ABSTRACT
Thomas Aquinas spent a considerable amount of time and effort during the final years of his career writing detailed commentaries on twelve works by Aristotle as well as on the Liber de causis. Aquinas' commentaries, including his Commentary on the 'Metaphysics', do indeed express his personal thought. Since Thomas is philosophically convinced that the essence or quiddity of a natural substance includes both matter and form, he seems to have concluded that Aristotle himself must have held the same view. And so he does his best to find that position in the text of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Hence one can largely ignore the commentaries on Aristotle, including the Commentary on the 'Metaphysics', in studying Aquinas' personal thought. At the opposite end of the spectrum is another approach. Aquinas' commentaries, including his Commentary on the 'Metaphysics', do indeed express his personal thought.
