La filosofía primera, la teoría del conocimiento y la hypóstasis como fundamento del derecho en la tradición tomista

Abstract: First Philosophy, the Theory of Knowledge, and Hypostasis as the Foundation of Law in the Thomist Tradition
This study examines the hypostatic structure as a metaphysical key for grounding law in the Thomistic tradition, integrating the noetic dimension that articulates human knowledge with reality and its consequent impact on the philosophy of law. Through an analysis of its sources and the work of Thomas Aquinas, as well as its development in John of St. Thomas, Cajetan, and Garrigou-Lagrange, the essential features that configure this structure are identified: the real distinction between essence and existence, the subsistent conception of the act of being (esse), analogical articulation, and the distinction between the natural and supernatural orders. It is further shown that this structure cannot be understood without a theory of knowledge that accounts for the inadequation between the universal mode of knowing and the singular mode of being – an inadequation that directly affects the relationship between law (universal) and the just (particular). On this basis, it is shown how the notion of the person – in its distinction between individuality and personality – constitutes the metaphysical foundation of human rights and the legal order. The application of these principles in the work of Jacques Maritain is also addressed, noting that his originality consists in articulating the Thomistic tradition with the challenges of political modernity without this implying a break with the inherited hypostatic structure, although a critical difficulty is noted: the realization of human rights in the absence of a concrete medium between the universality of law and the singularity of the case. The study concludes that the hypostatic structure implies a constitutive inadequation between the universal and the singular, which is reproduced in the legal domain as a tension between law and the just.