The Role of Hypothetical Necessity in Francisco Suárez's Concept of Fate

Abstract

Francisco Suárez, the Jesuit, was a thinker of crucial importance of Late Scholasticism. This paper analyses the chapters concerning divine providence (providentia) and fate (fatum) in his most important work, Disputationes Metaphysicae, in order to find out how the author intended to reconcile his libertarian views with the above-mentioned concepts. This question is of importance, since this reconciliation was required by him due to the intellectual demands of Dominicans (holding compatibilist views), and by Calvinsits (who were hard-determinists) as well. Hence this paper also intends to highlight the wider context of this debate.