Dr. Victor Salas

Associate Professor of Philosophy
Email: 
Contact person by email
Phone: 
313-883-8774
Office Hours: 
By appointment
Education: 
Ph.D. (Philosophy), Saint Louis University (2008)
M.A. (Philosophy), Saint Louis University (2007)
Graduate Certificate in Medieval Studies, Saint Louis University (2005)
B.A. Honors (Philosophy), University of Texas-Austin (2000)
Bio / Information: 

Dr. Salas is an Associate Professor of philosophy who specializes in medieval and late scholastic metaphysics. His publications have treated a number of historical figures (viz., Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Francisco Suarez, among others). At present, he is working on a monograph devoted to establishing the claim that Francisco Suárez's metaphysics constitutes a form of Christian existentialism. Upon completion of that project, he plans to explore further the nature of Jesuit scholastic metaphysics (in general) in terms of the relationship between, on the one hand, analogy and univocity, and on the other, transcendentality and supertranscendentality. Here, the goal is to determine the nature and limits of Jesuit scholastic metaphysics.

Professional Associations/Memberships: 

American Catholic Philosophical Association
Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale
Royal Historical Society
Member, Centre d’études vitoriennes et suáreziennes (CEVES), Institut Catholique de Toulouse
Member, Research Group “Jesuit thinking and tradition and its influence on modernity from the perspectives of history, Translation Studies and Legal, Moral and Political Philosophy” (PEMOSJ)

Publications: 

Books

John of St. Thomas (Poinsot) on Sacred Science: A Translation of Cursus theologicus, Disputation 2, ed.     Victor M. Salas (St. Augustine’s Press, forthcoming).

A Companion to Francisco Suárez, eds. Victor M. Salas and Robert Fastiggi (Brill, 2015).

Hircocervi and Other Metaphysical Wonders: Essays in Honor of John P. Doyle, Victor M. Salas, ed. (Marquette University Press, 2013).

John P. Doyle, On the Borders of Being and Knowing: Some Late Scholastic Thoughts on          Supertranscendental Being, ed. Victor M. Salas (Leuven University Press, 2012).

John P. Doyle, Collected Studies on Francisco Suárez, S.J. (1548-1617), ed. Victor M. Salas (Leuven UniversityPress, 2010).

Articles/Chapters

“Bonaventure on the Vanity of Being: Toward a Metaphysic of Ecclesiastes,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 90.4 (2016): 635–665.

“A Theoretical Fulcrum: Robert Grosseteste on (Divine) Infinitude,” in Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle Ages, eds. Jack P. Cunningham and Mark Hocknull (Switzerland: Springer, 2016), 209–220.

“Between Thomism and Scotism: Francisco Suárez on the Analogy of Being,” in Companion to Francisco Suárez, eds. Victor M. Salas and Robert Fastiggi (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 336–362.

“Francisco Suárez, S.J.: The Man and His Work,” (with Robert Fastiggi) in Companion to Francisco Suárez, eds. Victor M. Salas and Robert Fastiggi (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 1–28.

“Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola on Being and Unity: A Thomistic Solution to an Ancient Quarrel” The Thomist 78.3 (2014): 351–377.

“Francisco Suárez and Analogy: Resolving a Tension,” in Suárez’s Metaphysics in its Systematic and             Historical Context, ed. Lukáš Novák (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2014), 87-104.

“Albert the Great and ‘Univocal Analogy,’” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87.4 (2013):      611-635. 

“Thomas Aquinas’s Metaphysics of the Person and Phenomenological Personalism: The Case of      Incommunicability,” Gregorianum 94.3 (2013): 573–591.

“Francisco de Vitoria on the Ius Gentium and the American Indios,” Ave Maria Law Review 10.2           (2012):           331-342.

“Edith Stein and Medieval Metaphysics,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 85.2 (2011): 323–340.

“Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas on the Analogy between God and Creatures,” Mediaeval Studies 72 (2010): 283–312.

“Francisco Suárez: End of the Scholastic Epistēmē?” in Francisco Suárez and his Legacy: the Impact of Suárezian Metaphysics and Epistemology on Modern Philosophy, ed., Marco Sgarbi         (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2010): 9–28.

“The Analogy of Giving and Receiving in the Thought of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II,” Gregorianum 90.3 (2009): 473–484.

“The Twofold Character of Thomas Aquinas’s Analogy of Being,” International Philosophical Quarterly 49.3 (2009): 295–315.

“Hervaeus Natalis and Dietrich von Hildebrand: The Roots of Realist Phenomenology in Scholasticism,”       (with Elizabeth Salas) Angelicum 86 (2009): 495–506.

“The Ontology of Analogy in Aquinas: A Response to Laurence Hemming,” The Heythrop Journal       50.4 (2009): 635–647.

“The Judgmental Feature of Thomas Aquinas’s Analogy of Being,” The Modern Schoolman 85.2 (2008): 117–142.

“Thomas Aquinas on Christ’s Esse: A Metaphysics of the Incarnation,” The Thomist 70.4 (2006): 577–603.

“Re-visiting St. Augustine’s Philosophy of God in Light of Plato’s Protology,” The Modern Schoolman 82.4 (2005): 211–230.

Encyclopedia Articles

“Carleton, Thomas Compton,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer. 

“Jack, Gilbert” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Fonseca, Pedro da,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Mendoza, Hurtado de,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Molina, Luis de,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Pereira, Benito,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Poinsot, John,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Ribadeneyra, Pedro de,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Rubio, Antoñio,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Soto, Domingo de,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Suárez, Francisco,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer.

“Entia Rationis (Beings of Reason).” New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2013. 468-470.

“Individuality.” New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2013. 751-753 (revised and updated).

“Individuation.” New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2013. 753-758 (revised and updated).

“Location (Ubi).” New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2013. 921-922 (revised and updated).

Book Reviews

Review of Ens Rationis from Suarez to Caramuel: A Study in Scholasticism of the Baroque Era, Daniel Novotný, Fordham University Press, 2013. International Philosophical Quarterly 54.1 (2014): 105-107.

Review of The Science of Being as Being: Metaphysical Investigations, ed. Gregory T. Doolan, Catholic University of America Press, 2012. International Philosophical Quarterly 52.4(2012):         487-489.

Review of The Problem of Negligent Omissions: Medieval Action Theories to the Rescue, Michael        Barnwell, Brill Academic Publishers, 2010. The Review of Metaphysics 65 (2011): 409-411.

Review of Suárez: Between Scholasticism and Modernity, José Pereira, Marquette University Press, 2007. International Philosophical Quarterly 49.2 (2009): 276–278.

Review of The Way of Life: John Paul II and the Challenge of Liberal Modernity, Carson Holloway, Baylor University Press, 2008. Catholic Social Science Review 14 (2009): 421–423.