SUÁREZ SOBRE EL IMPERIUM COMO CONSTITUTIVO FORMAL DE LA LEY: DE ESCOTO A KANT.

The article focuses on the transformation of the epistemic status of rule as for the essence of law. As a result of a profound change in the anthropology of the 13th century, which has continued up to Kant (and beyond) including Suarez, the rule ceases to be understood as an act of intellectual and prudential nature and starts to be regarded as an act of volitive and spontaneous nature. Mainly due to the Augustinian-Scotistic thesis about the clear predominance of will over intellect, such anthropological change gives rise to a new theory about the human being and the law that Suarez will receive in its essential aspects. On the other hand, a new metaphysics of causality, which makes its way in the Augustinian tradition by the end of the 13th century, confines causality to efficiency at the expense of finality, which will now start to be understood as an unusual or metaphorical form of causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]