Abstract

Both of these eminently theoretical books by a prominent metaphysician compel the reader to put aside many discussions one has heard from the standpoints of empiricism, Kantianism, and positivism. In fact, Seifert aims at a new foundation of classical metaphysics on the basis of “phenomenological realism,” a position he defends against the so-called “existential Thomism” of Étienne Gilson. Seifert points out the fundamental character of a correct distinction between “being” and “essence” for contemporary metaphysics with reference to Gilson’s understanding of the criticism by Aquinas of the Anselmian thesis “existence as a predicate”. For Gilson, Aquinas’s proposition that God is objectively esse tantum means that the essence of God consists simply in “existing” without disposing of an essence of His own. Seifert suggests that the correct meaning of this expression implies God’s full possession of being and essence so as to exclude every form of nonbeing. Consequently, God’s full possession of being and essence can only be.