The relationship between God’s omnipotence and eternal truths in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Francis Suárez and Descartes

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the relationship between God’s omnipotence and eternal truths in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, Francis Suárez and Descartes. In the presented work, I limit myself to those aspects of the thoughts of the first two phi­losophers that allow us to better understand the originality of Descartes’ position. At the beginning of the article, I point out the similarities and differences in their understanding of the nature of God’s omnipotence and eter-nal truths. In its later part, I present Suárez’s criticism of the concept of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the main part, however, I show Des­cartes’ arguments for rejecting the concept of God’s omnipo-tence and the “situation” of eternal truths in relation to God’s intellect by his predecessors. I also draw attention to the motives that led Descartes to a radical approach to the relationship between God’s omnipotence and the eternal truths dependent on it. Finally, I demonstrate the influence of his concept on the development of modern science.