Idem re differunt ratione. Frege "interprete" di Tommaso d'Aquino a proposito della distinzione fra essenza ed esistenza

The discussion about the distinction in creatures between essence and existence, as well as that of their identity in God, doesn’t cease to draw the attention of philosophers, and not only those usually known as “Thomists”. Aim of this article is rereading some of Aquinas’s texts on this topic, starting from the well known Frege’s Sense and Reference. Frege’s distinction between sense and reference seems to be particularly useful not only to better understand some of Aquinas’s passages, but sometimes even to better translate some of Aquinas’ Latin idiomatic Latin expressions. The result of such an interpretation is that “essence” and “existence” are not two different objects designated by their corresponding names “res” and “ens”, as pointed out by Avicenna and those who still defend the “real” distinction, but two different senses, expressed by those names, of the same object designed by them.