Możliwość samozagłady świata. Metafizyczne dociekania św. Tomasza z Akwinu w „Kwestiach dyskutowanych o mocy Boga”.

The undertaken considerations in the presented article belong to the broader context of metaphysical analyzes concerning one of the aspects of the creative action of the Absolute, which is the preservation of the world in existence (conservatio mundi). This issue is considered from the perspective of created substances and therefore it is expressed in the question of whether they have the possibility of non-existence, which, based on Thomas Aquinas’ creatio ex nihilo theory, is tantamount to the question of whether they were created by God in destructible natures and as such they aim at to self-annihilation. The negation in the substantial order of the disposition to non-existence in contingent beings seems to justify the conclusion that their duration is founded not only in the divine act of preserving in existence but also in their inherent nature, which is oriented rather towards being than non-being. In order to solve the problem formulated in this way, in the first place, the principles responsible for the destructibility of beings will be analyzed, then the considerations focus on the necessity of the existence of created sub-stances, and the whole is completed by the presentation of the relation between contingency and destructibility.