Praxis and the ends of action in Suárez

Abstract

I will try to show how Suárez’s model of praxis allows for the coordination of intellect and will to generate actions through the integration of ends. A special sense of causality is studied that adds a practical overlay to actions: while actions remain an external mode of the effect, they can be contingent insofar as they are produced by a free agent with particular ends in mind. I will argue that the appearance of these ends is only possible through a habitual understanding of praxis, which is a subjective consideration of reality as ‘operable’.