Istnienie i życie. Uwagi na marginesie zasady vivere viventibus est esse

In the paper I show the reasons for which the Aristotelian principle vivere viventibus est esse is relevant for the understanding of actual existence; there are three sorts of these reasons: (i) some metaphilosophical reasons which I offer in p. 2; (ii) the possibility of illustrating some key metaphysical theses (which I list in p. 3) concerning actual existence on the example of life; (iii) a connection between ignoring actual existence and some way of treating life (that I show on the example of Francis Suarez and John Punch). In the course of the argument I distinguish between three senses of the predicate ‘is alive’ and the concept of life (the accidental, the essential and the actual one) and I focus on some key differences between the ways the concept of life is introduced in Aquinas and in Suarez and Punch.