Fortunatus Victor Costa
Encyclopedia
Fortunatus Victor Costa (18th/19th centuries) was a minor Maltese philosopher who specialised in metaphysics
.
, Malta
, and that in 1806 he was a religious cleric. He might have been studying for the priesthood or else embraced the clerical state on a lifelong basis.
. The work is organised in the typical style of Scholasticism
, that is, in parts and chapters as was then used in the schools.
The document is a type of traditional treatise on metaphysics. It is simple in style and unassuming in content.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
.
Life
Almost nothing is known as yet about the personal life of Costa. Only that he hailed from SengleaSenglea
Senglea is a fortified city in the east of Malta, mainly in the Grand Harbour area. It is one of the Three Cities in the east of Malta, the other two being Cospicua and Vittoriosa. The city of Senglea is also called Civitas Invicta, because it managed to resist the Ottoman invasion at the Great...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, and that in 1806 he was a religious cleric. He might have been studying for the priesthood or else embraced the clerical state on a lifelong basis.
Extant work
Only one work of Costa survives: the Metaphysicæ Elementa (Metaphysical Matters), composed in 1806. It is still in manuscript form, and of course deals with metaphysicsMetaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
. The work is organised in the typical style of Scholasticism
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
, that is, in parts and chapters as was then used in the schools.
The document is a type of traditional treatise on metaphysics. It is simple in style and unassuming in content.
Sources
- Mark Montebello, Il-Ktieb tal-Filosofija f’Malta (A Source Book of Philosophy in Malta), PIN Publications, Malta, 2001.