The metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. From the concept of being and unity to the concept of whole and part

The subject-matter of the thesis is the metaphysical thought of the renowned medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274). The main goal ofthe thesis is to expose Aquinas' part-whole doctrine (mereology) in the broad context of his metaphysical theory. In concrete, we mean to elucidate the part-whole relationship in the background ofthe key metaphysical principles and concepts, such as the notion of being and unity or the issue of the ontological structure of a categorial being. The whole thesis can be divided into two main parts. In the first part we tackle those issues, which must be outlined to comprehend Aquinas' mereology in the broad horizon of his metaphysics. In the second part we set forth the independent attempt to advance Aquinas' part-whole theory