John Wenck (†1460) supported Albertism while he was master of Arts in Paris. In 1426, he enrolled at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Heidelberg. It is not yet clear whether in Heidelberg Wenck continued to uphold the same Albertist ideas or whether he shifted toward Thomism, as suggested by Rudolf Haubst. The paper reconsiders this issue by analyzing the early works Wenck wrote as a theology student in Heidelberg, namely his Principia on Peter Lombard’s Sentences and quaestiones (...) on the Holy Spirit and on the Incarnation (1431). Editions of these writings are either lacking or currently in preparation. The paper brings out their main sources, especially Bonaventure, and highlight the doctrinal aspects of the debates that Wenck developed with his colleagues in those years. Moreover, the paper finds here the premises of the Wegestreit between the via Antiqua and the Nominalists, which continued to mark the University of Heidelberg in the following years. The main topics discussed by the paper are divine omnipotence, the creation and eternity of the world, and the interpretation of Aristotelian philosophy. (shrink)

The Spiritual Forms in Nicolai Hartmann’s critical ontology. For a critical-genetic interpretation of The Problem of Spiritual Being. The Author critically discusses the theoretical assumptions underlying Nicolai Hartmann’s 1933 The Problem of Spiritual Being. The Author deals with the main categorial problems involved in the Hartmannian discussion about the spiritual being, also looking at his previous production. In particular, the Author analyzes the position of the ontic level of spiritual being with respect to the previous three real ontic levels (inorganic, (...) organic, psychological) and the mutual relationship between the three fundamental forms of spiritual being identified by Hartmann (personal, objective, objectified). The Author believes that the 1933 volume has been poorly considered in its direct links with the overall project of critical ontology. (shrink)