Francisco Suarez, SJ (1548–1617) was a prominent early modern metaphysical philosopher; had a profound influence on the formation of modern European philosophy, including Descartes and Leibniz. For the first time in the history of Western thought, having built metaphysics as a strictly autonomous, rational and internally consistent system of philosophical questioning, Suarez actually became the second, after Aristotle, founder of European metaphysics. “Metaphysical Discourses” (1597), the main philosophical work of Suarez, not only played the role of the main link between two eras in the history of philosophy - the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, but also determined the development of modern European rationalism for two centuries to come. For a century and a half, Suarez's treatise served as the basic teaching text in most universities in Western and Central Europe. This volume is published by the Institute of St. Thomas begins the publication of selected “Metaphysical Discourses” by Francisco Suarez in 4 volumes, which are being published for the first time in translation into Russian.