophical orientation of the saint. The argument about the religious
aletheiology of Aquinas is one alternative way to solve the problem. As far as I know, Caputo
is the first to do this.

In short then, the contribution of Caputo rests on the breakthrough he introduced with
regard to the problem at hand. Caputo interprets the issue of onto-theology into a deeper
level, and he also deepens the response of the Thomists into the problem. In effect, Caputo
deepened the reflections of both the Thomists and the Heideggerian.

b. Possible Weaknesses
However, there are some reasons to doubt whether Caputo was correct in his
pronouncement about the insufficiency of Aquinas’ written metaphysics to confront the
37
H & A, 284.

15
Heideggerian critique. If the metaphysics of esse is found to be insufficient, that should not
hinder us to look for other alternatives. One alternative could be taken from current
developments in Thomism which gives emphasis on existential character of Thomas
Aquinas. For example, there are those who wished to argue that the Thomistic orientation to
Being is visible enough in Aquinas’ concept of vocation, freedom and voluntariness. 38 Other
writers also emphasized the participative metaphysics of Aquinas39 which traces man’s
rootedness in God. Such rootedness is used as a premise to argue for a constant
discernment and thinking in the life of man.

The reflection about the existential character of Thomistic metaphysics gives us light
especially with regard to the Heideggerian concept of the Dasein. This is rather important
because the Dasein is the thinker of Being. The reflections about man as Dasein is what
Heidegger would call as the “ontical priority in the question of Being.”40 For Heidegger there
is a need to search for that being that is capable of asking the question of Being. But such
being is none other than the Dasein. Further, Heidegger says that the metaphysics of the
West fail to address the ontical priority of the question of Being precisely because
metaphysics fail to address man as he/she is. As mentioned above, it is Heidegger’s
contention that man lies outside the scope of Scholasticism’s hylemorphic tradition which
posits the essence-existence distinction. Man is not just a whatness and a thatness as other
things are. But rather man is a whoness.

As to what constitutes the whoness of man is its involvement in the world, and the
place which it creates in the midst of the things in the world. Hence, if this is the whoness of
man, then we can also say that man maintains such whoness when he defines himself in the
world. But this self-definition of man in the world is also present in Aquinas, especially in his
own concept of freedom and voluntariness. That man is free is part of the basic gifts of man
for Aquinas and such freedom is the condition for his self-actualization. Hence, with this
existential development in the thoughts of Thomas Aquinas, there can be a possibility of
establishing dialogue between the Heideggerian project for the ontical priority in the
question of Being. This, I believe, Caputo

If the existentialist Thomists succeeded in showing an equivalent notion of Dasein, then

perhaps this can be an avenue for dialogue between Heidegger and Aquinas.

38
See Eleanore Stump’s arguments on voluntariess in Kretsmann, Norman and Stump, Eleonore. The Cambridge
Companion to Aquinas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
39
Aureada, Fr. Jose Antonio. “The Concept of Grace in St. Thomas Aquinas: (II) The Nature of Theological
Participation.” Philippiniana Sacra, vol. 29, no. 87, 1994.
40
BT, 32.

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 V. CONCLUSION
With the foregoing discussion, we have endeavored to see the contribution of Caputo in
the development of the talk about Being in Aquinas and Heidegger. Caputo’s contribution is
significant in achieving deeper understanding of Being in the thoughts of Aquinas and
Heidegger. As mentioned, his critique against the work of Gilson deepens the problem and
allows us to see that there are indeed other venues to view the issue in a clearer light.
Surely, the book contributes much in the history of metaphysics and this would give
guidance for future studies for both Aquinas and Heidegger.

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
Aquinas, Thomas St. Concerning Being and Essence, trans. by George Leckie. New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1837.

_________________. The Basic Writings of Aquinas, trans. & ed. by Anton Pegis, OP.
Indianapolis : Hackett, 1945.

_________________, Summa Theologiae, trans. English Dominican Province New York:

Benzinger Brothers, Inc., 1947.

_________________. On Being and Essence, trans. Maurer, Armand. Toronto: The Pontifical
Institute of Medieval Studies, 1991.

Heidegger, Martin. Early Greek Thinking, trans. by David Farrell Krell and Frank Capuzzi.
Frankfurt: Holswege, 1950.

______________. Being and Time, trans. by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. Tubingen:
Neomarius Verlag, 1963.

______________. An Introduction to Metaphysics. London: Yale University Press, 1959.

______________. Basic Writing, trans. by David Farell Krell. London: Routledge, Kegan and
Paul, 1978.

______________. On Time and Being, trans. by Joan Stambaugh. London: Harper and Row
Publishers, 1972.

______________. The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press,

1982.

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Caputo, John. Aquinas and Heidegger: An Essay on Overcoming Metaphysics. Indiana:
Indiana University Press, 1982.

___________. The Metaphysical Element in Heidegger’s Thought. New York: Fordham

University Press, 1986.

Chenu, Marie-Dominique. Aquinas and His Role in Theology. Minnesota: Liturgical Press,
2002.

Clark, Mary, ed. An Aquinas Reader. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1972.

Dreyfus, Herbert and Hall, Harrison. Heidegger: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers, 1992.

Frede, Dorothea: “The Question of being: Heidegger’s Project.” The Cambridge Companion
to Heidegger, ed. Charles Guignon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Gilson, Etienne. The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1994.

Guignon, Charles, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1993.

Hemming, Laurence Paul. Heidegger’s Atheism. Indiana: Notre Dame University, 2002.

Hill, William. The Search for the Absent God. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co., 1992.

Inglis, John. On Aquinas. United Kingdom: Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2002.

Inwood, Michael. Heidegger: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press,
1997.

Johnson, Patricia Altenbernd. On Heidegger. United Kingdom: Wadsworth Thomson Learning,

2000.

Kerr, Fergus. After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., 2002.

Kretsmann, Norman and Stump, Eleonore. The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Mennesier, A.I. Pattern for a Christian According to Thomas Aquinas. New York: Alba House,
1992.

Nichols, Aidan. Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to his Life, Work and Influence. London:
Darton, Longman and Todd, Ltd., 2002.

Pegis, Anton, ed. Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas. New York: Random House Inc., Inc.,
1945.

Wippel, John. The Metaphysical Thoughts of Thomas Aquinas. Washington: The Catholic
University of America Press, 2000.

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Journals

Aureada, Fr. Jose Antonio. “The Concept of Grace in St. Thomas Aquinas: (II) The Nature of
Theological Participation.” Philippiniana Sacra, vol. 29, no. 87, 1994.

Blanchette, Oliva. “Are There Two Questions of Being?” Review of Metaphysics, vol. 45,
1991.

Caputo, John. “Auto-Deconstructing or Constructing a Bridge? A Reply to Thomas A. F. Kelly.”

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 2, 2002.

___________. Demythologizing Heidegger. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.

___________. “The Thought of Being an dthe Metaphysics of Esse.” Philosophy Today, vol.26,
no.3, 1982.

___________. “Presenting Heidegger.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol.69, no.2,

1995.

Gamwell, Franklin. “Speaking of God After Aquinas.” Journal of Religion, vol. 81, no.2, 2001.

Guagliardo, Vincent. “Aquinas and Heidegger: The Question of Philosophical Theology.” The
Thomist, vol.53, no.3, 1989.

Hemming, Laurence Paul. “Heidegger’s God.” The Thomist, vol. 62, no. 3, 1998.

Hermida, Ranilo. “Towards the Celebration of Being Human: A Retrieval of the Metaphysics
of Thomas Aquinas and Martin Heidegger.” Philippiniana Sacra, vol. 33, no.99, 1998.

Hoping, Helmut. “Understanding the Difference of Being: on the Relation between

Metaphysics and Theology.” The Thomist, vol.59, no.2, 1995.

Kelly, Thomas. “On Remembering and Forgetting Being: Aquinas, Heidegger, and Caputo.”
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 2, 2002.

Knasas, John F. X. “A Heideggerian Critique of Aquinas and a Gilsonian Reply.” The Thomist,
vol.58, no.3, 1994.

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