Footnotes (continued 2)

342.

“Si potentiae animae non sunt ipsa essentia animae, sequitur quod sint accidentia in aliquo novem generum contenta. Sunt enim in secunda specie qualitatis, quæ dicitur potentia vel impotentia naturalis.”—Q. Disp. de Spir. Creat., art. 11, in c.

343.

Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. 76, art. 1, in c.—“Cum potentia et actus dividant ens, et quodlibet genus entis, opportet quod ad idem genus referatur potentia et actus; et ideo si actus non est in genere substantiae, potentia, quæ dicitur ad illum actum, non potest esse in genere substantiae. Operatio autem animae non est in genere substantiae, sed in solo Deo, cujus operatio est ejus substantia.”—Cf. Zigliara, Ontologia (9), xi.: “Actus et potentia essentialiter ad illum actum ordinata sunt in eodem genere supremo.”

344.

“Nec in angelo, nec in aliqua creatura, virtus vel potentia operativa est idem quod sua essentia.... Actus ad quem comparatur potentia operativa est operatio. In angelo autem non est idem intelligere et esse; nec aliqua alia operatio, aut in ipso aut in quocunque alio creato, est idem quod ejus esse. Unde essentia angeli non est ejus potentia intellectiva, nec alicujus creati essentia est ejus operativa potentia.”—ibid., q. 54, art 3.

345.

As we shall see later, action as such does not perfect or change the agens, unless when, as in immanent action, the agens is identical with the patiens. Action formally actualizes or perfects the patiens: actio fit in passo. But the exercise of any activity by an agent undoubtedly connotes or implies a perfection of this agent. It is not, however, that the actual operation as such (unless it is immanent) adds a new perfection to the agent. Rather the agent's power of acting, revealed to us in its exercise, is for us a measure of the actual perfection of the agent. But the question remains: Is this power or perfection, so far as we know it, a substantial perfection? Is it the very perfection itself of the agent's substance or nature as known to us? Or is it an accidental perfection which is for us an index of a corresponding degree of substantial perfection? In getting our knowledge of the nature of a substance from a consideration of its sensible accidents, its phenomena, its operations—according to the rule, Operari sequitur esse: qualis est operatio talis est natura—can we use a single inference, from action to nature, or must we use a double inference, from action to power, and from power to nature? But even if we have to make the double inference, this of itself does not prove any more than a conceptual distinction between power and nature.

346.

Cf.. St. Thomas, Q. Disp. de spir. creat., art. 11, in c.—Maher, Psychology ch. iii.

347.

Cf. Mercier, Ontologie, § 168.

348.

Cf. ibid., op. cit., § 169; Maher, Psychology, ch. iii. (p. 29, n. 3.)

349.

Of course all accidents are “forms” in the sense of being determining principles of their subjects, these being considered as determinable or receptive principles. Even quantity is a form in this sense. But quantity itself does not appear to be a “simple” principle in the sense of being “indivisible”: its very function is to make the corporeal substance divisible into integral parts. What then of all those qualities which inhere immediately in the quantity of corporeal substances? They are determinations or affections of a composite, extended, divisible subject. Conceived in the abstract they have, of course, the attributes of indivisibility, immutability, etc., characteristic of all abstract essences (14). But in their physical actuality in what intelligible sense can they be said to be simple, indivisible entities?

350.

Summa Theol., ia, iiae, q. 52, art. 2; iia, iiae, q. 24, art. 4, 5.—Q. Disp. de Virtutibus in communi, q. i, art. 11, in c.—I. In Sentent., Dist., 17, q. 2, art. 2.—Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., §§ 329-332, for arguments and authorities. The author himself defends the former view, according to which alteration takes place by a real addition or substraction of grades of the same quality.

351.

I. In Sentent., Dist., 17, q. 2, art. 2.

352.

iia, iiae, q. 24, art. 4, ad. 3.

353.

Q. Disp. de Virtut., q. 1, art. 11, in c.

354.

The scientific concept of “volume” is identical with the common and philosophical concept of “external, actual, local, or spatial extension”. The functions ascribed by physics and mechanics to the “mass” of a body have no other source, in the body, than what philosophers understand by the “internal extension” or “quantity” of the body.—Cf. Nys, Cosmologie (Louvain, 1903), §§ 192-203.

355.

The terms quantity and extension are commonly taken as synonymous; but quantity is more properly applied to the internal plurality of integral parts of the substance itself, extension to the dispersion of these parts outside one another in space.

356.

Hence Aristotle's definition in Metaph., iv.: “Quantum dicitur, quod [est] in insita divisibile, quorum utrumque aut singula unum quid et hoc quid apta sunt esse”: a quantified substance is one which is divisible into parts that are really in it [i.e. partes integrantes], parts each of which is capable of becoming a distinct subsisting individual thing.—Cf. Nys, Cosmologie, § 154.

357.

“Longitudo, latitudo et profunditas quantitates quaedam, sed non substantiae sunt. Quantitas enim non est substantia, sed magis cui haec ipsa primo insunt illud est substantia.”—Metaph., L. vii., ch. iii.

358.

Physic, L. i., ch. ii.

359.

L. ii., ch. iv.

360.

Cf. § 62 supra.

361.

“Propria ... totalitas substantiae continetur indifferenter in parva vel magna quantitate; sicut ... tota natura hominis in magno, vel parvo homine.”—Summa Theol., iii., q. 76, art. 1, ad. 3.

362.

No argument in favour of this view can be based on the use of the term species (“manentibus dumtaxat speciebus panis et vini”) by the Fathers of the Council of Trent. For them, as for all Catholic philosophers and theologians of the time, the scholastic term species, used in such a context, meant simply the objective, perceptible accidents of the substance. Cf. Nys, op. cit., § 175.

363.

Hence the significance of the lines in St. Thomas' hymn, Adoro Te devote:— Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.

364.

and neither does Revelation. The Body of our Blessed Lord exists in the Eucharist without its connatural external extension and consequent impenetrability. But according to the common teaching of Catholic theologians it has its internal quantity, its distinct integral parts, organs and members—really distinct from one another, though interpenetrating and not spatially external to one another. Its mode of existence in the space occupied by the sacramental species is thus analogous to the mode in which the soul is in the body, or a pure spirit in space.

365.

We know from Revelation that the Body of our Lord exists in this way in the Eucharist. We know, too, from Revelation that after the general resurrection the glorified bodies of the just will be real bodies, real corporeal substances, and nevertheless that they will be endowed with properties very different from those which they possess in the present state: that they will be immortal, incorruptible, impassible, “spiritual” (cf. 1 Cor. xv.). The Catholic philosopher who adds those scattered rays of revealed light to what his own rational analysis of experience tells him about matter and spirit, will understand the possibility of such a kinship between the latter as will make the fact of their union in his own nature and person not perhaps any less wonderful, but at any rate a little less surprising and inscrutable: and this without committing himself to the objective idealism whereby Berkeley, while endeavouring to show the utter unreality of matter, only succeeded in persuading himself that its reality was not independent of all mind.

366.

“Ὥστε τὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος πέρας ἀκίνητον πρῶτον, τουτ᾽ ἔστιν ὁ τόπος.”—Physic, L. iv., ch. iv. (6).

367.

The category Situs is commonly interpreted to signify the mutual spatial relations or dispositions of the various parts of a body in the place actually occupied by the latter.

368.

A body deprived of its connatural extension exists in space in a manner analogous to that in which the soul is in the body. The Body of our Divine Lord is in the Eucharist in this manner—“sacramentaliter”.

369.

Cf. Kleutgen, op. cit., § 624.

370.

Cf. Zigliara, Ontologia (35), iv.

371.

Cf. Nys, La Notion d'Espace (Louvain, 1901), pp. 95 sqq.—La Notion de Temps (Louvain, 1898), pp. 123 sqq.

372.

“Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio.”—Confess. L. xi., ch. xiv.

373.

“Cum enim intelligimus extrema diversa alicujus medii, et anima dicat, illa esse duo nunc, hoc prius, illud posterius quasi numerando prius et posterius in motu, tunc hoc dicimus esse tempus.”—St. Thomas, in Phys., L. iv. lect. 17a.

374.

Sentent., Dist. xix., q. ii., art. 1.—Cf. Lect. xxiii. in iv. Physic.

375.

Physic., iv., ch. xi.—Cf. St. Thomas in loc.

376.

“The conception of variation united with sameness is not, however, the whole cognition of time. For this the mind must be able to combine in thought two different movements or pulsations of consciousness, so as to represent an interval between them. It must hold together two nows, conceiving them, in succession, yet uniting them through that intellectual synthetic activity by which we enumerate a collection of objects—a process or act which carries concomitantly the consciousness of its own continuous unity.”—Maher, Psychology, ch. xvii.

377.

That is, provided we abstract from all comparison of this internal time duration with that of any other current of conscious experiences in the estimating mind. As a matter of fact we always and necessarily compare the time duration of any particular experienced change with that of the remaining portion of the whole current of successive conscious states which make up our mental life. And thus we feel, not that the four-mile walk had a longer time duration than the three-mile walk, but rather that it took place at a quicker rate, more rapidly, than the latter. But if a mind which had no other consciousness of change whatsoever than, e.g. that of the two walks experienced successively, no other standard change with which to compare each of them as it occurred—if such a mind experienced each in this way, would it pronounce the four-mile walk to have occupied a longer time than the three-mile walk?—Cf. infra, p. 327.

378.

This is true on the assumption that the intrinsic time-duration of a successive, continuous change, its divisibility into distinct “nows” related as “before” and “after,” is really identical with the continuous, successive states constituting the change itself, and is not a really distinct mode superadded to this change, a continuous series of “quandocationes,” distinct from the change, and giving the latter its temporal duration. But many philosophers hold that in all creatures duration is a mode of their existence really distinct from the creatures themselves that have this duration or continued existence.—Cf. infra, § 86.

379.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 246, pp. 201 sqq.

380.

op. cit., c. xvii.

381.

op. cit., c. xvii.

382.

Cf. Nys, La Notion de Temps (Lovain, 1898), p. 104.

383.

The fact that we can perceive and estimate temporal duration only extrinsically, and in ultimate analysis by comparison with the flow of our own conscious states, and that therefore we can have no perception or conception of the intrinsic time duration of any change, seems to have been overlooked by De San (Cosmologia, pp. 528-9) when he argues from our perception of different rates of motion, in favour of the view that time duration is not really identical with motion or change, but a superadded mode, really distinct from the latter.

384.

Cf. Nys, La Notion de Temps, pp. 85 sqq.

385.

Cf. Nys, op. cit., pp. 120 sqq., for a defence of the view that an actually infinite multitude involves no contradiction.

386.

ibid., pp. 162-9.

387.

De Consolatione, L. v., pr. ult.

388.

Cf. Kleutgen, op. cit., § 624.

389.

“Est ergo dicendum, quod, cum aeternitas sit mensura esse permanentis secundum quod aliquid recedit a permanentia essendi, secundum hoc recedit ab aeternitate. Quaedam autem sic recedunt a permanentia essendi, quod esse eorum est subjectum transmutationis, vel in transmutatiose consistit; et hujusmodi mensurantur tempore, sicut omnis motus, et etiam esse omnium corruptibilium. Quaedam vero recedunt minus a permanentia essendi, quia esse eorum nec in transmutatione consistit nec est subjectum transmutationis; tamen habent transmutationem adjunctam vel in actu vel in potentia ... patet de angelis, quod scilicet habent esse intransmutabile cum transmutabilitate secundum electionem, quantum ad eorum naturam pertinet, et cum transmutabilitate intelligentiarum, et affectionum, et locorum suo modo. Et ideo hujusmodi mensurantur aevo, quod est medium inter aeternitatem et tempus. Esse autem quod mensurat aeternitas, nec est mutabile nec mutabilitati adjunctum. Sic ergo tempus habet prius et posterius, aevum non habet in se prius et posterius, sed ei conjungi possunt; aeternitas autem non habet prius neque posterius, neque ea compatitur.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. x., art. 5, in c.

390.

pp. 517-57.

391.

Invisibilia enim ipsius a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt intellecta, conspiciuntur, sempiterna quoque ejus virtus et divinitas, ita ut [qui veritatem Dei in injustitia detinent] sint inexcusabiles.—Rom. ii. 20 [18].

392.

Cf. Maher, Psychology (4th edit.), pp. 90-2.

393.

For a clear and trenchant criticism of modern relativist theories, cf. Veitch, Knowing and Being, especially ch. iv., “Relation,” pp. 129 sqq.

394.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., §§ 179-80.

395.

Principles of Psychology, P. ii., ch. iii., § 88.

396.

Cf. Maher, Psychology, pp. 157-9.

397.

“We cannot of course perceive an unperceived world, nor can we conceive a world the conception of which is not in the mind; but there is no contradiction or absurdity in the proposition: ‘A material world of three dimensions has existed for a time unperceived and unthought of by any created being, and then revealed itself to human minds’.”—Maher, Psychology, p. iii, n.

398.

“I do not pretend to demonstrate anything, nor do I feel much concern, about any unknowable noumenon which never reveals itself in my consciousness. If there be in existence an inscrutable ‘transcendental Ego,’ eternally screened from my ken by this self-asserting ‘empirical Ego,’ I confess I feel very little interest in the nature or the welfare of the former. The only soul about which I care is that which immediately presents itself in its acts, which thinks, wills, remembers, believes, loves, repents, and hopes.”—Maher, op. cit., p. 475. Cf. Mercier, op. cit., § 180, pp. 363.

399.

Πρός τι δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγεται, ὅσα αὐτά, ἄπερ ἐστὶν, ἑτέρων εἶναι λέγεται, ἢ ὁπωσοῦν ἄλλως πρὸς ἕτερον.—Categ. v. 1.

400.

I Sentent., Dist. xxvi., q. 2, art. 1.

401.

“Sicut realis relatio consistit in ordine rei ad rem, ita relatio rationis consistit in ordine intellectuum [ordination of concepts]; quod quidem dupliciter potest contingere. Uno modo secundum quod iste ordo est adinventus per intellectum, et attributus ei, quod relative dicitur; et hujusmodi sunt relationes quae attribuuntur ab intellectu rebus intellectis, prout sunt intellectae, sicut relatio generis et speciei; has enim relationes ratio adinvenit considerando ordinem ejus, quod est in intellectu ad res, quae sunt extra, vel etiam ordinem intellectuum ad invicem. Alio modo secundum quod hujusmodi relationes consequuntur modum intelligendi, videlicet quod intellectus intelligit aliquid in ordine ad aliud; licet illum ordinem intellectus non adinveniat, sed magis ex quadam necessitate consequatur modum intelligendi. Et hujusmodi relationes intellectus non attribuit ei, quod est in intellectu, sed ei, quod est in re. Et hoc quidem contingit secundum quod aliqua non habentia secundum se ordinem, ordinate intelliguntur; licet intellectus non intelligit ea habere ordinem, quia sic esset falsus. Ad hoc autem quod aliqua habeant ordinem, oportet quod utrumque sit ens, et utrumque ordinabile ad aliud. Quandoque autem intellectus accipit aliqua duo ut entia, quorum alterum tantum vel neutrum est ens; sicut cum accipit duo futura, vel unum praesens et aliud futurum, et intelligit unum cum ordine ad aliud, dicit alterum esse prius altero; unde istae relationes sunt rationis tantum, utpote modum intelligendi consequentes. Quandoque vero accipit unum ut duo, et intelligit ea cum quodam ordine; sicut cum dicitur aliquid esse idem sibi: et sic talis relatio est rationis tantum. Quandoque vero accipit aliqua duo ut ordinabilia ad invicem, inter quae non est ordo medius, immo alterum ipsorum essentialiter est ordo; sicut cum dicit relationem accidere subjecto; unde talis relatio relationis ad quodcumque aliud est rationis tantum. Quandoque vero accipit aliquid cum ordine ad aliud, inquantum est terminus ordinis alterius ad ipsum, licet ipsum non ordinetur ad aliud: sicut accipiendo scibile ut terminum ordinis scientiae ad ipsum.”—De Potentia, q. vii., art. 11; cf. ibid. art. 10. “Cum relatio requirit duo extrema, tripliciter se habet ad hoc quod sit res naturae aut rationis. Quandoque enim ex utraque parte est res rationis tantum, quando scilicet ordo vel habitudo non potest esse inter aliqua nisi secundum apprehensionem intellectus tantum, utpote cum dicimus idem eidem idem. Nam secundum quod ratio apprehendit bis aliquod unum statuit illud ut duo; et sic apprehendit quandam habitudinem ipsius ad seipsum. Et similiter est de omnibus relationibus quae sunt inter ens et non ens, quas format ratio, inquantum apprehendit non ens ut quoddam extremum. Et idem est de omnibus relationibus quae consequuntur actum rationis, ut genus, species, et hujusmodi....”—Summa Theol., i., q. xiii., art. 7.

402.

Summa Theol.,1. q. xiii. art. 7. Elsewhere he points the distinction in these terms: “Respectus ad aliud aliquando est in ipsa natura rerum, utpote quando aliquae res secundum suam naturam ad invicem ordinatae sunt, et ad invicem inclinationem habent; et hujusmodi relationes oportet esse reales.... Aliquando vero respectus significatus per ea, quae dicuntur Ad aliquid, est tantum in ipsa apprehensione rationis conferentis unum alteri; et tunc est relatio rationis tantum, sicut cum comparat ratio hominem animali, ut speciem ad genus.”—ibid., q. xxviii., art. 1.

403.

St. Thomas gives expression to it in these sentences: “Perfectio et bonum quae sunt in rebus extra animam, non solum attenduntur secundum aliquid absolute inhaerens rebus, sed etiam secundum ordinem unius rei ad aliam; sicut etiam in ordine partium exercitus, bonum exercitus consistit: huic enim ordini comparat Philosophus [Aristot., xii. (x.) Metaph., Comment. 52 sqq.] ordinem universi. Oportet, ergo in ipsis rebus ordinem quemdam esse; hic autem ordo relatio quaedam est.... Sic ergo oportet quod res habentes ordinem ad aliquid, realiter referantur ad ipsum, et quod in eis aliqua res sit relatio.”—QQ. Disp. De Potentia, q. vii., art. 9.

404.

Kritik der reinen Vernunft, bk. i., Hauptst. ii., Abschn. ii., § 26.

405.

Logic, bk. i., ch. iii., § 10.

406.

L'Idée du phénomène, p. 181—apud Mercier, op. cit., § 173.

407.

“Quaedam vero relationes sunt quantum ad utrumque extremum res naturae, quando scilicet est habitudo inter aliqua duo secundum aliquid realiter conveniens utrique; sicut patet de omnibus relationibus quae consequuntur quantitatem, ut magnum et parvum, duplum et dimidium, et hujusmodi; nam quantitas est in utroque extremorum: et simile est de relationibus quae consequuntur actionem et passionem, ut motivum et mobile, pater et filius, et similia.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. xiii., art. 7.

408.

“Quandoque vero relatio in uno extremorum est res naturae, et in altero est res rationis tantum: et hoc contingit quandocunque duo extrema non sunt unius ordinis; sicut sensus et scientia referuntur ad sensibile et scibile; quae quidem, inquantum sunt res quaedam in esse naturale existentes, sunt extra ordinem esse sensibilis et intelligibilis. Et ideo in scientia quidem et sensu est relatio realis, inquantum ordinantur ad sciendum vel sentiendum res; sed res ipsae in se consideratae sunt extra ordinem hujusmodi; unde in eis non est aliqua relatio realiter ad scientiam et sensum, sed secundum rationem tantum, inquantum intellectus apprehendit ea ut terminos relationum scientiae et sensus. Unde Philosophus dicit in 5 Metaph., text. 20, quod non dicuntur relative, eo quod ipsa referantur ad alia, sed quia alia referantur ad ipsa.”—ibid.

409.

Being really and adequately identical with its foundation, which is the essence of its subject, this relation does not necessarily need the actual existence of its term. Thus actual knowledge or science, which is a habit of the mind, has a transcendental relation to its object even though this latter be not actual but only a pure possibility. Similarly the accident of quantity sustained without its connatural substance in the Eucharist, retains its transcendental relation to the latter.—Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 335 (p. 997).

410.

Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 336 (p. 990).

411.

Metaph., L. v., ch. xv. Cf. St. Thomas, in loc., lect. 17, where, approving of this triple division, he writes: “Cum enim relatio quae est in rebus, consistat in ordine unius rei ad aliam, oportet tot modis hujusmodi relationes esse, quot modis contingit unam rem ad aliam ordinari. Ordinatur autem una res ad aliam, vel secundum esse, prout esse unius rei dependet ab alia, et sic est tertius modus. Vel secundum virtutem activam et passivam, secundum quod una res ab alia recipit, vel alteri confert aliquid; et sic est secundus modus. Vel secundum quod quantitas unius rei potest mensurari per aliam; et sic est primus modus.”

412.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., § 175. For transcendental and predicamental unity, cf. supra, §§ 26, 28.

413.

Cf. infra, p. 355. Some authors hold that the relation in question is predicamental. Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., p. 987. The nature or essence of any individual would seem to imply in its very concept a transcendental relation of specific identity with all other actual and possible individual embodiments of this essence. The point is one of secondary importance.

414.

Even virtually, though not formally. The creative act is not formally transitive; it is virtually so: and in the creature it grounds the latter's relation of real dependence on the Creator.

415.

Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 336 (p. 989), § 341 (p. 1011); St. Thomas, iii. Sentent., Dist., viii., q. i., art. 5.

416.

Mercier, op. cit., § 175.

417.

Mercier, ibid.

418.

“Cum igitur Deus sit extra totum ordinem creaturae, et omnes creaturae ordinentur ad ipsum et non e converso; manifestum est quod creaturae realiter, referuntur ad ipsum Deum; sed in Deo non est aliqua realis relatio ejus ad creaturas, sed secundum rationem tantum, inquantum creaturae referantur ad ipsum.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. xiii., art. 7.

419.

Among others Cajetan, Ferriariensis, Capreolus, Bañez, Joannes a St. Thoma. Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 338 (p. 994); Mercier, op. cit., § 174. It would be interesting to know how precisely those authors conceived this “relative” entity, this “esse ad” as a reality independent of their own thought-activity. Cf. art. by the present writer in the Irish Theological Quarterly (vol. vii., April, 1912: “Reflections on some Forms of Monism,” pp. 167-8): “The whole universe of direct experience displays a unity of order or design which pervades it through and through; it is a revelation of intelligent purpose. Now a Cosmos, an orderly universe—which is intelligible only as the expression of intelligent purpose, and not otherwise—is a system of interrelated factors. But relating is unintelligible except as an expression of the activity of mind or spirit, that is, of something at least analogous to our mental activity of comparing and judging. Scholastic philosophers, as we know, discuss the question whether or how far the exact object of our ‘relation’ concept is real; that is, whether this object is, in itself and apart from the terms related [and the foundation], a mere ens rationis, a product of our thought, or whether it is in itself something more than this; and some of them hold that there are relations which, in themselves and formally as relations, are something more than mere products of our thought. Now if there be such relations, since they are not products of our thought, we may fairly ask: Must they be the product of some thought? And from our analysis of our very notion of what a relation is, it would seem that they must be in some sort or other a product or expression of some thought-activity: even relations between material things. It is in determining how precisely this is, or can be, that the theist and the monist differ. The theist regards all material things, with their real relations—and all our finite human minds, which apprehend the material world and its relations and themselves and one another—as being indeed in a true sense terms or objects of the Thought of God; not, however, as therefore identical or consubstantial with the Divine Spirit, but as distinct from It though dependent on It: inasmuch as he holds the Divine Thought to be creative, and regards all these things as its created terms. The kinship he detects between matter and spirit lies precisely in this, that matter is for him a created term of the Divine Thought. For him too, therefore, matter can have no existence except as a term of thought—the creative Thought of God.” Not that “the intelligible relations apprehended by us in matter are ... identical in reality with the thought-activity of the Divine Mind,” as Ontologists have taught [cf. supra, 14, 18, 19]; nor that we can directly infer the existence of a Supreme Spirit from the existence of matter, as Berkeley tried to do by erroneously regarding the latter merely as an essentially mind-dependent phenomenon; because “for the orthodox theist matter is in its own proper nature not spiritual, mental, psychical; not anything after the manner of a thought-process, or endowed with the spirit-mode of being”. If predicamental relations, such as quality or similarity of material things, are, as those medieval scholastics contended, real entities, “relative” in their nature, and really distinct from their extremes and foundations, did those scholastics conceive such “relative entities” as essentially mind-dependent entities? If they did they would probably have conceived them in the sense of Berkeley, as created terms of the Divine Thought, rather than in the Ontologist sense which would identify them with the Divine Thought itself. But it is not likely that they conceived such relative entities as essentially thought-dependent, any more than the absolute material realities related to one another by means of these relative entities. On the other hand it is not easy to see how such relative entities can be anything more than mere products of some thought-activity or other.

420.

They rely especially on this text from the De Potentia (q. vii., art. 9): “Relatio est debilioris esse inter omnia praedicamenta; ideo putaverunt quidam eam esse ex secundis intellectibus. Secundum ergo hanc positionem sequeretur quod relatio non sit in rebus extra animam sed in solo intellectu, sicut intentio generis et speciei, et secundarum substantiarum. Hoc autem esse non potest. In nullo enim praedicamento ponitur aliquid nisi res praeter animam existens. Nam ens rationis dividitur contra ens divisum per decem praedicamenta.... Si autem relatio non est in rebus extra animam non poneretur ad aliquid unum genus praedicamenti.”

421.

Cf. St. Anselm, Monolog., ch. xxvi.

422.

“Relatio habet quod sit res naturae ex sua causa per quam una res naturalem ordinem habet ad alteram.”—Quodl. 1, art. 2.

423.

“In hoc differt Ad Aliquid [i.e. Relation] ab aliis generibus; quod alia genera ex propria sui ratione habent, quod aliquid sint, sicut quantitas ex hoc ipso quod est quantitas, aliquid ponit: et similiter est de aliis. Sed Ad Aliquid ex propria sui generis ratione non habet, quod ponat aliquid, sed ad aliquid.... Habet autem relatio quod sit aliquid reale ex eo, quod relationem causat.”—Quodl. 9, art. 4. Cf. De Potentia, q. ii., art. 5.

424.

“Relatio est aliquid inhaerens licet non ex hoc ipso quod est relatio.... Et ideo nihil prohibet, quod esse desinat hujusmodi accidens sine mutatione ejus in quo est.”—De Potentia, q. vii., art. 9, ad. 7.

425.

“Et utroque modo contingit in realibus relationibus destrui relationem: vel per destructionem quantitatis [or other foundation], unde ad hanc mutationem quantitatis sequitur per accidens mutatio relationis: vel etiam secundum quod cessat respectus ad alterum, remoto illo ad quod referebatur; et tunc relatio cessat, nulla mutatione facta in ipsa. Unde in illis in quibus non est relatio nisi secundum hunc respectum, veniunt et recedunt relationes sine aliqua mutatione ejus, quod refertur.”—In i. Sent., Dist. xxvi., q. ii., art. 1, ad. 3.

426.

“Relationes differunt in hoc ab omnibus aliis rerum generibus, quia ea quae sunt aliorum generum, ex ipsa ratione sui generis habent, quod sint res naturae, sicut quantitates ex ratione quantitatis, et qualitates ex ratione qualitatis. Sed relationes non habent quod sint res naturae ex ratione respectus ad alterum.... Sed relatio habet quod sit res naturae ex sua causa, per quam una res naturalem ordinem habet ad alteram, qui quidem ordo naturalis et realis est ipsis ipsa relatio.”—Quodl., 1, art. 2.

427.

Cf. supra, p. 351, n. 1; in which context we may reasonably suppose him to be arguing that relation considered adequately is not a mere logical entity, “ex secundis intellectibus,” inasmuch as, having a real foundation in things outside the mind, it is in this respect real, independently of our thought.

428.

Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 341 (p. 1008).

429.

ibid., p. 1007; cf. supra, p. 347.

430.

In i. Sentent., Dist. iv., q. 1, art. 1, ad. 3.

431.

Cf. Urraburu, ibid., pp. 1006-7: “Deinde nullam relationem esse substantiam scripsit [S. Thomas] vel quia plerumque ratio fundandi non est substantia ... vel potius quia semper relatio, etiam cum in substantia fundatur, aliquid addit supra substantiam cujuslibet extremi relati singillatim sumpti, quia non identificatur cum fundamento prout se tenet ex parte solius subjecti, vel solius termini, sed prout se tenet ea parte utriusque. Quare relatio ... semper exprimit denominationem contingentem et accidentaliter supervenientem subjecto, utpote quae adesse vel abesse potest, prout adsit vel deficiat terminus.”

432.

“Illi enim [the reference is to certain medieval idealists] quamvis agnoscerent duo alba existentia negabant dari actu in rebus formalem similaritatem [i.e. even after the comparative activity of thought], sed formalem similitudinem, et aliam quamvis relationem, reponebant in actu intellectus unum cum alio comparantis; nos vero ante actum intellectus agnoscimus in rebus, quidquid sufficit ad constituendam relationem similitudinis, diversitatis, paternitatis, etc., ita ut hujusmodi denominationes non verificentur de actu intellectus unum cum alio comparantis, sed plenam habeant in rebus ipsis verificationem.”—Urraburu, op. cit., p. 1010.

433.

In what sense “extramental”?—Cf. supra, p. 350, n. 1 (end).

434.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 218. For the concepts of “cause” and “causality” in the inductive sciences, as well as for much that cannot be repeated here, the student may consult with advantage vol. ii., p. iv., ch. iii., iv. and vi. of the work referred to.

435.

“Id a quo aliquid procedit quocunque modo.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. xxxiii., art. 1.

436.

Hence Aristotle's definition of principle, including both logical and real principles: Πασῶν μὲν οὖν κοινὸν τῶν ἀρχῶν τὸ πρῶτον εἶναι ὅθεν ἡ ἐστιν ἢ γίγνεται ἢ γιγνώσκεται.—Metaph. IV., ch. i.

437.

A cause must be prior in nature to its effect, but not necessarily prior in time. In fact the action of the cause and the production of the effect must be simultaneous. Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 220. Considered formally as correlatives they are simul natura. A principle must likewise be in some sense prior to what proceeds from it, not necessarily, however, by priority of time, nor by priority of nature involving real dependence. The Christian Revelation regarding the Blessed Trinity involves that the First Divine Person is the “principle” from which the Second proceeds, and the First and the Second the “principle” from which the Third proceeds; yet here there is no dependence or inequality, or any priority except the “relation of origin” be called priority.

438.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 216.

439.

Cf. Science of Logic, i., § 16; ii., §§ 214, 224 (p. 113).

440.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., § 252.

441.

Cf. Physic., Lib. ii., cap. 3; Metaph., Lib. i., cap. 3; v., cap. 2.

442.

i.e. from the effect considered formally as a term of the activity; in the case of immanent activity, as, e.g. thought or volition, where the effect remains within the agent (as a verbum mentale or other mental term), uniting with the concrete reality of the latter, the effect is not adequately distinct from the agent as affected by this term or product.

443.

Cf. St. Thomas, In Physic., ii., lect. 10: “Necesse est quatuor esse causas: quia cum causa sit, ad quam sequitur esse alterius, esse ejus quod habet causam potest considerari dupliciter: uno modo absolute, et sic causa essendi est forma per quam aliquid est ens in actu; alio modo secundum quod de potentia ente fit actu ens: et quia omne quod est in potentia, reducitur ad actum per id quod est actu ens, ex hoc necesse est esse duas alias causas, scilicet materiam, et agentem quod reducit materiam de potentia in actum. Actio autem agentis ad aliquod determinatum tendit, sicut ab aliquo determinato principio procedit; nam omne agens agit quod est sibi conveniens. Id autem ad quod intendit actio agentis dicitur causa finalis. Sic igitur necesse est esse causas quatuor.”

444.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., §§ 247-8.

445.

Certain medieval scholastics, especially of the Franciscan School, regarded spiritual substances as having in their constitution a certain potential, determinable principle, which they called “materia”. St. Thomas, without objecting to the designation, insisted that such potential principle cannot be the same as the materia prima of corporeal substances (cf. De Substantis Separatis, ch. vii.).

446.

Cf. St. Thomas: “Actio est actus activi et passio est actus passivi” (iii. Physic., l. 5); “Materia non fit causa in actu nisi secundum quod alteratur et mutatur” (i. Contra Gentes, xvii.); “Materia est causa formae, inquantum forma non est nisi in materia” (De Princip. Naturae).

447.

Cf. St. Thomas, De Princip. Naturae, ibid.: “... et similiter forma est causa materiae, inquantum materia non habet esse in actu nisi per formam; materia enim et forma dicuntur relative ad invicem; dicuntur etiam relative ad compositum, sicut pars ad totum”.

448.

“Materia cum sit infinitarum formarum determinatur per formam, et per eam consequitur aliquam speciem.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. vii., art. 1.

449.

To Special Metaphysics also belongs the controverted question whether or not a plurality of really distinct substantial forms can enter into the constitution of an individual corporeal substance. When we classify corporeal things into genera and species according to their natural kinds (cf. Science of Logic, i., § 67), these latter are determined by the formae substantiales of the things classified, and are called infimæ species. Numerically distinct individuals which have (conceptually) the same forma substantialis, fall into the same infima species; while if such individuals have (conceptually and numerically) distinct formae substanialis they fall into distinct infimae species of some higher common genus. The wider the generic concept the larger the group of individuals which it unifies: it is a principle of conceptual unity, i.e. of universality. The objects of our generic, differential, and specific concepts, throughout this process of classification, are only virtually distinct metaphysical grades of being in the individuals. Now if the forma substantialis which yields the unifying concept of the species infima for the individuals, and the material principle which is the ground of the numerical distinction between these latter, were likewise regarded by the scholastics as being merely virtually distinct metaphysical grades of being, in each individual, then the question of a plurality of really distinct forms in one and the same individual would have no meaning: all “forms” in the latter would be only virtually distinct from one another and from the material principle. But the scholastics did not conceive that the real ground for grouping individuals into species infimae was the same as that for grouping these latter into wider genera. They regarded the relation between the forma substantialis and the materia prima in the individual as quite different from that between the generic and specific grades of being in the individual (cf. supra, § 38; Science of Logic, i., § 44; Joseph, Introduction to Logic, pp. 93-6). While they considered the latter a relation of virtual distinction they held the former to be one of real distinction. And while they recognized the concept of the species infima to be a principle of conceptual unity in grouping the individuals together mentally, St. Thomas emphasized especially the rôle of the forma substantialis (on which that concept was founded) as a principle of real unity in the individual: “Ab eodam habet res esse et unitatem. Manifestum est autem quod res habet esse per formam. Unde et per formam res habet unitatem” (Quodlib. i., art. 6). If we accept this doctrine of St. Thomas the arguments which he bases on it against the possibility of a plurality of distinct substantial forms in the same corporeal individual are unanswerable (Cf. Mercier, Ontologie, § 215).

450.

“Idem actus secundum rem est duorum secundum diversam rationem: agentis quidem, secundum quod est ab eo, patientis autem, secundum quod est in ipso.... Ex eo quod actio et passio sunt unus motus non sequitur quod actio et passio, vel doctio et doctrina, sint idem; sed quod motus cui inest utrumque eorum, sit idem. Qui quidem motus secundum unam rationem est actio, et secundum aliam rationem est passio; alterum enim est secundum rationem esse actus hujus, ut in hoc, et esse actus hujus, ut ab hoc; motus autem dicitur actio secundum quod est actus agentis ut ab hoc; dicitur autem passio secundum quod est actus patientis ut in hoc. Et sic patet quod licet motus sit idem moventis et moti, propter hoc quod abstrahit ab utraque ratione: tamen actio et passio differunt propter hoc quod diversas rationes in sua significatione habent.”—St. Thomas, In Phys., iii. 1. 5.

451.

“Solet dubium esse apud quosdam, utrum motus sit in movente, aut in mobili.... Sed manifestum est quod actus cujuslibet est in eo cujus est actus; actus autem motus est in mobili, cum sit actus mobilis, causatus tamen in eo a movente ... cum motus sit actus existentis in potentia, sequitur quod motus non sit actus alicujus inquantum est movens, sed inquantum est mobile.”—ibid., 1. 4.

452.

Some languages mark the distinction between these two kinds of action: “Differt autem facere et agere: quia factio est actio transiens in exteriorem materiam, sicut aedificare, secare et hujusmodi; agere autem est actio permanenslin ipso agente sicut videre, velle et hujusmodi.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol. iae iia, q. lxvii., art. 4, c.

453.

Hume went even farther, at least in language; for he alleged (whether he really believed is another question) that he could overcome the supposed merely psychological difficulty, that he could easily—and, presumably, without doing violence to his rational nature—conceive a non-existent thing as coming into existence without a cause! He proclaimed that he could achieve the feat of thinking what the universal voice of mankind has declared to be unthinkable: an absolute beginning of being from nothingness. “The knowledge of this relation (causality) is not,” he writes, “in any instance attained by reasonings a priori; but arises entirely from experience, when we find that any particular objects are constantly conjoined with each other ”(Works, ed. Green and Grose, iv., 24). “All distinct ideas are separable from each other, and, as the ideas of cause and effect are evidently distinct, 'twill be easy for us (!) to conceive any object as nonexistent this moment, and existent the next, without conjoining to it the distinct idea of a cause or producing principle” (Treatise on Human Nature, p. 381). On this argument (?) even such an ardent admirer of the pan-phenomenist as Huxley was, is forced to remark that “it is of the circular sort, for the major premise, that all distinct ideas are separable in thought, assumes the question at issue” (Huxley's Hume, p. 122).

454.

Thus, for instance, man, elevated by sanctifying grace, can perform acts which merit the supernatural reward of the Beatific Vision.

455.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 231.

456.

Cf. Aristotle, Metaph., ii., cap. 2.

457.

Cf. Urraburu, op. cit., § 392 (p. 1123): “Unde adaequata virtus instrumentalis videtur conflari ex naturali instrumenti virtute vel efficacitate et ex virtute causae principalis sibi transeunter addita, docente S. Thoma: Instrumentum virtutem instrumentalem acquirit dupliciter scilicet quando accipit formam instrumenti et quando movetur a principali agente ad effectum (Summa Theol., iii., q. xix., art. 3, ad. 2).”

458.

“Ad aliquem effectum aliquid operatur dupliciter. Uno modo sicut per se agens; et dicitur per se agere quod agit per aliquam formam sibi inhaerentem per modum naturae completae, sive habeat illam formam a se, sive ab alio.... Alio modo aliquid operatur ad effectum aliquem instrumentaliter, quod quidem non operatur ad effectum per formam sibi inhaerentem, sed solum inquantum est motum a per se agente. Haec est ratio instrumenti, inquantum est instrumentum, ut moveat motum; unde sicut se habet forma completa ad per se agentem, ita se habet motus, quo movetur a principale agente, ad instrumentum, sicut serra operatur ad scamnum. Quamvis enim serra habeat aliquam actionem quae sibi competit secundum propriam formam, ut dividere; tamen aliquem effectum habet qui sibi non competit, nisi inquantum est mota ab artifice, scilicet facere rectam incisionem, et convenientem formae artis: et sic instrumentum habet duas operationes; unam quae competit ei secundam rationem propriam; aliam quae competit ei secundam quod est motum a per se agente, quae transcendit virtutem propriae formae.”—De Veritate, q. xxvii., art. 4. It is not clear, however, that St. Thomas regarded these two “operationes” of the instrumental cause as really distinct, for he says that it acts as an instrument (i.e. modifies the efficiency of the principal cause) only by exercising its own proper function: “Omne agens instrumentale exsequitur actionem principalis agentis per aliquam operationem propriam, et connaturalem sibi, sicut calor naturalis generat carnem dissolvendo et digerendo, et serra operatur ad factionem scamni secando” (Contra Gentes, ii., ch. xxi.): from which he goes on to argue that no creature can act even as an instrumental cause in creating.—Cf. iv. Sent., Dist. i., q. i., art. 4, sol. 2.—De Potentia, q. iii., art. 7.—Summa Theol., iii., q. lxii., art. 1, ad. 2.

459.

St. Thomas, proving the necessity of the Divine concursus for all created causes, illustrates the general distinction between a principal and an instrumental cause: “Virtus naturalis quae est rebus naturalibus in sua institutione collata, inest eis ut quaedem forma habens esse ratum et firmum in natura. Sed id quod a Deo fit in re naturali, quo actualiter agat, est ut intentio sola, habens esse quoddam incompletum, per modum quo ... virtus artis [est] in instrumento artificis. Sicut ergo securi per artem dari potuit acumen, ut esset forma in ea permanens, non autem dari ei potuit quod vis artis esset in ea quasi quaedam forma permanens, nisi haberet intellectum; ita rei naturali potuit conferri virtus propria, ut forma in ipsa permanens, non autem vis qua agit ad esse ut instrumentum primae causae, nisi daretur ei quod esset universale essendi principium; nec iterum virtuti naturali conferri potuit ut moveret seipsam, nec ut conservaret se in esse: unde sicut patet quod instrumento artificis conferri non oportuit quod operaretur absque motu artis; ita rei naturali conferri non potuit quod operaretur absque operatione divina.”—QQ. DD. De. Pot., q. iii., art. 7.

460.

Cf. Maher, Psychology, ch. xix.—Mercier, Psychologie, ii., ch. i. § 2.

461.

For a fuller treatment of this whole subject, cf. Science of Logic, ii., Part iv., chs. iii., iv.; Part v., ch. i.—Maher, Psychology, ch. xix., pp. 423-4.

462.

Cf. Newman, Grammar of Assent, Part i., ch. iv., § 1 (5), (6); § 2, remark 1.

463.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., §§ 216, 218, 219.

464.

ibid., § 216.

465.

ibid., § 220.

466.

Introduction to Logic, pp. 64-5.

467.

Cf. what was said above (32) about the causal or extrinsic, as distinct from the intrinsic, principle of individuation.

468.

“Whenever science tries to find the cause not of a particular event, such as the French Revolution (whose cause must be as unique as that event itself is), but of an event of a kind, such as consumption, or commercial crises, it looks in the last resort for a commensurate cause. What is that exact state or condition of the body, given which it must and without which it cannot be in consumption? What are those conditions in a commercial community, given which there must and without which there cannot be a commercial crisis?”—Joseph, op. cit., p. 65. Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 221.

469.

System of Logic, iii., v., § 2.

470.

For instance: (a) The “ontological” or “true” cause, which “actually produces” the effect, need not necessarily be the “ultimate” cause of the latter. (b) A “physical fact” can be the cause of another in the sense of being the invariable antecedent (or physical cause) of the latter, but not “in that sense alone”; it may also be an efficient cause of the latter by exerting an active influence on the happening of this latter. (c) Whether or not efficiency is “a mysterious and most powerful tie,” at any rate it does exist between “physical facts” in the universe. (d) Its analysis reveals not a “supposed necessity of ascending ... to ... the true cause, ... which ... produces the effect,” as if the proximate causes did not also truly produce the latter; but a real necessity of ascending to a First Cause as the source and support and complement of the real efficiency of these proximate causes. (e) A merely logical theory of Induction does not indeed demand any inquiry either into the efficiency of natural agencies, or into the nature and grounds of the “invariability” or “necessity” or “law” whereby these are connected with their effects. But a philosophical theory of Induction does imply such inquiries. And here phenomenist writers like Mill have laid themselves open to two accusations. For while professing merely to abstract from the problem of efficiency they have tried equivalently to deny its existence by proclaiming it superfluous and insoluble, besides consciously or unconsciously misrepresenting it. And similarly, in dealing with the invariability of causal sequences in the universe, with the necessary character of its physical laws, they have misconceived this necessity as being mechanical, fatal, absolutely inviolable; and have wrongly proclaimed its ultimate grounds to be unknowable (Agnosticism). Cf. infra, § 104; Science of Logic, ii., Part IV., chs. iii., iv., and v.; Part V., ch. i. Thus, while eschewing the genuine Metaphysics, which seeks the real nature and causes of the world of our experience, as superfluous and futile, they have substituted for it a masked and spurious metaphysics which they have wrongly fathered on Physical Science: a mass of more or less superficial speculations which have not even the merit of consistency. No philosopher, starting with their views on the nature of the human mind, can consistently claim for the latter any really valid or reliable knowledge of laws, any more than of causes. For the knowledge of a law, even as a generalized fact, is a knowledge that claims to pass beyond the limits of the individual's present and remembered experiences. But there can be no rational justification, whether psychological or ontological, for the certain reliability of such a step, in the philosophy which logically reduces all certain knowledge to the mere awareness of a flow of successive sensations supposed to constitute the total content of the individual consciousness and the total reality of human experience.

471.

Cf. Maher, Psychology, ch. xvii., pp. 368-70.—Mercier, op. cit., § 229.

472.

“When an effort of attention combines two ideas, when one billiard ball moves another, when a steam hammer flattens out a lump of solid iron, when a blow on the head knocks a man down, in all these cases there is something more than, and essentially different from, the mere sequence of two phenomena: there is effective force—causal action of an agent endowed with real energy.”—Maher, op. cit., ibid., p. 370.

473.

Grammar of Assent, p. 66.

474.

Cf. Domet de Vorges, Cause efficiente et cause finale, p. 39. Volitional activity is no doubt the most prominent type of efficient causality in our mental life. But it is not the only type; we have direct conscious experience of intellectual effort, of the work of the imagination, of the exercise of organic and muscular energy. There is no warrant therefore for conceiving all efficient power or energy, after the model of will-power, as Newman among others appears to have done when he wrote in these terms: “Starting, then, from experience, I consider a cause to be an effective will: and by the doctrine of causation, I mean the notion, or first principle, that all things come of effective will” (ibid., p. 68). No doubt, all things do come ultimately from the effective will of God. This, however, is not a first principle, but a remote philosophical conclusion.

475.

ibid., p. 66.

476.

St. Thomas, QQ. Disp. De Potentia, q. iii., art. 7, in c.

477.

“Nulla res per seipsam movet vel agit, nisi sit movens non motum.... Et quia natura inferior agens non agit nisi mota ... et hoc non cessat quousque perveniatur ad Deum, sequitur de necessitate quod Deus sit causa actionis cujuslibet rei naturalis, ut movens et applicans virtutem ad agendum.”—St. Thomas, De Potentia Dei, q. iii., art. 7.

478.

This is the principle repeatedly expressed by St. Thomas: “Unde quarto modo unum est causa alterius, sicut principale agens est causa actionis instrumenti: et hoc modo etiam oportet dicere, quod Deus est causa omnis actionis rei naturalis. Quanto enim aliqua causa est altior, tanto est communior et efficacior, tanto profundius ingreditur in effectum, et de remotiori potentia ipsum reducit in actum. In qualibet autem re naturali invenimus quod est ens et quod est res naturalis, et quod est talis vel talis naturae. Quorum primum est commune omnibus entibus; secundum omnibus rebus naturalibus; tertium in una specie; et quartum, si addamus accidentia, est proprium huic individuo. Hoc ergo individuum agendo non potest constituere aliud in simili specie, nisi prout est instrumentum illius causae quae respicit totam speciem et ulterius totum esse naturae inferioris. Et propter hoc nihil agit in speciem in istis inferioribus ... nec aliquid agit ad esse nisi per virtutem Dei. Ipsum enim esse est communissimus effectus, primus et intimior omnibus aliis effectibus; et ideo soli Deo competit secundum virtutem propriam talis effectus: unde etiam, ut dicitur in Lib. de Causis (prop. 9), intelligentia non dat esse, nisi prout est in ea virtus divina. Sic ergo Deus est causa omnis actionis prout quodlibet agens est instrumentum divinae virtutis operantis.”—St. Thomas, De Potentia Dei, q. iii. art 7.—Cf. supra, 99 (c), p. 375, n. 2.

479.

Why, then, is a finite cause not capable of acting uninterruptedly? why are its powers, forces, energies, fatigued, lessened, exhausted by exercise? Simply because its action is proportionate to its powers, and these to its finite nature.

480.

“Creatio non est mutatio nisi secundum modum intelligendi tantum. Nam de ratione mutationis est quod aliquid idem se habeat aliter nunc et prius.... Sed in creatione, per quam producitur tota substantia rei, non potest accipi aliquid idem aliter se habens nunc et prius, nisi secundum intellectum tantum; sicut si intelligatur aliqua res prius non fuisse totaliter, et postea esse. Sed cum actio et passio conveniant in una substantia motus, et differant solum secundum habitudines diveras ... oportet quod subtracto motu, non remaneant nisi diversae habitudines in creante et creato. Sed quia modus significandi sequitur modum intelligendi ... creatio significatur per modum mutationis; et propter hoc dicitur quod creare est ex nihilo aliquid facere; quamvis facere et fieri magis in hoc conveniant quam mutare et mutari; quia facere et fieri important habitudinem causae ad effectum et effectus ad causam, sed mutationem ex consequenti.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. xlv., art. 2, ad. 2.

481.

“Remoto motu, actio nihil aliud importat quam ordinem originis [effectus] secundum quod [effectus] a causa aliqua procedit.”—op. cit., i. q. xli., art. 1, ad 2.

482.

The act of the will is, of course, virtually transitive when it wills or determines bodily movements.—Cf. Maher, Psychology, chs. x., xxiii. (pp. 517-24).

483.

At the same time it must be noted that organic vital activity is transitive in the sense that no part or member of the organism acts upon itself, but only on other parts, in the production of the local, quantitative and qualitative changes involved in nutrition. It is subject to the inductively established law which seems to regulate all corporeal action: that all such action involves reaction of the patiens on the agens. Mental activity is outside this law. Cognitive and appetitive faculties do not react on the objects which reduce these faculties to act, thus arousing their immanent activity.—Cf. Mercier, op. cit., § 227.

484.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit.

485.

Cf. Maher, Psychology, chs. xiii. and xiv.

486.

Cf. Urraburu: “Vel, si mavis, dic causam efficientem esse causam, a qua fit aliquid, vel a quo proprie oritur actio, intelligendo per actionem emanationem et fluxum ac dependentiam effectus a causa.”—op. cit., § 389 (p. 1112).

487.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., § 229: “L'action, l'efficience, qu'est elle, en quoi consiste-t-elle? Est-ce une sorte d'écoulement de la cause dans l'effet? Évidemment non. Lorsque nous voulons nous élever à une conception métaphysique, nous nous raccrochons à une image sensible, et nous nous persuadons volontiers, que la netteté de la première répond à la facilité avec laquelle nous nous figurons la seconde. Il faut se défier de cette illusion. Puisque l'action, même corporelle, ne modifie point l'agent, la causalité efficiente ne peut consister dans un influx physique, qui passerait de la cause dans l'effet.”

488.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., §§ 228-9.

489.

We might add this other fact: that all kinds of corporeal activity and change (11) seem to involve motion or local change. This does not prove that they all are motion or local change. The significance of the fact lies probably in this, that local motion is necessary for procuring and continuing physical contact between the interacting physical agencies.—Cf. Nys, Cosmologie, §§ 227-9.

490.

Cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, iii., 69.

491.

“Une cause véritable est une cause, entre laquelle et son effet l'esprit aperçoit une liaison nécessaire: c'est ainsi que je l'entendes. [This is ambiguous.] Or il n'y a que l'être infiniment parfait entre la volonté duquel et les effets l'esprit aperçoive une liaison nécessaire. Il n'y a donc que Dieu qui soit véritable cause, et il semble même qu'il y ait contradiction à dire que les hommes puissent l'être”—De la récherche de la vérité, Liv. 6me, 2e partie, ch. iii.

492.

“Si l'on vient à considérer attentivement l'idée que l'on a de cause ou de puissance d'agir, on ne peut en douter que cette idée ne présente quelque chose de divin.”—ibid.

493.

“Il n'y a point d'homme qui sache seulement ce qu'il faut faire pour remuer un de ses doigts par le moyen des esprits animaux.”—ibid.

494.

“J'ai toujours soutenue que l'âme était l'unique cause de ses actes, c'est à dire de ses déterminations libres ou de ses actes bons ou mauvais.... J'ai toujours soutenu que l'âme était active, mais que ses actes ne produisaient rien de physique.”—Réflexions sur la prémotion physique. “Je crois que la volonté est une puissance active, qu'elle a un véritable pouvoir de se déterminer; mais son action est immanente; c'est une action qui ne produit rien par son efficace propre, pas même le mouvement de son bras.”—Réponse à la 3me lettre d'Arnauld.

495.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., §§ 230-2; Zigliara, Ontologia (45); Urraburu, op. cit., §§ 393 sqq.

496.

We may reasonably ask the occasionalist to suppose for the moment that we are efficient causes of our mental processes and to tell us what better proof of it could he demand, or what better proof could be forthcoming, than this proof from consciousness.

497.

Maher, Psychology, ch. x., p. 220.

498.

Should anyone doubt that consciousness does testify to this fact, we may prove it inductively from the constant correlation between the mental state and the bodily movement: “I will to move my arm, it moves; I will that it remain at rest, it does not move; I will that its movement be more or less strong and rapid, the strength and rapidity vary with the determination of my will. What more complete inductive proof can we have of the efficiency of our will-action on the external world?”—Mercier, op. cit., § 231.

499.

“Si effectus non producuntur ex actione rerum creatarum, sed solum ex actione Dei, impossibile est quod per effectus manifestetur virtus alicujus causae creatae: non enim effectus ostendit virtutem causae nisi ratione actionis, quae a virtute procedens ad effectum terminatur. Natura autem causae non cognoscitur per effectum, nisi inquantum per ipsum cognoscitur virtus, quae naturam consequitur. Si igitur res creatae non habent actiones ad producendum effectum, sequitur, quod nunquam naturam alicujus rei creatae poterit cognosci per effectum; et sic subtrahitur nobis omnis cognitio scientiae naturalis, in qua praecipuae demonstrationes per effectum sequuntur.”—St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, L. iii., cap. 69.

500.

“Je demeure d'accord que la foi oblige à croire qu'il y a des corps; mais, pour l'évidence, il me semble qu'elle n'est point entière, et que nous ne sommes point invinciblement portés à croire qu'il y ait quelqu'autre chose que Dieu et notre esprit.”—Récherche de la vérite, 6me éclaircissement.

501.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 217.

502.

Metaph., v., 17.

503.

“Quaedam vero ad bonum inclinantur cum aliqua cognitione; non quidem sic quod cognoscant ipsam rationem boni, sed cognoscunt aliquod bonum particulare.... Inclinatio autem hanc cognitionem sequens dicitur appetitus sensitivus. Quaedam vero inclinantur ad bonum cum cognitione qua cognoscant ipsam boni rationem; et haec inclinatio dicitur voluntas.”—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., i., q. xlix., art. 1.

504.

“Sicut influere causae efficientis est agere, ita influere causae finalis est appeti et desiderari.”—De Veritate, q. xxii., art. 2.

505.

In its modern usage the term “intention” is inseparable from the notion of conscious direction. The scholastics used the term “intentio” in a wider and deeper sense to connote the natural tendency of all created agencies towards their natural activities and lines of development. And in unconscious agencies they did not hesitate to refer to it as “intentio naturae” or “appetitus naturalis”.

506.

“Res naturalis per formam qua perficitur in sua specie, habet inclinationem in proprias operationes et proprium finem, quem per operationes consequitur; quale enim unumquodque est, talia operatur, et in sibi convenientia tendit.”—St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, iv., 19. “Omnia suo modo per appetitum inclinantur in bonum, sed diversimode. Quaedam enim inclinantur in bonum per solam naturalem habitudinem absque cognitione, sicut plantae et corpora inanimata; et talis inclinatio ad bonum vocatur appetitus naturalis.”—Summa Theol., i., q. xlix., art. 1.

507.

“Causa efficiens et finis sibi correspondent invicem, quia efficiens est principium motus, finis autem terminus. Et similiter materia et forma: nam forma dat esse, materia autem recipit. Est igitur efficiens causa finis, finis autem causa efficientis. Efficiens est causa finis quantum ad esse, quidem, quia movendo perducit efficiens ad hoc, quod sit finis. Finis autem est causa efficientis non quantum ad esse sed quantum ad rationem causalitatis. Nam efficiens est causa in quantum agit; non autem agit nisi causa [gratia] finis. Unde ex fine habet suam causalitatem efficiens.”—St. Thomas, In Metaph., v., 2. “Sciendum quod licet finis sit ultimus in esse in quibusdam, in causalitate tamen est prior semper, unde dicitur causa causarum, quia est causa causalitatis in omnibus causis. Est enim causa causalitatis efficientis, ut jam dictum est. Efficiens autem est causa causalitatis et materiae et formae.”—ibid., lect. 3.

508.

Φύσις ἐστιν ἀρχὴ τὶς καὶ αἰτία του κινεῖσθαι καὶ ἠρεμεῖν ἐν ῷ ὑπάχει πρώτως καθ᾽ αὑτο, καὶ μὴ κατὰ συμβεβηκός. Natura est principium quoddam et causa cur id moveatur et quiescat, in quo inest primum, per se et non secundum accidens.—Physic., L. ii., cap. 1.

509.

“Ars nihil aliud est quam recta ratio aliquorum operum faciendorum.”—Summa Theol. ia iiae, q. lvii., art. 3.—Cf. In Post. Anal., l. 1.

510.

“Natura nihil aliud est quam ratio cujusdam artis, scilicet divinae, indita rebus qua ipsae res moventur ad finem determinatum; sicut si artifex factor navis posset lignis tribuere quod ex seipsis moverentur ad navis formam inducendam.”—In II Phys., lect. 14.“Omnia naturalia, in ea quae eis conveniunt, sunt inclinata, habentia in seipsis aliquod inclinationis principium, ratione cujus eorum inclinatio naturalis est, ita ut quodammodo ipsa vadant, et non solum ducantur in fines debitos.”—De Veritate, q. xxii., art. 7.

511.

“In nullo enim alio natura ab arte videtur differre, nisi quia natura est principium intrinsecum, et ars est principium extrinsicum. Si enim ars factiva navis esset intrinseca ligno, facta fuisset navis a natura, sicut modo fit ab arte.”—In II. Phys., lect. 13.

512.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., § 217.

513.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii, § 227.

514.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., §§ 226-31.

515.

Aristotle, Metaph., iv., ch. v.

516.

Physic., ii., ch. v.

517.

ibid.

518.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., §§ 264, 268-9.

519.

Οὐδὲν γὰρ ὤς ἔτυχε ποιεῖ ἡ φυσις.—De Coelo, ii., 8.

520.

Fatalism is the view that all things happen by a blind, inevitable, eternally foredoomed and unintelligible necessity. Thus Seneca (Nat. Quaest., L. III., cap. 36) describes fatum as necessitas omnium rerum actionumque, quam nulla vis rumpat. This necessitas ineluctabilis is totally different from the conditional physical necessity of the course of Nature dependently on the Fiat of a Supreme Free Will guided by Supreme Intelligence (Cf. Science of Logic, §§ 224, 249, 253, 257). If the necessity of actual occurrences is not ultimately traceable to the Fiat of an Intelligent Will—and mechanists deny that it can be so traced—it is rightly described as fatalistic, blind, purposeless, unintelligible.

521.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., §§ 259, 260.

522.

“Expliquer par une rencontre fortuite, la convergence d'éléments, dont chacun a sa poussée propre, c'est rendre raison de la convergence par des principes de divergence.... Il est donc contradictoire d'attribuer au hasard la raison explicative de l'ordre.”—Mercier, op. cit., § 260.

523.

Cf. Science of Logic, ii., §§ 224, 250, and passim.

524.

“Similiter ex prioribus pervenitur ad posteriora in arte et in natura: unde si artificialia, ut domus, fierent a natura, hoc ordine fierent, quo nunc fiunt per artem: scilicet prius institueretur fundamentum, et postea erigerentur parietes, et ultimo supponeretur tectum.... Et similiter si ea quae fiunt a natura fierent ab arte, hoc modo fierent sicut apta nata sunt fieri a natura; ut patet in sanitate, quam contigit fieri, et ab arte et a natura.... Unde manifestum est quod in natura est alterum propter alterum, scilicet priora propter posteriora, sicut et in arte.”—St. Thomas, In II. Phys., lect. 13.—Cf. supra, p. 417, n. 3.

525.

“Ordo est parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens dispositio.”—De Civ. Dei, xix., 13.

526.

Cf. Mercier, op. cit., §§ 257-61.

527.

“La convergence de causes indifférentes qui réalisent d'une manière harmonieuse et persistante un même objet ordonné, ne s'explique point par des coincidences fortuites; elle réclame un principe interne de convergence.”—Ibid., § 260.

528.

Tennyson, In Memoriam, lvi.

529.

Browning, A Soul's Tragedy, Act. 1.

530.

“Universum habet bonum ordinis et bonum separatum.”—In Metaph., xii., l. 12.

531.

Aristotle, Metaph., xi., 10. Does Aristotle teach that God moves the universe only as its Final Cause, as the Supreme Good towards which it tends, or also as Efficient Cause? His thought is here obscure, and has given rise to much controversy among his interpreters.

532.

Ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον τῶν ὄντων ἀκίνητον καὶ καθ᾽ ἁυτὸ καὶ κατὰ συμβεβηκός, κινοῦν δὲ τὴν πρώτην ἀΐδιον καὶ μίαν κίνησιν.—Ibid., xi., 8.

533.

Κινεῖ δὲ (οὐ ἕνεκα) ὡς ἐρώμενον, κινούμενον δὲ τᾶλλα κινει.—ibid., 7.

534.

“Totus ordo universi est propter primum moventem, ut scilicet explicetur in universo ordinato id quod est in intellectu et voluntate primi moventis. Et sic oportet quod a primo movente sit tota ordinatio universi.”—Ibid., xii., l. 12.

535.

... Among themselves all things Have order; and from hence the form, which makes The universe resemble God. In this The higher creatures see the printed steps Of that eternal worth, which is the end Whither the line is drawn. All natures lean In this their order, diversely, some more, Some less approaching to their primal source. Thus they to different havens are moved on Through the vast sea of being, and each one With instinct giv'n, that bears it in its course; This to the lunar sphere directs the fire, This prompts the hearts of mortal animals, This the brute earth together knits and binds. Nor only creatures, void of intellect, Are aim'd at by this bow; but even those That have intelligence and love, are pierced. That Providence, who so well orders all, With her own light makes ever calm the heaven, In which the substance that hath greatest speed Is turned: and thither now, as to our seat Predestin'd, we are carried by the force Of that strong cord, that never looses dart, But at fair aim and glad ... —Dante, Paradiso, Cant. i. (tr. by Cary).