«Etiamsi Deus non daretur». Nominalismo medieval y secularización moderna

Abstract

The secularization of the doctrine about Ethics was not a result of the protestant mentalities, but a work of much of the Catholic theologians during the late Middle Ages. Those men were faced with the need to fight against the pelagian and semipelagian doctrines which, since not distinguishing between the natural and supernatural world, so easily led to Pantheism. This task (let us call it apologetic) was not carried out by the Aristotelians, but by those who we now call Nominalists though, perhaps, we should better call them Nominals. Their solution consisted in heavily separating the natural world from the supernatural one, so that the natural, including the Natural Law, as it is natural, is part of what already is or exists, in the same way as the rest of Nature, and its compliance is morally irrelevant. Momentarily they moved away from Pelagius, but they contributed to spread the idea of a natural ethics which would exist out of Theology and would have a «rational» force.

La secularizacion de la doctrina sobre la etica no fue resultado de las mentalidades protestantes, sino obra de buena parte de los teologos catolicos de la Baja Edad Media. Aquellos hombres se encontraron ante la necesidad de luchar contra las doctrinas pelagianas y semipelagianas que, al no distinguir entre el mundo natural y el sobrenatural, con tanta facilidad conducian al panteismo. Esta labor (llamemosla apologetica) no fue realizada por los aristotelicos, sino por los que ahora llamamos nominalistas aunque, quiza mejor, sea llamarlos nominales. Su solucion consistio en separar severamente el mundo natural del sobrenatural, de modo que lo natural, incluida la ley natural, en cuanto que natural, es parte de lo que ya esta o existe, del mismo modo que el resto de la naturaleza, y su observancia carece de relevancia propiamente moral. Momentáneamente se apartaron de Pelagio, pero contribuyeron a difundir la idea de una ética natural que existiría al margen de la Teología y que tendría una vigencia solamente ‘racional’.