Gile. Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast brought to you

with the support of the Philosophy Department at Kings College London and the LMU in Munich,

online at History of Philosophy.net.

Today's episode will be an interview about Francisco Suarez and his ethical theory with

Tom Pink, who is professor of philosophy at King's College London.

Hi Tom. Hi, Peter.

Thanks for coming back on the podcast.

Not at all.

We are going to be talking about Suarez and I thought maybe you could just begin by

reminding the listener who Suarez was and saying something well connected Spanish family who becomes a member of the Jesuit order in the early days, 16th century days of that order.

Like many members of the Jesuit order, he has a certain degree of choice about who he will follow.

He's not a Dominican who has to give a special place to Thomas, Aquinas.

He's not a Franciscan who has to give a special place to Dun Scottus.

He is therefore quite eclectic.

At a big picture level you can see him as combining various elements of the

Tomist and Skotist traditions, but he's a much more deeply grounded thinker than

that in that to a very extraordinary extent he combines a wide range of influences that come from outside

ethics as we would understand it nowadays.

For example he's a considerable legal thinker. He had a very great

mastery of both civil law, the law of the state, and canon law, the law of the church.

And he integrates his mastery of legal theory with his ethical theory to provide a general theory

of how we live the ethical life within the framework of divinely instituted governing bodies, church and state.

...