Le "virtus essendi" de Thomas d'Aquin entre ses interprètes

Abstract

The expression « virtus essendi » used by Thomas Aquinas in some passages of his works has been another of the topics discussed in contemporary Thomism among the most important commentators of Aquinas. Étienne Gilson was the first of the commentators to write some explanatory notes on its meaning, making it clear that this power of which the expression speaks refers to the source from which all perfection and all actuality comes, the esse ut actus essendi. For his part, the Canadian Dominican Lawrence Dewan, particularly interested in showing that this « virtus » is shared by both co-principles of the being, namely, form and esse, considers on the contrary that the Thomistic doctrine of the « virtus essendi » develops rather the theme that form is the principle of being (principium essendi). Faced with these two contrary readings, in this article we propose to make a systematic analysis of the two commentators and to offer a possible line of research that will shed light on the meaning of what Thomas Aquinas means by the expression « virtus essendi ».