Francisco Suárez

Francisco Suárez
Born	(1548-01-05)January 5, 1548 Granada
Died	September 25, 1617(1617-09-25) (aged 69) Lisbon
Other names	Doctor Eximius
Era	Modern philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Scholasticism
Influences Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus and medieval Scholasticism in general; Aristotle, Avicenna
Influenced Descartes, Leibniz, Christian Wolff, Hugo Grotius, Matthew Hale, Martin Heidegger, Mário Ferreira dos Santos

Francisco Suárez (5 January 1548 – 25 September 1617) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement, and generally regarded among the greatest scholastics after Thomas Aquinas. His work is considered a turning point in the history of second scholasticism, marking the transition from its Renaissance to its Baroque phases. According to Christopher Shields and Daniel Schwartz, "figures as distinct from one another in place, time, and philosophical orientation as Leibniz, Grotius, Pufendorf, Schopenhauer, and Heidegger, all found reason to cite him as a source of inspiration and influence."

Of Jewish (converso) origins, Francisco Suárez was born in Granada, Andalusia (southern Spain), on 5 January 1548.

After 3 years of preliminary studies from age 10 onwards, in 1561 Suárez matriculated at the University of Salamanca, and studied Law. In 1564, at age sixteen, Suárez entered the Society of Jesus in Salamanca. In August 1566, Suárez took his first vows as a Jesuit; he then began in October 1566 to study Theology at Salamanca. It seems he was not a promising student at first; in fact, he nearly gave up his matters of study after failing the entrance exam twice. After passing the exam at third attempt, though, things changed.