Abstract

How is the one, which according to Aristotle is convertible with being, related to the numerical one? Does it embrace individual and quantitative-categorial unity or can it be reduced to one of these unities? In the course of the reception of Aristotle in the Middle Ages Arabic and Latin authors discuss these questions in order to explain the nature and ontological importance of unity as a property of being as such. The controversies give rise to a comprehensive investigation, which appears in Suárez’ Disputationes metaphysicae in its most systematic form. Suárez brings together elements from the thomistic, the scotistic and the nominalistic tradition in a new differentiated view. According to this view invididuality and quantitative unity are modal explications of transcendental unity.