States of the Mind

I. When the intellect is in potency

A. Nescience
B. Ignorance

1. Ontological
2. Psychological
3. Ethical

II. When the intellect is in act

A. Imperfect

1. Doubt
2. Guess
3. Suspicion
4. Opinion

B. Perfect (Certitude)

1. Certitude of Truth

a. Certitude of Science

i. Absolute

a. Metaphysical
b. Mathematical

ii. Conditional

a. Physical
b. Moral

b. Certitude of Faith

2. Certitude of Falsity
 TOPIC 5 – STATES OF THE MIND

(These are the conditions of the mind resulting from the manifestation of truth to the intellect.)

A. When the intellect is in Potency

• It does not possess the truth in any way. The mind could be in a state of nescience or ignorance. Both
signify a lack of knowledge in a subject. No knowledge, no truth.

1. Nescience
• Lack of knowledge not reasonably due to the mind
• Signifies a lack of knowledge by way of negation.
• The subject is non-knowing
2. Ignorance
• Lack of knowledge due to the mind.
• Signifies a lack of knowledge by way of privation.
• The subject is capable of knowing but does not possess that knowledge.
• Ignorance is not as bad as error; per accidens, it may even be "bliss;" but in itself at least it is no
good, for it is nothing.

A surgeon need not know what the "eccentric" of a steam engine is, but he ought to know what a "tourniquet"
is.

Senses in which NESCIENCE and IGNORANCE can be taken:

➢ ONTOLOGICAL SENSE

✓ In the ontological sense, NESCIENCE and IGNORANCE look at the capacity of the subject to know the
object. This is taken in the light of what a person is naturally ordained to know.

o The person is nescient if he is asked about things that are not included in the natural range of
cognitive powers

▪ A four-year-old to know the rubrics of debate.

o He is ignorant if there is a privation of perfection due to the subject when asked about things
within the natural range of his cognitive powers.

▪ A seven-year-old child who cannot read and write.

➢ PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE

✓ In the psychological sense, NESCIENCE and IGNORANCE are defined in terms of cognitive awareness.
What am I aware of?

o NESCIENCE: absence of knowledge in a subject who is not aware of the absence of knowledge.

o IGNORANCE: absence of knowledge in a subject who is capable and is aware of the lack of that
knowledge.
➢ ETHICAL SENSE

✓ It asks the question: What is a person obliged to know?

o NESCIENCE: the absence of knowledge in a subject who is not supposed to know it does not
make the act imputable. (invincible ignorance)

▪ A nescient does not know that white lies are lies.

o IGNORANCE: the absence of knowledge in a subject who is supposed to possess it makes the
act imputable. (vincible ignorance)

▪ An ignorant does not know that today is Saturday and not Sunday, and therefore he
is not obliged to attend Sunday Mass.

B. When the intellect is in Act

• The intellect possesses truth in some way. It can be perfect or imperfect.

1. Imperfect

• The mind does not possess truth in an absolute manner but there is an act on the part of the
intellect. It is of four kinds: doubt, suspicion, guess, and opinion.

➢ Doubt: the wavering of the intellect between two contradictory parts without assenting to any
of them. It involves some knowledge in the mind. (Note: When one is ignorant, he doesn’t
doubt.) There is knowledge, but there is no truth and there is a lack of assent. There are two
kinds of doubt: negative and positive.

✓ Negative doubt: It is the suspension of judgment because there are no reasons for any
of the contradictory parts. Doubt arises from the absence of sufficient evidence on
either side.

✓ Positive Doubt: It is the suspension of judgment because of the quasi-equality of

reasons (countervailing reasons) for the two contradictory parts. Reasons are of equal
weight for both sides. The evidence for and against is so equally balanced as to render
decision impossible.

 Suspicion: an inclination towards a judgment and away from its opposite but without a definite
assent. It is a feeling that someone has done something wrong. It is when the intellect is inclined
to assent to one of the contradictory parts moved by slight reason. In suspicion, the will
influences the intellect, and the lack of evidence is provided by the will. This is more of a belief.
A reasonable suspicion justifies a stop and frisk, but not a full search. A young woman who
marries a charming man after a brief romance but then comes to believe that he is only after
her money and will kill her to get it.

➢ Guess: a shot in the dark; there is no knowledge but there is an assent.

➢ Opinion: a hesitant and tentative assent to a proposition, not as true, but as probably true.
There is knowledge and truth but not certitude. There is assent but the assent is weak. The
 intellect assents to one of the contradictory parts because of the probable motive, but with the
fear of the truth of the opposite part. We keep an open mind because of fear of error of one’s
choice and of the truth of the other. Opinion is always accompanied by the consciousness that
further evidence may cause a change of mind in favor of the opposite opinion. Opinion,
therefore, does not exclude doubt.

2. Perfect (CERTITUDE)

• The mind possesses the truth absolutely.

• Lt. cernere: to resolve; to decide after seeing the evidence.

• It is characterized positively as firmness of assent and negatively as the exclusion of all prudent
fear of error.

• Certitude may be defined as the firm and unwavering assent of the mind to known truth, a full and
unwavering assent of the mind upon evidence taken from the normal human mode of action,
evidence which the mind finds sufficient to win its full assent.

• In itself or formally, certitude is a state of mind. It is the condition of the subject.

• It is a state of the subject that results from the manifestation of truth; the subject is made certain
because the truth is manifested in it. Now, the manifestation of truth is, in the ultimate analysis,
due to evidence, which is “the visibility of the objective truth manifesting itself to the mind.”

• Hence, evidence is not only the criterion of truth; it is also the motive of certitude; it moves the
mind to an unwavering assent to truth.

• Formally subjective, certitude is causally objective. It is the objective truth, the evidenced truth,
which begets the state of mind called certitude.

• Certitude, as it exists in the subject, is a firm and unwavering assent and adherence of the mind to
a known truth. Its firmness excludes all hesitancy, all fear that perhaps, after all, the mind may be
assenting to what is not true. Thus certitude differs from doubt and suspicion, in which there is no
definite assent of mind, and from opinion, which is, at best, a hesitant or tentative assent involving
fear that the opposite of what is assented to may be true. Certitude rigorously excludes all fear of
error.

KINDS OF CERTITUDE
A. Certitude of Truth
• It is when the mind adheres to one of the contradictions without fear that the other part is true.

1. Certitude of Science
➢ The certitude of science is the unwavering and reasonable assent of the mind to a truth that is
understood in itself, a truth that is known because it is self-evident (immediate scientific
certitude) or because it has been clearly reasoned out (mediate scientific certitude).

➢ The motive of certitude of science is evidence. (Lt. e: a movement from within; videre: to see;
It is the visibility of the object.)
1. A. Absolute Certitude

✓ Assent of the intellect is based on the absolute necessity.

✓ The intellect perceives that the thing cannot be otherwise.

1. A. 1. Metaphysical Certitude

✓ Necessity is based on the essence of the thing.

✓ Metaphysical certitude is that with which self-evidently necessary truth is known,

or necessary truth demonstrated from self-evident truth. The demonstrative
sciences, such as geometry, possess metaphysical certitude. The contingent fact of
one’s own existence, or of one’s present state of feeling, is known with
metaphysical certitude.

✓ The connection between S and P is absolutely necessary.

✓ The opposite affirmation is contradictory, inconceivable and absurd.

▪ God is omnipotent.
▪ Every contingent being has a cause.
▪ The part is smaller than the whole.
▪ A circle cannot be square.

1.A.2. Mathematical Certitude

✓ Necessity arises from the mathematical principles.

▪ 4x2=8
▪ square root of 16 = 4

1.b. Conditional Certitude

✓ Certitude is based on a condition

✓ It is certain unless a miracle happens.

1.B.1. Physical Certitude

✓ Physical Certitude is the unwavering assent of the mind to what expresses the order
of nature and the consistency of natural laws. These laws are not absolutely
unchangeable, but subject to the will of the Creator; they are not self-evident nor
demonstrable from self-evident truth; but they are constant, and discoverable as
laws by experience, so that the future may be inferred from the past or the distant
from the present.

✓ Firm assent is based on constancy and regularity, the uninterrupted and

unthwarted continuance of natural process.

✓ The opposite affirmation is not absurd but physically impossible.

 ✓ Our certitude that a dead man will not return to earthly life is physical; so also is our
certitude that snow must be white, and that good seed will sprout when planted
under favorable conditions in fertile ground; fire will burn, magnet will attract iron,
heavy bodies will fall, cotton are soft, stones are hard.

1.B.2. Moral Certitude

✓ Moral certitude is the unwavering assent of the mind upon evidence to what
expresses the normal mode of human conduct.
✓ Firm assent is based upon the constancy of normal human conduct.
✓ Thus, we have moral certitude that a mother will love her child, a father will not
rape his daughter, a truly ordained priest will not live with a woman, teacher will
educate the youth, seminarians will not cheat in the examination.
✓ The exception here is due to the abuse of free will on the part of the individual.

2. Certitude of Faith/ Willed Certitude

➢ The certitude of faith is the unwavering assent of the mind to a truth known on authority. If the
witness, the authoritative propounder of the truth to be believed, is God Himself, then our
certitude is that of divine faith. If the witness be a man, or men, the certitude is that of human
faith.

➢ Firm assent is based on the credibility of the witness. One believes that something is true or
one accepts that something is true on the account of the credibility of the witness which
guarantees that indeed it is true.

➢ Certitude of faith is not a blind or unreasoning certitude; indeed, certitude is by definition a

reasonable assent of the mind to a known truth. The truth to which the assent of faith is given
is known indirectly, that is, it is known in the recognized validity of the testimony which
evidences it, but the point is that it is known.

➢ It is called free/willed certitude because the intellect is moved by the will because the will
perceives that the assent of the intellect is truth, i.e., good for the intellect.

➢ The will moves the intellect to assent with firmness without the fear that the contrary may be
true basing itself on the testimony/ authority of the witness.

▪ The witness is credible, testimony is strong.

▪ The witness is credible, testimony is weak
▪ The witness is not credible, testimony is strong.
▪ The witness is not credible, testimony is weak.

B. Certitude of Falsity (Error)

• The intellect assents to one of the contradictory parts which is false.

• It is the assumption of something true by the intellect which in reality is false.
• Subjectively speaking, there is no error. When the intellect pronounces its false judgment, the
intellect pronounces it as true judgment. The intellect pronounces its assent on something false
taking it as true.