Establish the subject of Aristotle/Aquinas’ Metaphysics and how they think we discover it

Select exactly THREE of the following essay questions to answer, giving a brief but
complete answer to the entire question:
1. Establish the subject of Aristotle/Aquinas’ Metaphysics and how they think we discover
it. Then explain what the transcendentals of being are, why it belongs to AristotelianThomistic
Metaphysics to study them, what they each add to the notion of being.
2. In which of the following ways do the transcendentals “add” to being? After you answer,
explain why the other two options are wrong. (1) They are each a new thing entirely
separate from being, like how “white” can be added to “body” because they are separate
things in reality. (2) They add to being by limiting the scope of being, like how the 10
Categories limit being. (3) They are only distinct from our conceptual understanding of
being, but in reality they are actually the same as being.
3. Step-by-step, give the full argument from On Being and Essence (De Ente et Essentia)
which proves there can only be one thing the essence of which is the same as its existence
(i.e., ipsum esse subsistens).
4. What is an essence for Aquinas? How does Aquinas show that the essence of man
includes both matter and form, rather than form alone or matter alone? What kind of
matter does the human essence include?
5. Granting that God is “pure actuality,” give brief but complete demonstrations taken from
Aquinas that God is (1) perfect, (2) good, (3) all-knowing, and (4) all-powerful.
6. Explain what the (Epicurean) problem of evil is and how Aquinas resolves it in the
Summa Theologiae and the Summa Contra Gentiles.