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The Medieval Church · c. 1252–1256
On Being and Essence
De Ente et Essentia
Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274
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What it is
An early short work distinguishing what a thing is from the fact that it is, and arguing that only in God are essence and existence the same.
Why it lasted
The seed of the whole Thomist metaphysics, written before its author was thirty and still the standard introduction to it.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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