“We Did not Take an Oath on the Words of Saint Thomas” – Friar Gaspar da Madre de Deus OSB (1715–1800) and the Rejection of the Thomistic Doctrine of Matter

Abstract

In this article, we investigate a subject central to the philosophy of nature of Friar Gaspar da Madre de Deus OSB (1715–1800), the author of Philosophia platonica seu cursus philosophicus, finished 1748, in Rio de Janeiro. This is the doctrine of prime matter, which receives a “metaphysical” and a “physical” treatment. “Physically”, Friar Gaspar endorses Pierre Gassendi's atomism. Though he allows for a “metaphysical” account of prime matter, Frei Gaspar clearly rejects the Thomistic mainstream doctrine. By describing and analysing Frei Gaspar's rejection of the Thomistic view of prime matter, the present article sheds new light on the features of scholastic philosophy in Colonial Brazil, in its late phase of development. It was an eclectic scholasticism, which could be critical to previous mainstream philosophy and open to new trends in natural philosophy and metaphysics which were pressed by developments in modern physics.

Keywords: Friar Gaspar da Madre de Deus OSB. Philosophy in Colonial Brazil. Matter. Form. Philosophy of nature.