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64690
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Title
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No.24^75
Britain, Jacques.
Preface to metaphysics
last
marked below.
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A PREFACE TO
METAPHYSICS
Seven Lectures on
BEING
By
JACQUES MARITAIN
LONDON
who
meditated them.
Sketchy as
is
chapters on Being as such, the space available does not allow even so much for the
final three chapters of the book, devoted
to an analysis of four of the First Principles
and
Identity, Sufficient Reason, Finality
Causality.
Suffice
it
to
say
in
conclusion
that
'^
PRINTED
IN
GREAT BRITAIN
CONTENTS
First
Lecture
INTRODUCTORY
......
Second Lecture
COUNTERFEIT METAPHYSICAL COIN
PAGE
i
17
Third Lecture
43
62
Fifth Lecture
THE
PRINCIPLES
OF
....
IDENTITY,
SUFFICIENT
go
Sixth Lecture
THE
1 1
Seventh Lecture
THE
PRINCIPLE OF CAUSALITY.
CHANCE
132
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
FIRST LECTURE
INTRODUCTORY
/.
Living Thomism.
by philosophy, human
values.
modern
individualism, in so far as
it
values, seeks
and
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
delights in novelty for its own sake, and is interested
in a system of thought only in so far as it is a creation,
inventive, and involves a fundamental need, inherent in its very being, to grow and
renew itself. And so doing we must combat the pre-
judices of those
who would
fail
fix it at
a particular stage
to understand
its
essentially
progressive nature.
II.
2.
ing.
We must recall the Thomist view of human teachWe must remember that man is a social animal
and producing
it
in his
ideas
so brings
knowledge
to birth there.
But
mind could make little progress in the research and discovery of truth. In view of this fact
the need of a tradition is evident. Obviously to reject
the continuity produced by the common labour of
dividual
FIRST LECTURE
and
this,
universal
not Bergson
make way
for
of Sankhara, Aristotle or
St.
Thomas.
3.
be examined more thoroughly. We shall then distinguish two very different types of progress, proper,
respectively to
science of
phenomena.
1
contemporary French philosopher, M. Gabriel Marcel,
I
am
different
in
a
it
though
employing
completely
1
Monde
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
sense,
On the contrary, it is
is
an inexhaustible (transobjective) x reality vitally apprehended as its object. Its object is reality itself.
Like the act of faith the act of understanding does not
stop at the formula but attains the object, non terminatur
"
ad enuntiabile, sed ad rem. 1 The Mystery" is its food,
the other which
it
assimilates.
The proper
is
its
nature presents a
ad
a.
FIRST LECTURE
into
do
so
"
author of being. The Supreme
mystery" is the
supernatural mystery which is the object of faith and
theology. It is concerned with the Godhead Itself,
the interior life of God, to which our intellect cannot
rise by its unaided natural powers.
But philosophy
and science also are concerned with mystery, another
mystery, the mystery of nature and the mystery of
being. A philosophy unaware of mystery would not
be a philosophy.
Where then shall we discover the pure type of what
I call the "problem"? In a crossword puzzle, or an
anagram.
two
act,
aspects.
the
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
problem are
The mystery
combined.
is
present because
is
because our nature is such that we can penebeing only by our conceptual formulae, and
the latter of their nature compose a problem to be
also
trate
solved.
and
in the sciences of
phenomena
when
or again
its
may
reality,
need
equally well be
and applied
as in craftsmanship
science. It
is
in fact,
in this third category that the problem aspect is particularly evident. In mathematics and the sciences
of
phenomena
predominates.
it
is
well
to
the
fore
and indeed
is
also very
we
should
expect,
pre-
The mystery
aspect
is
is
predominant
in
the
FIRST LECTURE
philosophy of nature and
And, most of
Where
all
is
more
in metaphysics.
the problem
follows another:
There
still
in theology.
views or ideal perspectives, of different ways of conceptualising the object. And if one solution is in-
successor.
is
It is as
by deepening.
more intense,
its
its
parts at once.
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
6.
At
this
point
intellectual thirst
quenching them.
In the first case, where the problem aspect predominates I thirst to know the answer to my problem.
And when I have obtained the answer I am satisfied:
that particular thirst is quenched. But I thirst for something
And
else.
so interminably.
once
satisfies
This
is
Him my
and when
quenched.
I shall thirst
see
be completely
thirst will
And
no longer.
this
is
already
This
is
written
give
give
"
wisdom of which
it is
I shall
everlasting life."
climax of spiritual disorder
springing
The
to confuse the
is
first,
a
by
John
iv.
treating the
13-14.
FIRST LECTURE
things of eternal life, the vision of God, as an object of
the first thirst that namely which belongs to the first
.this
is
result
to
treat
of
beatitude
this
is
But
thirst
is
is
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
7.
Two
considerations
The
and
first
its
of these
force
is
is
It
my
words
shall
The
divine words
the science
therefore be substantially
we
theology cannot
changed in the course of
call
by successive
all
sciences built
substitutions.
up by
It
discursive
reasoning,
its
however,
Theology,
is
Philosophy
development.
the
own
That
stability, those
FIRST LECTURE
absolute, for
its
continuity
is
the
spectacle
of
It thus possesses
theology,
physics,
and Kant the scientific value of metawe have witnessed human reason gone
by
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
reserved for the future. His reappearance in our time,
as leader of a universal movement of philosophic
enquiry, the advent of a period in the development
fashion
a universal
Christian
wisdom
at
the very
moment when
the progress of the sciences and of reflexion enable us to give it its full scope and when the
conformity with
this
wisdom.
May we
say that
it
still
could be
order?
///.
Metaphysics
is
constant
novelty
characteristic
of philosophic
FIRST LECTURE
whose novelty may well be greater than they themIn this connection many questions
and a complete analysis needs
examination
require
to be undertaken. For this there is no time. It must
selves
realise.
suffice to point
out the
fact.
if
For
this
become
as
important as
Thomism
us
logically
to
demand
for
also
as it were, by the
of
the
same
intellectual
progressive autogenesis
organism,
constantly building up and entering into itself, by a
species of transfiguration of which the growth of
corporeal organisms is a very imperfect image. Think
of a baby and that baby grown to an adult. Its
metaphysical personality has not changed, it remains
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
which
will
capable
realise
thereby become
of
formed
formulation,
and
organically
it will
expand its own substance
and deduce from it more and more penetrating shafts of
light which will reveal the forces concealed in its truths.
The novelty which it thus displays, though not seeking
it for its own sake, is above all a novel
approach to the
same shores of being, a new distribution of the same
Les
its
Degns du
beauty.
Savoir, Preface.
FIRST LECTURE
ii.
particular question must be raised at this
point, that of vocabulary. The fundamental concepts
In
this
still
connection
appropriate in
we must bear
in
all cases.
mind
that the
which the ancients formed their philosophical vocabulary was admirably spontaneous, supple
and living, but also imperfect and almost excessively
fashion
in
natural.
They
common
sense
it
was more
spiritual
and went
straight to the
heart of things.
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
by custom and by a
social security
is
obviously secondary
is
in truth
below the
by
For terminology
is
essentially
dependent
upon
doctrine,
a common doctrine.
life
16
Extracts.
SECOND LECTURE
METAPHYSICAL
COUNTERFEIT
COIN
to bring
home
which too
to
little
stress
is
often
attitude of
do
it
laid
at
truths
the
on
outset,
modern philosophers
particularly necessary
so.
texts dealing
As you know,
it
is
a fundamental doctrine of
phases to
two
distinct
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
in particular
place the Thomists, and
is the object first attained by
what
Cajetan, enquire
the human intellect, an object therefore which every
In the
man
first
"
being
sensibili.
is
pebble,
object
and
element
diversified
common
by
it.
It
is
from
Nor
diversity in
yet
of diverse
manifold
the
to
is
that
say
pure state,
essences and diverse sensible quiddities. It is at the
them,
is it
its
in
It is
manifold
Thomists teach us of the object attained primarily
and
we
in the
instance
first
by the human
metaphysics.
If
it
intellect.
But
is
to perceive objects
and in the
The
first
instance.
object of metaphysics
to
an
in
18
SECOND LECTURE
contrary
abstraction,
least so far as
that,
as
that
for
specified
so
many
states
modern
and
to imagine,
philosophers
believe,
intellect.
of these
of tlie
human intellect to
essences,
'9
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
here apprehended
a
by subject: not merely
as presented to the mind, as is the case with the
simple concept of existence, but as possessed potentially
or actually by a subject. Therefore Cajetan can say
in a phrase full of meaning for the metaphysician
that it is not contradictory to say existentia non existit,
existence does not exist. For the term existentia, the
actual
or possible.
ut exercitdy that
is
Existence
is
as actualised
determination,
by a concept.
when
it is
On
posited in
apprehended
the other
is
attained ut
exercita,
completes and
perfects
knowledge.
It
is
a radical
number
the
object
untrue. It
of intellection
first
as
operation constitutes
This is quite
such.
is
merely a preparation
which achieves knowledge.
SECOND LECTURE
at essences.
It
proceeds when
is
.will
But the
intellect
and
affirmed
or denied
attained
as
it
is
its
by a judgement, by
or possessed by a
lived
existence
subject
is
necessary and
is
thus able
Whose
essence
is
His
own
eternally
actual existence.
Philosophy, because
noblesse oblige
sense
it
is
must find
its
object in that
fact, as is
all
created being,
it
must,
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
because of
be directly orien-
is
And
this
itself
'
which
it
contemplates.
of nature which verifies
The philosophy
its
con-
to
know
their essence.
existence
realities it studies
those
namely which
constitute the
"
2
subject matter of metaphysics, the being common to
"
the ten predicaments,
created and material being
1
*Cf. St.
22
SECOND LECTURE
taken as being nor in order to know their essence.
It does so to know how they exist, for this, too,
metaphysics should know, to attain their mode of
existence, and then to conceive by analogy the existence of that which exists immaterially, which is purely
spiritual.
The
is
you see, absolutely
Every judgement must in one way or
another be finally resolved in them. In other words,
indispensable.
the
else,
because
it
is
lative value,
science,
De
Veritate, q.
12,
12, ad. 3.
23
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and aesthetic perception as acute as possible, and by
experiencing the suffering and struggles of real life,
so that aloft in the third heaven of natural understanding he may feed upon the intelligible substance
of things. Is it necessary to add that the professor
The Thomist
The Thomist
philosophy, therefore,
is,
in the sense
philosophy of Saint
determine it.
In a third sense which, however, pertains no longer
to the domain of the intellect but to that of the will
thought may be termed existential, namely when it
does not simply know the truth by yielding itself fully
in accordance with the law of the mind to objective
being, but when it, or rather the thinker, lives this
truth, draws and assimilates it into his subjective
24
SECOND LECTURE
It
being.
is
many moderns,
Our Problem.
to
now
I,
1
Met. 5 (IV), 1 1003, a, 21. "There is a science which investigates
being as being, and the attributes which belong to it in virtue of its
own nature. Now this is not the same as any of the so-called special
sciences; for none of these deals generally with being as being. They
cut off a part of being and investigate the attributes of this part
this is what the mathematical sciences for instance do. Now since we
Cathala, 530-533):
"Dicit autem 'secundum quod est ens,' quia scicntiae aliae, quae
sunt de entibus particularibus, considerant quidem de ente, cum omnia
25
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
There
is
number
for
fire
and
so on.
that
first
lecture of St.
Thomas,
propriarum.
"Deinde cum
sit
26
SECOND LECTURE
investigates the
highest causes.
The
We must
beware of a fatal
This
whom
maintain that
many
of
mere word, a
the object
common
sense
being as studied by logic. Failure to observe these distinctions has led many modern thinkers into very
grave confusions. For when we speak to them of being
Sense, being as
the verb to be.
it
is
understood by
27
all
who employ
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
II
At
6.
this
sensible nature
or as
it is
and the
apprehended by
common
sense.
Particularised Being.
7.
We
As
Thomas
ditions
it
Now
28
SECOND LECTURE
have no meaning. If we speak to a scientist, of being
as such, he can make nothing of it. For to the habitus
which he represents it is nothing. By this I do not
mean
which
such can
Vague Being.
the standpoint of common sense
another
matter.
The perspective has entirely
quite
changed. For we are now confronted with an infrascientific or pre-scientific knowledge, the term scientific
being here understood in a universal sense as a perfect,
8.
If
now we adopt
it is
and
is
29
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
To be more
in
quantum
precise:
ens.
Speak
to
common
sense of
basing
From
sense
is
implicit, as
is
this
the support
operation of common
it finds in the
object
De
Ente
et
Secunda
totalis
1
(On
Essentia
this see
we may
call
What
they term
Logic,
abstractio
"Extensive" abstraction. 1
nattre, p. 78.
30
Jnlrod.
d VOntologie du Con-
SECOND LECTURE
It
the
is
the
many
particulars
it
ity are
is
common
knowledge as well
knowledge,
as the scientific knowledge which presupposes the
former. By hypothesis, on the level at which we are
standing, we are envisaging objects from the point of
view of common sense; consequently our knowledge
to all
to pre-scientific
relations.
example, to be
as the primordial
source and focus of intelligible mystery, and have not
yet seen its distinctive countenance.
it is,
31
am
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
the face.
We
we
call being.
think
it
in
hensive of them. It
This
is
true.
sense,
when we
mention being,
explicitly
forms, so that, if
we may
thinks
so
put
it,
the comprehensive
it
and disengage
it.
Just
now when
is
was
SECOND LECTURE
vague being that
of being
is
masks
present.
it.
But
This
disguised, invisible.
sense renders it possible to
it
is
vague being of
common
is
really
sophically.
Ill
Being Divested of Reality.
10. Hitherto we have been
common
sense.
We
Thomas
is
an
ens rationis,
according to St.
a conceptual being, namely
what
which
is
known, precisely
moves
which is
it
33
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
though
it
studies
them not
as
reflex science in
upon the
things
enquire how it
they are present within itself. Therefore being has
already been apprehended by ordinary intelligence,
is
turns back
upon
it
It
to study
it
from
his
own
reflex
He
and
SECOND LECTURE
the judgement. Finally and this is a most important
the logician studies from his reflex
consideration
standpoint the transcendental and analogical character of being. He sees being as the most universal, the
super-universal concept.
and
scientifically
the characteristic
He
distinguishes reflexively
n.
is most
important to understand that this
which is studied by the logician and is
bound up with the other distinctive objects of logic
and involved in them all, is not the metaphysician's
being. It presupposes the latter. But in logic being
is
apprehended as an object of secondary mental
It
being
own
mind's
That which
gives
its
logic
specific
it
character,
studies objects,
is
the
con-
really exist.
The
logician's being differs in this from the metaphysician's that it is envisaged as present in the mind
and can
exist in the
mind
alone.
In short
and
for
knowledge which
35
Even
now
if
we
in logic
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
we behold
it
only as reflected in our eyes, as it has
entered into the process of our reasoning and knowThe logician's being may thus be termed
ledge.
reflected being or being divested of reality.
is
is
this
being envisaged
light distinctive of
logic.
Pseudo-Being.
12.
We
tension
36
SECOND LECTURE
the scholastic philosopher this
Being
is
is
a serious heresy.
Notice what follows. How shall we proceed to reach this supreme genus? You may not
introduce into the definition of the genus animal
the characteristic notes of one of its species, man for
example. To conceive animal you must make abstraction of whatever belongs to man alone. That is
cendental.
is
simply a genus?
be obliged to eliminate all the varieties of being,
all
the determinations which particularise it.
In
short to arrive at the genus being you will be com-
will
is
and you
will thus
37
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
is
as such,
its
Thus
corruptible things.
metaphysics and
the bridge
orientated towards
it,
is
broken between
existence.
it is
If
it
envisages
only to regard
it
esse
and
as itself
Dialectics.
15.
I will call
gestive fact.
tells
by
probable conclusions.
St.
Thomas
It
For
In Met., IV, lee. 4, ed. Cathala 573 ff. Conveniunt autem in hoc
(dialectica et philosophia), quod dialectic! est considerare de omnibus.
Hoc autem esse non posset, nisi consideraret omnia secundum quod in
aliquo uno conveniunt:
quam
manifestum
38
unum
operatur.
est
subjectum
est,
dialecticae
SECOND LECTURE
dialectician studies all things, which he could not do
unless they all possessed a character in common.
materia
is
common
est ens, et
considerat .
"Diflferunt
to all things,
ea quae sunt
entis,
it is
Since being
is
scientiam, sed quamdam opinionem. Et hoc ideo est, quia ens est
duplex: ens scilicet rationis et ens naturae. Ens autem rationis dicitur
proprie de illis intentionibus, quas ratio adinvenit in rebus consideratis ;
sicut intentiones generis, speciei et similium, quae quidem non inveniuntur in rerum natura, sed considerationem rationis consequuntur. Et
hujusmodi, scilicet ens rationis, est proprie subjectum logicae. Hujusmodi autem intentiones intelligibiles, entibus naturae aequiparantur,
eo quod omnia entia naturae sub consideratione rationis cadunt.
Et ideo subjectum logicae ad omnia se extendit, de quibus ens naturae
39
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
et
what
have just
is
potestatem.
force
science
and unable
to exist outside
the dialectician
is
it.
And
the procedure of
by real causes
40
SECOND LECTURE
St. Thomas goes on to explain that dialectic can be
considered as it belongs to pure or to applied logic,
logica docens or logica utens, as it is taught or employed.
As taught it is a science, because it demonstrates to us
tive, dialectic,
In demonstrative logic the theory of demonpure logic, logica docens, pertains to logic.
But the practice or employment of demonstration,
applied logic, logica utens, is not the concern of the
logician but of every man who studies reality. In the
case of dialectical logic, and it is the same with sophistic,
both employment and instruction, practice as well as
obtains.
stration,
his
task
It
to
is
reasoning.
or of the metaphysician.
dialectic
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
name
is
extraordinarily revealing.
THIRD LECTURE
THE TRUE SUBJECT OF METAPHYSICS
The
I.
Intuition
of Being as Such.
secundum quod
it
and
its
est
ens.
And
distinctive characteristics I
to consider first a
found
it
profitable
may be
it sets
it is immediately
awakes in the sensible
world. That is its starting point. And at the end of
its course it arrives at being, but being envisaged
in itself, disengaged from its matrix, viewed in its
own light and in accordance with its own type of
intelligibility. The last lecture will have shown you
that it is an intellectual disaster to confound this
"
Being" which is the subject matter of metaphysics
with any one of those kinds of being I then pointed
out to you.
Otherwise we should find ourselves
apprehended when
obliged
D
the
mind
particularly if
first
we stopped
43
A
which
is
PREFACE
TO
METAPHYSICS
what
termed
or
intelligibility
this being;
mystery.
Objects,
all
murmur
to hear let
him
hear.
of
its
analogical value.
It
the
intuition
transcendental
is
is
character
also
and
We
word
and incomprehensible
As you know,
We
must
object of the intuition just mentioned.
therefore distinguish two "Lights" in scholastic par
lance, one pertaining to the object, the other to the
The characteristic
habitus, or intellectual virtue.
44
THIRD LECTURE
mode
and conforms
to
it,
demanded by
trans-objective reality as
it
presents to the
mind
as
its
is
comes
to birth at the
it.
Nevertheless the object is
not
in
in
time
but
prior,
ontological rank. In the order
of nature the intuition of being as such takes precedence
of the inner habitus of the metaphysician. It is this
perception of being that determines the first moment
at which the habitus comes to birth, and it is by the
operation of this same habit thus developed that the
object
is
disclosed to
being which
is
is
are confronted
PREFACE
TO
METAPHYSICS
intuition
described
this
it,
intuition.
It requires all the metaphysics
elaborated or to be elaborated hereafter in
hitherto
its
entire
THIRD LECTURE
future development to know all the riches implicit
in the concept of being. It is by producing in con-
senses or
is
embodied
however lowly.
It
even happen that to a particular soul this intellectual perception presents the semblance of a
mystical grace. I have quoted elsewhere (Degres du
may
Savoir,
p.
me.
"I have often experienced in a sudden intuition
(he reality of my being, the profound first principle
which makes me exist outside nonentity. It is a
powerful intuition whose violence has sometimes
frightened me and which first revealed to me a metato
physical absolute."
similar intuition
is
and looking
to
my
when suddenly
left
there
47
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
There
are, therefore,
of which
am
this
to
What
It
is
is
not
difficult like
intellectual technique of
failed to attain it.
Moreover, it is as true to say that this intuition produces itself through the medium of the vital action of our
intellect, I mean as vitally receptive and contemplative,
as to say that we produce it. It is difficult, inasmuch
as it is difficult to arrive at the degree of intellectual
purification at
THIRD LECTURE
We
must attain
certain
level
of intellectual
(whose
species impressa is
intellect)
4.
are
It is
concrete
and lead up
intuition
which,
however,
it
to
is
it.
They
radically insufficient if
which may prove useful to particular individuals if
they will transcend them, if they will go further.
Here
will
mention three of
these.
One
is
the
it
is
apprehended by an experience of motion
on a level deeper than that of consciousness,
our psychic states fuse in a potential manifold which
is,
notwithstanding, a unity, and in which we are
aware of advancing through time and enduring through
Duration
in which,
change
we
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
This intuition
is
therefore a path,
an approach,
to
The German
man
that no
It
confronts
us
as
value,
something
its
unique
from
saved
provided
it is
out,
My
third
example
is
but
sense
50
THIRD LECTURE
the consistency, steadfastness, firmness and victory over
and oblivion contained in this virtue
disintegration
my
is
what
experience and
know
7.
fronted with so
The
first
we
are,
you
see,
con-
many
we
shall
shall
make
5'
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
not genuine metaphysics, but a substitute which may
possess a very considerable philosophic
interest, but is nothing but a substitute all the same.
certainly
The utmost
solutions obtained
criteria,
Even
if
too opaque
fact fall
THIRD LECTURE
thing primordial, at once very simple and very rich
and, if you will, inexpressible in the sense that it is
that whose perception is the most difficult to describe,
because
it is
You may
Here we are
at the
life.
am
here attempting
to employ a purely descriptive terminology as a preliminary to the formation of a philosophic vocabulary,
that what is now perceived is, as it were, a pure
activity, a subsistence, but a subsistence which transcends the entire order of the imaginable, a living
say, if
you
please, for I
it is nothing for me to
tenacity, at once precarious
crush a fly and indomitable within and around me
there is growth without ceasing. By this subsistence,
disaster,
it
there
divested
53
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
Metaphysique
an
de Morale
by Madame
article
pirical metaphysic, to substitute for the word "existence" the phrase ''Event in such and such a province
of thought."
we are speakcovers
entire
of
the
domain
ing,
intelligibility and
It
is
a
the
intellect by an
bestowed
reality.
gift
upon
This metaphysical content, of which
which
intuition
intensity of
///.
infinitely exceeds, I
its
We
just discussed.
ens in
ledge. Such
for granted
general terms
we may
call
trans-objective validity of understanding and knowledge, a non-idealist position. It is then easy to prove
it is
Madame
54
THIRD LECTURE
"
of
The
of which
On
in
its
distinctive mystery.
of the Metaphysics
It
is,
intuition of
55
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
are liable to be
when we
teach philosophy
though
Thus the
analysis
of which
spoke
is
in the
earlier.
same case
The
as the
latter led
up
approaches
concretely,
in via inventionis, to
But
it still
It
is
the
It leads us
When
good.
to criticise
when
the inevitable
moment
arrived for
him
to ex-
56
THIRD LECTURE
become the object of his enraptured contemplation.
Common sense and therefore the man in the street
makes use of the principle without scrutinising it.
"A cat is a cat" says common sense what more
could it say? so that, if the philosopher comes on
the scene and enunciates the principle of identity in
front of
common
it,
but
it proclaims ex
combination
its
of
the
being,
abrupto,
primal mystery
of subsistence and abundance, a law which is exemplified by objects in an infinite number of different
that
it
compels
pure identity,
is
reduce
to
to
say
to
everything
obliterate
diversities
mode
him
that
and
is
to
all
with
*a
the
its
apprehends
he apprehends being as such,
being according to its pure intelligible nature, he
apprehends the essentially analogous value of the
concept of being which is implicitly manifold and is
realised in diverse objects in such fashion as to admit
differences of essence between them, complete and
the principle.
When
vast differences.
The
and
57
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
of Being as Such
Intuition
10. It
follows
If each being
are.
an Eidetic
is
Intuition.
is
Therefore instead of
propose
speak of eidetic or ideating
visualisation.
I maintain then that the metaphysical
intuition of being is an ideating intuition, that is an
intuition producing an idea, and this in a pre-eminent
degree. How could it be otherwise with the pure
speculative operation of our human intellect? This
intuition is at the summit of eidetic intellectuality.
misconceptions of every
abstraction
What do
abstractio ?
that
it is
elevating
sort.
to
spiritual proportions
them within
its
itself to
visualisation,
objects to itself, by
diverse degrees, in-
is
sense or of introspection, of
58
THIRD LECTURE
and if the principle of identity is the axiom of reality's
irreducible diversities, it is because extramental being
is
perceived in the mind under the conditions of
the
eidetic
which
existence
there, and
possesses in the
receives
it
it
"
ideates
its
"
is
precisely the
correct metaphysical
employment.
intellectual
life.
Nevertheless it is an intuition. It is not indeed "just any intuition or Erlebnis" for it is super-empirical. It is a formal intuition,
an intellectual perception, the intuition par excellence, of which the
human intellect is capable only at the summit of its intellectuality.
And for that very reason, because of this presence within itself which is
distinctive of what is spiritual, the intellect is able to return upon this
(2)
59
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
encounter, which however profound, mysterious and
it may be supposed to be,
always remains
of the same nature as those procured by psychological
secret
concept.
affective
metaphysical
invite us to play,
on a muted piano,
metaphysics.
(3) If a philosopher
but see in
We
refers to it also.
conscious.
It is
60
made
self-
THIRD LECTURE
It
is
therefore
an
idealist prejudice
which prevents
level,
think themselves metaphysicians are in fact psychologists or moral philosophers and, though striving to
reach metaphysics, mimic rather than attain the
perception of which I
Thomism,
as I
am
speaking.
Thomist
is
so
by
demands of the
intellect
tuitiveness.
61
and
its
distinctive in-
FOURTH LECTURE
CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT BEING AS SUCH
/.
intelligible "revelation,"
and all things are subsistent and determinate, snatched from nonentity, loss, disaster, m^intained, and maintaining ourselves, outside it.
The object, however, to which this intellectual
that I myself
no means unutterable.
object to be conceived.
embodied
It
I
named, is by
on
the
is,
contrary, the firsthave in fact conceived it as
62
FOURTH LECTURE
as
now
given
it
a name.
it,
do, in
is
From
have
perceived in a mental
word
itself.
It
childhood
And
it
2.
This, however,
man
is
in
which
diverse respects
est ens.
issues
its
I see it as
from the
belongs to
intuition
all
in
essential
an
intel-
in
when
its
analogous value,
It
is
stitutes,
63
A PREFACE TO
without unity.
Its
METAPHYSICS
subsistence
is
purely intelligible
and
far
employed analogously.
polyvalent.
In
itself it is
It
is
essentially
analogous,
and one
will
intelligible
subsistence
We
when we
FOURTH LECTURE
fact
is
For when
reflect
upon
being
see
it
in itself indissolubly
however imperfect
of
its
its
and
To
relative
existence
this
concept of being a real diversity in things permanently corresponds, namely that between essence and
existence in all creatures. This is the first observation
we can
formulate.
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
Being and
the
Transcendental.
we reach
a reality which I
attain in the notion of being, in the intuition of being,
and which I express by the term being; and it becomes evident that this reality even as objectively
manifested by and in the notion of being is richer
and more pregnant with intelligible values than the
4.
When we
a second
There
conclusion.
idea of being by
intrinsic necessity
idea in which
itself
immediately reveals. By an
in a sense overflow the very
must
it
it is
is
objectified.
in
as
and
is
what
much
this is
new note
struck
by
it.
It
answers to the
knowing
mind, speaks
to
it,
presses,
ticular intelligibility
is
66
FOURTH LECTURE
produce. Then there is goodness, transcendental good.
Good is being in as much as it confronts love, the will.
This is another epiphany of being. I shall return to
it later.
am
being?
is
but nonentity.
They
merely conceptual,
though
intelligible infinities
based on
reality,
virtual distinction.
You
which
is
The
my
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
consideration
third
relates
to
the
dynamic
being
itself,
in as
much
is
an inherent character of
itself
and
merit
though
in
and
love 2
1
John of
St.
Thomas,
sequitur appetitus.
2
I understand
or as perfect-
Gajetan in
I,
523
Owm<?
esse
19, I.
68
FOURTH LECTURE
1
ing something else, with a reflex affective love, this
is good in the
secondary sense.
The notion of good, like every transcendental
particular angle,
new
and
reveals a
intelligible
relation to
which
it
is
defined.
An
which
would lack
intellect
there
is
which
receives or
may
receive this
superabundance.
Let us contemplate
implies in
it
all existents
this
object
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and moreover on all the analogical
say that rain is good for vegetables, truth
good for the intellect. The correlative desire, whether
of the vegetables for the rain or of the intellect for
for another,
good
levels.
We
naturalis,
is
for
good
for the
these
goods
man whose
pertains
friend he
to
is.
The
the
intelligent
will.
It
in
all
sorts of
or
the
is,
therefore,
appetite
ways essentially different that one thing is good for
another. And God is good for all things and they
Him.
The axiom with which we
desire
be
verified
in
up itself.
At an incommensurably higher degree
in
the
a tendency to overflow
in knowledge and in love. And in both cases the
subject at the same time perfects itself. This acquisi*
tion of a new perfection accompanies in every creature
the superabundance of which I am speaking. But it
hierarchy of being there
is
FOURTH LECTURE
is
not of
it
is
Formally
itself (ex vi notionis) implied by it.
the superabundance as such which is essential.
The superabundance of knowledge expresses the perfection of a being which, in a particular fashion, u;
which is itself or other things in virtue of a suprasubjective existence (which, in all creatures capable of
knowing, is an existence of the intentional order) The
.
existence as a
gift.
exists
question.
It
is
thus
that
appetite
this
itself
natural," or
by
which proceeds
itself,
from
not
itself
now
which
is
con-
re-duplicated
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
love also
is
of the will.
know
formally constituting
it
a subject,
drawing
all
to myself,
and
is
In the
first
we have
just con-
But above
speak, to himself.
72
FOURTH LECTURE
a building up of self by and in a natural being.
a case of volition. The subject seeks vto obtain
for himself a gift which proceeds from the will and
the esse amoris, a superabundance of a higher order.
In the third case, love of friendship for another, the
fact,
It is
Finally, if the being that loves is Himself intellection and love, as God is, when He knows and
loves Himself He does not perfect Himself, acquires
no new
perfection.
But
He
overflows
all
the same.
And
this
always
this
73
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
His Love,
is
and His
exist-
ence.
is
all in
the
home of indigence,
being itself the object of metaphysical intuitionbecause it involves tendency, involves the motion
which seems incompatible with it. Being, there-
74
FOURTH LECTURE
must comprehend two
fore,
levels,
that
of actual
We
it
is
effected
"ideating" visualisation.
points, I think,
//.
In
by an
this
abstraction,
an
connexion several
Visualisation.
distinction
75
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
it,
is
more or
with the
less
general.
and
essential
intelligibility
explicitly abstracted
and
more
universal,
commoner
St.
but
or
a
form
represents
distinctive
in
its
regulative type perfected, complete
intelligibility. It is, I believe, important to emphasize
this point. Observe for instance, that the concept of
being as such with which I am now dealing and which
is the
subject matter of metaphysics is far more universal,
far commoner than the concept of substance, quantity,
quality, action, in short than any of Aristotle's predica-
ments.
scientia
communis
It
by
by metaphysics whereas
which
is
is
studied not by logic but
being,
commoner,
is
the
by metaphysics,
object of the supreme science?
If the difference between being and the predicaments
studied
FOURTH LECTURE
were merely one of extension, the concept of being
would be simply more indeterminate, and there would
therefore be no justification for making it the object
of a science of reality and, moreover, of the supreme
science. It should be studied by logic like the predicaments. But the predicaments are the supreme genera,
is
only that he
farther
tools
classify objects in
But
of a particular kind.
a further proof that being is not a genus.
Were being a supreme genus, more universal than
the predicaments, there would be no reason to make
it th'e object of a science of reality. Being is, however,
transcendental and analogous. When we have an
intuition of being as such we enter a new intelligible
world superior to that of the predicaments, a world
with its distinct and typical intelligibility and noetic
subsistence and which the metaphysician can explore
intelligibility as objects
This
is
77
A
in
all
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
dimensions without needing a particular
its
knowledge of
specific differences.
German metaphysics
The Degrees of
Intensive
Visualisation.
The
1
subject or object of a science is the subject
matter with which it deals ens in the case of meta-
physics.
telligibility
quae
is
ratio
its
itself,
The formal
is'
thus
lrThe
scholastics distinguish between the subject of a science, the
object of which it treats, and its object, the conclusions, the truths at
which it arrives concerning that object. The distinction may, however,
be disregarded for our purposes.
78
FOURTH LECTURE
There
formal
is,
way
we may
mode
of visualising and
which knowledge
it is
visualis-
is
completely immaterialised,
that is to say, the object is visualised sine omni materia.
What, in this connection, do we mean by matter?
It may be defined as that which renders reality under
one aspect or another opaque to our knowledge, unexplorable by the mind, a dead weight of incommunicability. For the root of this incommunicability is what
philosophers term prime matter.
Consider the ladder which ascends
opacity to
supreme transparence.
The
is
from
pure
lowest rung is
next rung is the
Its
of
its
own nature
79
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
alone.
It is
virtue of
But inasmuch
as it requires position, it is
the basis of the individuation of the form and the
it.
compound.
thus
It
material existence.
At the upper
limit,
their
species.
The
this:
In
the intentional existence which corresponds to sensation. They become objects. But the object taken in the
individuating notes due to prime matter is still imprisoned by the conditions imposed hie et nunc by the
action of the thing on the senses. It communicates
itself only in
Its
ledge.
Communication
is
possible
of an object's being
itself,
as
existence
80
in
FOURTH LECTURE
accidental transitive action, but in virtue of what it is.
Things now exist with an intentional existence of the
intelligible order.
this
is
the
because
of abstraction the
and passions of
light
is
81
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
When
mind
the
ialises
it
further.
the intellect as
Now, what an
object
is
confronts
quantity.
Quantity is not now studied as a real
accident of corporeal substance, but as the common
material of entities reconstructed or constructed by
the reason.
it
quantum
sub
ratione
quantitatis
ipsius,
seu
relationum
measure.
82
modus abstrahendi
FOURTH LECTURE
et
definiendi
and
definition
is
direct or indirect, to the possibility of a sensible conby the intuitive imagination. The "In-
struction
matter"
indeed
telligible
from
us,
is
it
now
"sensible matter,"
when divested alike of its existence in itself, of existence in the senses and of its sensible and quantitative
properties, in short of everything which in a corporeal
object proceeds from matter itself and witnesses to its
sovereignty over the very constitution of the object.
What an
uncommunicated
which
is
to
intelligibility
tied
to the
83
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
matter of any kind, that knowledge of the object
is
Now
and the
The
Cajetan in
84
I, I, 3.
kind.
And
this
FOURTH LECTURE
objective light, of a wholly immaterial kind
is
that which
an intuition
There
is
jurisdiction
as there
is
first,
then
intelligible-physical,
then
in-
85
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
object from within and as involved in its being
to the final determinants of its singularity.
down
itself,
The
vision of
they feed.
To
reject abstraction
Ens Absconditum
///.
14.
From what
is
to refuse
humanity.
Hidden Being.
it
presupposes the highest degree of divestment by aband of intellectual purity and that it relates
straction
to
that
which
is
FOURTH LECTURE
exclusively upon the negative aspect of the process,
the aspect implied by the term abstraction, on the
divestment it involves, and fail to see that this divest-
ment
is
is
understood
in a purely material fashion, and it becomes incomprehensible how it can designate the supreme degree of
human
knowledge.
The
The
remove
first
qualities
and
positive perception,
physician's gaze,
we must remember
is
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
it is
hidden in
light.
a property possessed by
15. If
you would
like
a story which
illustrates this
letter.
full daylight.
it."
though
it
because
it
culous search.
"He
fine that
simplicity, if
FOURTH LECTURE
because
it is too
simple, almost superhumanly simple,
eludes philosophers who have not risen to the
necessary degree of abstraction and visualisation.
that
it
There
in the face.
connexion of which
the routine
is,
we
in
my
that
is
precisely in the
by the most
tritest
of all words.
FIFTH LECTURE
THE PRINCIPLES OF IDENTITY, SUFFICIENT REASON AND
FINALITY
/.
An
Attempt
to
Reflect
First Principles.
i. For Thomism there are many first principles.
But an order obtains among them. This does not mean
that those which come after the first can be demonstrated from it, but that we can prove by a reductio
ad impossible, that if any of the other first principles
a man.
Nevertheless I am not going to enter to-day on
path of reductio ad absurdum. I shall invite you,
above all, to reflect upon the intuitive character of
the first principles. To bring home to ourselves the
this
my
and by
90
FIFTH LECTURE
notions of unity, of goodness, of truth. These are
transcendental notions. Each of them expresses to the
notions, differ
of being.
notions, and their names are not synonyms. Thus
there is, as it were, a superflux of being in respect of
our ideas, of the notions in which it is objectified,
and
it is
before you
We
first
how
shall try to
first
understand
principles enter
its
field
I
identity, sufficient reason, finality and causality.
shall not deal with the principle of non-contradiction.
is
It
is
by
and
negation.
The
2.
Principle of Identity.
No
gible
sooner do
extra-mental
we
spea'k
On
word.
essence.
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
signifies a simple existent actually given. On one side,
the 'Other
then, there is being given to the mind.
side, in another concept which is still being, but
On
under a
perfection
and determination.
itself.
its
quality.
In
Pere
his
Garrigou-Lagrange
which amounts
to the
et la
Philosophie de Vtre y
another
suggests
it
what
formula
being
it
is.
is
of a
In, his
understood as
92
FIFTH LECTURE
I am not sure that this explanation is correct. I do
not think that we pass in this way from one transcendental to another. I hold, rather, that we are concerned
essentials,
seu ponens
in
essential or as positing in
being as something
re,
an
object, as signifying in
3.
signifi-
same
"what
an
causes
This
exists exists."
entire
metaphysic.
exercises
existence
itself.
is
an
To
no tautology,
What
is
it implies
its
outside
posited
93
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
maintained outside nothingness; esse is an act, a perfection, indeed the final perfection, a splendid flower
in which objects affirm themselves. Moreover, the
might suppose,
it is
it
being,
The
of
possesses resources
identity affirms
principle
affluence, the luxury of being.
What an excellent thing it is that
mysteries.
we
and
the
are compelled
it
is
whose purely
all the words
in the dictionary.
The
the
first
in
the
Thomas's
most
judgement
is
still
important
verified.
difference
The
subject
and
employed.
And
it
is
the judgement to recognise the identity in the concrete object of what thus differs conceptually. In this
case this identity
is
of the terms.
94
FIFTH LECTURE
4. Observe that in current speech seeming tautologies
often prove most significant propositions. When we
say what is done is done, or when Pilate said, what I
there
same
God."
the
On
the one
hand
is
It is the principle
Divine Essence,
interesting
express
to
two
notice
of identity
the
Divine
how
conceptions,
diametrically opposed.
The formula of the
is
so
this
two
itself
applied to
most
is
can
formula
single
Being.
It
intellectual
Mahometan "God
is
views
God,"
municable
Him
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
as revelation alone
God by
can inform
us,
and
is
manifested in
also, as
unaided
Love
itself is,
as
not in
made
John "God
of the revela-
friendship,
to St.
mutual
is
self-giving,
community of
life,
and
is
FIFTH LECTURE
is
overflowing
degrees,
we
wealth of being in
understand that
shall
all
its
this
axiom has
analogous
its
The
of Sufficient Reason.
observe that being divides itself,
5.
so to speak, into two objects of thought, two conceptual
objects, which, however, are throughout being itself.
//.
Principle
Here
also
we
97
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
principle
transcendental
And
intellect.
truth,
to
the latter
being
word
as
is
it
confronts
the
made
for being.
We
of
intellect.
And
this
We
must say:
being
must
either possess
se, or derive
it
its
from some
of itself,
This is a preliminary and approximate statement of the principle of sufficient reason.
In other words, the intellect which is made for
intelligible sufficiency
98
FIFTH LECTURE
fact,
find
much
as
much
as
it is
intelligible,
as
it
being, grounds
of which it is.
its
We
sufficient
of
explaining
itself
to
the
intellect,
is
grounded
it is
capable
not
though
is,
it is.
is
intelligibly
Both these
99
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
analogy of being.
God
the cause
fullness of
outside
natural
nothingness,
or
entitative
existence.
why
to affirm that
an empirical
fact,
God
to
exists is
affirm
an
and
infinite
satisfaction
of an infinite
demand
for
intelligibility,
se:
he would say:
is
intellection,
God
He
is
exists
because
100
He knows
He
Himself
FIFTH LECTURE
truth, because He is the infinite fullness of
intelligibility in pure act thinking Itself, because His
and His
Its
own
existence.
later stage we can reduce, or rather logically
the
attach,
principle of sufficient reason to the principle
of identity, by a reductio ad absurdum. This is a reflex
7.
At a
has neither in
itself
is
nor in something
to say
else,
which
that in
virtue of
exist at the
reductio
101
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
two objects of
real identity we
It divides into
whose
panies being,
Not only
is
is it
it
God
pure act.
must
they
comprise a certain
being,
ism, Spinosism for example. At the other are philosophies of absolute irrationalism, for example that of
Schopenhauer. Between these contrasted errors there
FIFTH LECTURE
together with factor of relative nonentity a factor of
relative unintelligibility.
To this potentiality in all creatures
'
and therefore
in
created goods corresponds the dominating indifference of the will. The will is specified by good as such,
all
that
is
it
It gratuitously
good for itself
its
part in
A further remark.
is^
is
for
I
different fashion.
To apprehend
'
have recognised
this
distinction.
perseity.
On
this
,
103
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
St.
In the
first
is
And
it
But
certainly applies
there
is
of perseity. 1
contingent
Hujusmodi
being.
ens
(sc*
per
participationem, seu non per se) non potest esse, quin sit
causatum; sicut nee homo quin sit risibilis.
object of
An
man who
is
not
1
St.
risible.
Sum. Theol.
Thomas
I, 44, ad.
104
I.
FIFTH LECTURE
example the faculty of laughter in man. The power to
is a passio
propria, a distinctive passion whose
subject is man. And what he says of the principle of
laugh
causality
is
In
is whole number.
You
whole numbers are even or odd."
therefore
"
say
manner
"
if
tinctive subject of
fore
enunciate
Being
is
HI.
it
principle
The
principle
in being "Everything which is,
has a sufficient reason for being."
grounded
in so far as
The
such a notion
the
is
is
is
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
And
since of
its
statement
latter
10.
We
will
is
now
On
other
hand
is
being
potency
possibility of
as
So
to
act.
we affirm:
referred
objectified
is referred to act. Fundamentally it is the very
this
We
desire,
a desire for
finality:
06
FIFTH LECTURE
factors, the
new determination
"
acquired,
and
its
we
posit potency.
..."
ordination
and ordination
to
fore-
it,
107
It
is
this
finality.
which
AJ PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
P Throughout his study Dalbiez does not move from
his standpoint, the reference of potency to act. Even
when he speaks of the cause or active potency which
,
mines
and
actively
is
their
they perfect
perfect.
Therefore they pass themselves from potency to act.
A created agent becomes, it acquires a final perfection
act,
by producing
its
something
if it is
else,
if
effect.
different things : to
the action
immanent and
is
The
tree acquires
a lesser to a greater
water,
there
1
In Latin and French the same word
potency and for power. Tr.
08
potentic, puissance, is
used for
FIFTH LECTURE
maintain that an agent, an active cause, cannot
produce just any effect you please, precisely because
it cannot become
just anything you please, cannot
I
activity to
and of
itself
That
it
power, active
power or potency, can in this second sense be ascribed
to God and that we call Him omnipotent. In this
it.
is
why
and
perfection.
thus
is actuality
to analyse the second
becoming alone,
come
109
SIXTH LECTURE
THE PRINCIPLE OF FINALITY (SECOND ASPECT)
The Most Profound and Most Universal Statement of
the
Principle of Finality.
last lecture we have studied the first stateprinciple of finality adopting the standpoint
of potential being.
saw that it is of the very essence
of potency to be referred to act and to be knowable
i
In the
ment of the
We
view.
It
ment of
sider to-day.
We
shall
As is the
first principles.
case with every principle intuitively apprehended by
the intellect, being so to speak divides in face of the
mind into two distinct conceptual objects which are
of these reflections
nevertheless
identifies
'a
on the
itself
being
5
priori
that
is
to
say,
no
because
these
SIXTH LECTURE
What
two
distinct
is
We
is
as
referred as such
two notions.
2.
shall
What
speak
later.
term action.
As you know the
is
as general as the
scholastics distinguish
two
sorts
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
either to the agent capable of transitive action or to
which
is
restricted to
extends to whatever in
it
is.
It also implies
an
immanent. As
virtual distinction
from
either.
The terminal act in the order of operation, the operawith which I am now dealing, is first
On
the lowest
immanent action, the living organism conand perfects itself entitatively. It becomes
increasingly perfect as
immanent
actions.
112
SIXTH LECTURE
there is a communication of actuality in the
order no longer of entitative but of intentional being,
the being, that is to say, in virtue of which a being is
more than itself, exists over and above its own existence. It is the intefttional being of knowledge or love.
It is the intentional being by which, in the case of
knowledge, the knower can become something other
than himself, indeed, all things. This perfects the
level
of operation.
and
inclines in virtue of
to
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
We may
from which it proceeds? Plus, however, cannot proceed from minus. Hence the agent must be itself in
some way a reference, a tendency to the action in
question, a love of it. To the extent to which it is a
pure agent,
its
tion, in
order to perfect
itself
or something
else,
to
is
love
114
SIXTH LECTURE
Turn
is
thing
being, a
is
friend.
Here
in the friend
also
who
an intentional being
loves,
mode
is
produced
of intentional existence
which
and do what
will
is
agent or in operation,
in
will
good
being as
whether the agent be regarded
entative or natural or in
its
He
Thus
its
intentional being
action
The good
to
which
it
to
tends
is
in as
operation
itself,
existence,
because
this
in the
much
is
his
is
first
as
referred, the
it is
own
end
be posited in
good. And it is
to
from
this
as I
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
the universal End, and which gives rise to
rest,
to every
communicable good,
to all
all
the
ends and
tendencies.
Analytic Discussion
4.
We
will
now
We
established.
reflect
just
back-
but which
eminently
all
is
His Intel-
and His Love themselves. Hence His entitative Being does not require completion by an intentional
Being, It is fulfilled by the actus purus which is Himself.
lection
God
distinct
116
SIXTH LECTURE
have
particular
else,
Now, however,
itself
wish to consider
or something
this relation
of
and
this
determination
is
its
very essence.
To be determined
new
a term presupposes an
ordination, a relation to that term. In the case of
being as agent, this ordination or determination
which is an appetite and a love and which is identical
with the being itself, entitative or intentional must
body.
to
117
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
or ordination to exist between two terms both terms
must
exist.
somehow
It
exist
it is
effect
must
exist before
produced or realised.
is this
possible?
in thought,
exists
as
the
action
or
effect
present
Only
with the existence of knowledge. Only in this way can
5.
if
it
exist
in thought, in knowledge
before
it exists
in
We
seen that in the case of natural agents the determination to the effect or the action is the agent's essence.
Now we
nature.
But we do
at least
know
implicitly, as
soon
we have
which
thought.
The
agent's essence
118
and
its
action must be
SIXTH LECTURE
present in a thought on which that essence depends
and which conceives it as an ordination or determina-
We
particular object
We
to
is
see, therefore,
6/
You
by an
elicited love.
see that
we can most
bird
flies
"9
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and set in motion by the archer. An accidental
A
target
SIXTH LECTURE
belongs to the intentional being.
It
arises
from a
Himself.
essence of the
Agent
is
It
is
the Agent
to the very
nevertheless intellectual and
is
new
us.
aspect of the
said in my
to
also
means that He
exists
God
for
is
necessarily the
an end which
is
121
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and
its
its
sake.
He
He
latter,
latter does
He
will
the former. 1
the principle of sufficient reason, the
of
finality embraces being in its entirety,
principle
both Uncreated as well as created being.
Thus,
like
Supplementary Observations.
its
Thus the
principle of sufficient reason is denied, and consequently the principle of identity. But in fact the
mind has
is,
as
we have
seen in the
first
Sum. Theol.,
122
I, 19, 5.
SIXTH LECTURE
under the aspect of transcendental good confronting
an appetite, an inclination or love, whether that
appetite is "elicited," or radical (in which case it
identical
is
in act
is
its
nature, as
its
love
is
mean,
own
perfection overflow.
only one.
sequitur appetitus.
An
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
without the least connotation of receptivity or potency.
His Being is love.
If He refers all things to Himself, it is not for His
own good. For He has no need of them. It is for their
good and for their own ontological rectitude, without
which, indeed, they could not exist. They could sooner
lose their nature than their ordination to God. In God
there is no shade of selfishness. Deus suam gloriam
quaerit non propter se sed propter nos. God seeks His glory
not for His own sake but for ours. 1
8.
summed up
Summa
receives
II, i, 2).
Theologica (I
form only in so far as it
Here
is
"Matter
it is.
moved by an
agent,
for
effected
is
by the
rational appetite
we term
by what
is
the will,
the
called
natural appetite." 2
*Sum. TheoL, II-II, 132,
*/-//,
ab agente:
i,
1,
ad
I.
124
SIXTH LECTURE
Moreover
of an end,
this
is
de Finalite turns.
From
all
meaning: Omnis
res
its
est
propter
operation.
suam
This
operationem,
is what I
Can
answer
is
profound.
Omnis
Cajetan's
suam
Everything
much
operation,
are
it
attains
its
opsra-
as it
is
in
ultimate actuality.
ex intentione finis.
effectum
125
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
finality
by chance
is
precisely
to
determine
We
it.
out (De
a. I)
be determined to
and
will, it is
Where
we read
On
end
this
is
much
by
nature or by knowledge
cause in being but only in
its
first
intention.
as
it
not the
not
there
is
in the third
first
as it signifies
126
SIXTH LECTURE
which more or
tions
with the
entitative action or
grasp
.of
less
efficient cause.
The end
motion in the
strict sense.
Failure to
this vitiated
finality
philosophy
of
the
nineteenth
century.
No
clear
distinction
Now
for
my
second observation.
We
The
causality
times the agent's being itself, sometimes the "produced" or elicited love which is evoked in the agent
' '
' '
or
1
a
et sqq.
127
sit
causalitas finis."
Curs. Phil.,
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
being
itself,
faculty,
of an end.
on
He
is
He
acts
orders
My
as
and good.
is no final cause.
Because there is no action in
mathematics there is no final cause in this sphere
any more than there is any efficient cause. In mathematics there is but a formal cause. This what Aristotle
meant by the very important remark on which the
Thomists comment, that mathematics "are not good."
Good, that is an end, has no place in mathematical
explanation. You will understand from this that a
philosopher such as Spinoza, who envisages the
nature of metaphysics from the mathematical stand-
there
and thus
128
SIXTH LECTURE
We
triangle
is
geometrical
something of the
essence
datum
to
it is
its
properties
sought to reduce,
retains
namely
it
which
it is therefore incompatible.
It is primarily
because Spinoza failed to grasp the real distinction
between the agent and its action that at the same
time and with equal vehemence he denied the principle
of finality and the possibility of miracles. Both alike
are rejected, because you cannot deprive a triangle
of its geometrical properties. If you conceive the
agent's
fashion
relation
it
to
its
becomes absurd
action
in
this
to hold that
geometrical
an agent can be
One
finality.
final
Onme
120
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
reason this
is
you how
intelligent
and volun-
tary agent.
In the next lecture
more
A
ples
restricted.
species of trinity
is
universality,
namely the
reason and
SIXTH LECTURE
mind contemplates transcendental being and
transcendental truth. In the principle of finality it
the
good.
SEVENTH LECTURE
THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSALITY.
The
I.
CHANCE
Principle of Causality.
As
The same
more
division
may be
expressed in
We
It
is
the
second
member
of this
being
is
richer than
its
it
intuitive
divides into
132
SEVENTH LECTURE
can be non-existent, this conceptual object divides
before our mind's eye into two objects conceptually
distinct.
One of these is what I propose to term
"contingent being posited in existence," the other
I shall term "caused," that is to say, "having a
ground, a sufficient reason other than itself." When
our mind contemplates these two notions we see that
what
axiom and,
we have
reductio
already ex-
ad absurdum to
You
and
Nor
have I generalised a psychological experience, a procedure which would have laid me open to a more or
less plausible charge of
anthropomorphism. I have
not thought of a ball clashing with another ball, nor
133
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and
I
by us when we exert
felt
have
strictly
it.
On
the contrary,
that
by which an
That
of which a thing
is
make
is
transferable
to
to
the
individual
is
instances
applied.
They
of causation)
will therefore
strikes another,
where
134
SEVENTH LECTURE
By simply
been speaking,
we
see
to
I have
be contingent and to be caused,
may
remark, incidentally,
and deliberate
act of will.
Here we
see better
how
the
the bringing of anything into existence is always invested with a peculiar mystery, and that being is
strictly the effect of the first cause. It is only in as much
as second causes are themselves
moved by God
that
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
be something outside
into existence.
Its
it
own
which accounts
for
its
coming
ontological sufficiency, if I
may
its
it,
mystery,
way
little
it
we shall
act,
the
ontological
root
of the
tendency,
inclination
insisted so strongly in
my
last
lecture.
The
principle of causality
may
change. Nihil
It
is
now
so far as
clear that
it is
in act
136
SEVENTH LECTURE
must
stumbling-block.
It is clear that the communication of being and
good implied by the relation of cause to effect is not
the transmission of any imaginable entity, solid or
liquid, passing from the former to the latter, but a
community of actuation
that
is
at
once the
final
perfection
that
action.)
It is clear that since every created cause is as a cause
more than the effect: and at the same time as created,
less
must be
effect together:
itself perfected,
in order to act
and brought
into action
it
by
if
the created
137
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
Supplementary Remarks.
4.
The same
observation must be
made about
the
reason and
It is a proposition intrinsically
finality.
necessary, self-evident, but pertaining to the second
mode of perseity. It is not in the notion which con-
The
we compare
even when
of reason
for
the
mind
its
should like to put before you some further obon the principle of casuality. The first concerns its application to living beings. How does it
5.
servations
classical definition
of life appears
can cause
itself.
The
contradiction
is
merely
Living beings certainly
But they do not move in the same respect as that in
which they are moved. This is obvious in the case of
act,
move
apparent.
themselves.
material organisms. One part moves another. Certainly the organism does move itself. For the two
parts are not two distinct substances, but two parts
of a single substance. Nevertheless, one part moves
another.
138
SEVENTH LECTURE
In the case of an immaterial faculty such as the
or the will, which has no parts, it is
still untrue that it moves and is moved under the same
intelligence
reduces
much
in as
that
it
as
it is
wills that
end in
means.
Thus the
it is itself
principle
of causality
is
always
safeguarded.
We
selves,
selves,
life
immanent
139
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
it
virtue of
Act.
subject
the subject
it is
differs
distinct
causality.
The
fact
should be emphasised
We
God
as
temporary philosophers,
chvicg,
1
in
his
for
this
140
SEVENTH LECTURE
shall be content here with the very summary hints
have just thrown out which, however, will convey
my meaning and which are strictly within the scope
I
of
my
lectures.
Chance
I must, however, speak about a problem bound
with
that of causality, namely the problem of
up
chance. Bear well in mind the philosophic and ontological character of the notion of efficient causation,
such as I have attempted to elicit it. The efficient
cause is an external ground which, to put it so,
renders intelligible, I do not say to us, but in itself
the existence of an object or event. This conception
of a cause carries with it another conception, that of
the communication of being. And the efficient cause
is an agent predetermined to a particular effect as
7.
the tree
to local
often
is
stitutes
if its
chance.
it
fortuitous event
141
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
is
mere
it
is
encounter.
Aristotle's
example.
Is
it
opportunity to
who
is
profit by the
a chain of causes
and effects. Is the entire chain necessary? To understand the conception of chance which is far more
difficult than is often supposed, we shall examine this
instance of it. There are here three series of causes.
One extends from the salt food to the thirst. It is
normal and in the natural order of things that salt
food should cause thirst, the thirst excite the desire
and the
series there
is
spring
its
142
SEVENTH LECTURE
evaporation, <2?c., and had the victim not met his
death, the drink he had taken would have produced
a particular physiological effect upon his organism.
Every event in each series of causes has therefore its
series.
is
Geological
facts
life
,.
their
of brigandage
Underground water
Spring
former
crime
The
multiplicity in
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
A
That
lines at
has no
But
and
its
to
it
being,
is
8.
St.
these
in
notions
my
explained
by
his
opinion,
deepest
treatment of the Fortuitous, in the Prima Pars of his
Summa
115, 6.
He
bodies necessitate
is
is,
all events.
necessity.
Their opinion
is
if
produce the
instances."
effect
144
SEVENTH LECTURE
a particular effect, for example a medicine
preordained to heal the organism, is prevented from
producing its effect.)
"
since these causes
"But," St. Thomas proceeds,
fail in a particular instance only because another cause
of
itself to
not
For
this
when one
145
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
'
Take,
example, the accumulation of dried vegetable
matter in the soil of a particular place. The next
for
which of
itself
To
add
St.
146
SEVENTH LECTURE
the encounter, the intersection of causes which constitutes chance and does not constitute a being with
.a
mind
that
knows
it,
and above
And
all
in the
Mind
that
encounter as it is
known by that Mind, can also be caused by It, can
depend upon Its providence which disposes all things
and has disposed this entire manifold, this infinite
multitude of individual causes and their interferences.
From this it is evident that we must improve our
statement of the principle of causality. Everything
we said which exists or happens contingently or
mingled with potency has a cause. Now we must add
in accordance with the requirements of its being or
unity. If what exists or happens contingently is not
vere ens, genuine being, not ens per se, being by itself, but
ens per accidens, accidental being, possesses only a
is
this
an effect can be
knows all things.
causa per
accidens,
A PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
another causal
series.
See further on
important explanations by
All this
amounts
Aristotle
intelligible
than
and
the
event
is
which
not in
itself
more
from it.
or event must
results
The
That
it,
is
because these
to say
But there
is
we
two causal
series
have crossed."
essential
a particular end.
1
Book II, of
Book XI of the
with
148
and
XII
SEVENTH LECTURE
notions
distinguish between
fortuitous. It
is
to
149
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
and conceptual
therefore
submit
existence has
to
the
no
calculus
150
interest.
He
will
of probabilities,
SEVENTH LECTURE
problems which in reality are not amenable
If, for example, a poem possesses
a real unity, not merely the semblance of unity, really
I am not speaking
expresses an intelligible organism
of surrealist poems, though even in their case random
things, cases,
to this treatment.
it
is
metaphysically
not
Ill
ii.
first
are
In these lectures
may
PREFACE TO METAPHYSICS
minus
suam
(per
essentiam)
est
prius
eo
quod non
est
per se
participationem reducitur
sicut in principium et
ad
causam
to that which
by participation
1
it
its
as
its
essence
possesses
by
principle and cause.
You will find in St. Thomas's Compendium Theologiae
is
thing
reducible
my
152