Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
MANSER, GALLUS. - Philosopher and Dominican theologian, born at Bruelisau in Switzerland on 15 July 1866, died at Fribourg on 20 February 1950. Ordained priest in 1897, he entered the Dominican Order at Venlo in Holland. In 1899 at Fribourg in Switzerland he was assigned the chair of logic, ontology, and history of philosophy, which he held for
MANSI, GIOVANNI DOMENICO. – Portrait, painted by Pompeo Batoni. Lucca, Pinacoteca.
The fundamental unifying principle of the Thomistic system is the distinction between being in act and being in potency. He denied the validity of a sixth way to demonstrate the existence of God, one that would start from the natural desire for happiness, and he reserved primacy for the principle of contradiction over the principle of identity. Free from school constraints, he spent his final years publishing two works on natural law according to Thomistic philosophy.
BIBL.: S. De Andrea, In memoria di un grande tomista: p. G. M., in Sapienza, 3 (1950), pp. 366–72 (with bibliography of all M.’s works). Innocenzo Colosio
Cite this article
“MANSER, GALLUS.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII (1951), p. 1169. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/manser-gallus.
