Zusammenfassung / Summary
Seen in its historical development the doctrine of being and its general attributes such as unity, truth, goodness originally starts as a theory of the good. Beginning with Philipps Summa de bono (ca. 1226) transcendental reflection proceeds from an analysis of goodness to a new understanding of being, which breaks with the christian-neoplatonic tradition. According to this new understanding created being is called „being“ (ens) and „good“ not further improperly in a derived sense with regard to its causal relation to the uncreated Good, but directly and in the proper sense in respect of its own inner being (esse) and goodness. The change to a transcendental mode of thinking is due to the challenge of the propagating religion of the Cathars. It enables a philosophical answer to the Cathar contempt for the world which in the eyes of the contemporary authors more closely corresponds to the christian perspective on creation than the former christian-neoplatonic answer to Manichaeism.