On One of Thomas de Vio Cajetan's Doctrinal Sources: Secular Aristotelianism in Padua

Abstract

Cajetan was long believed to be an almost pure Thomist whose one and only theoretical influence came from Aquinas. On this basis, Cajetan along with his mentor and other thinkers were also thought to form a uniform doctrinal school known as Aristotelian-Thomism. However, many of the theses of Gaetanus’s commentator contain theoretical assumptions that are very different and even opposed to those of Aquinas. Here we will focus on one of those assumptions that operate potentially on Cajetan’s forma mentis, namely the secular Aristotelianism of Padua.