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The structure of the encyclical empiricism or positivism as from

"Humani Generis" Kantianism and from the evolutionary


by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. idealism of Hegel.
Translated from the Italian "La sintesi Empiricism does not see the essential
tomistica, (Brescia, Queriniana, 1953). pp. difference and the immense distance
541-54" by A. Aversa between the intellect and the senses,
Cf. Garrigou-Lagrange's "Where is the between the idea and the image, between
New Theology Leading Us?" judgement and the empirical association,
Please email me with errors you might and by this it strongly reduces the value of
find or questions that you might have. the first notions of being, of unity, of truth,
of goodness, of substance, of cause and
The primary generator of the errors the value of the first correlative principles
indicated in the Encyclical. of identity, of contradiction, of causality,
etc. According to empiricism these
We do not try to do here a simple principles do not have an absolute
analysis of this pontifical document of 12 necessity and are simply empirical
August 1950, to number the damaging associations confirmed by heredity, nor do
tendencies of which he speaks, and also they exceed the order of phenomena. The
less to cite those which were admitted principle of causality would affirm only
according to a diverse gradation. that each phenomenon supposes an
We do try to stress the principle error antecedent phenomenon, but it does not
from which all the others derive and, allow us to raise ourselves up to certain
through the force of the contrast, to show knowledge of the existence of the first
which is the fundamental truth that cause beyond the phenomenal order.
permits avoiding these deviations, as Kantianism is opposed, it is true, to
Providence does not permit errors if not empiricism inasmuch as it recognizes the
for putting the Truth in better light, as in necessity of first principles, but according
a chiaroscuro; so too it does not permit to this system the principles are only
evil and sometimes great evils, if not for a subjective laws of our mind, which come
superior good that we will discover from us applied to phenomena, but they
perfectly only in heaven. do not allow us to raise ourselves up
Now, philosophically and theologically beyond some phenomena themselves.
examining this Encyclical, one sees that From this point of view according to the
the fundamental error from this Kantian system the existence of God can
condemnation is philosophical relativism, be proved only with a moral proof founded
which leads to dogmatic relativism, from on the indemonstrable postulates of
which necessarily derives a whole practical reason, whose proof gives us
complex of deviations recorded here. only an objectively insufficient certainty.
Therefore one cannot admit the
I - Contemporary relativism and the traditional definition of truth according to
various dogmas Kantianism, which on the contrary all the
dogmas suppose. One cannot say: «Veritas
The principle error condemned by the est adaequatio rei et intellectus», because
Encyclical is relativism, according to the truth would not be the conformity of
which human knowledge does not ever our judgment with being and with its
have a real, absolute, and immutable immutable laws of contradition, of
value, but only a relative value. And this causality, etc., but one would need to
means various things according to the content himself with saying that the truth
theory of knowledge that is admitted. is the conformity of our judgement with
From where does this relativism, that the subjective exigencies of moral action,
has had its influence in these recent times expressed by indemonstrable postulates of
in certain Catholic environments, practical reason. One does not give an
originate? It derives as much from objectively founded metaphysical

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certainty, but only an objectively sufficient be substituted by a definitive enunciation
moral and practical certainty. One does of the ministers of Christianity.
not escape from relativism. This dogmatic relativism appeared
And then Hegel says: If one cannot again at the epoch of modernism, as the
prove with objectively sufficient certainty Encyclical «Pascendi» of 1907
the existence of God really and essentially demonstrates. And it has tended always to
distinct from the world, it is better to say appear more in some of the sages of the
that God is made in the humanity that «new theology», in which it is said that
keeps evolving itself and in the mind of the notions used in the conciliar
the men that passes continually from one definitions in the long run grow old, they
thesis to an antithesis, then to a superior are not anymore conformed to the
synthesis, and so on. According to the progress of science and philosophy, and
diverse movements of evolution, today the then they need to be substituted by other
thesis is true, tomorrow it will be the true «equivalent» declarations, but these are
antithesis, the day after tomorrow the equally unstable. For example, the
synthesis, and it will always be like so. definition of the Council of Trent
There cannot be immutable truth, because regarding sanctifying grace, that it is the
God, supreme truth, is made in us and will formal cause of justification, was a good
not ever be actuated in full, as becoming formula at the time of the Council of
cannot stop itself. This last proposition is Trent, but today it would need to be
the first of those that are condemned by modified. But from saying this to saying
the Syllabus of Pius IX. that today it is no longer true, the distance
Contrary to the principles of identity, of is great. Under this aspect on earth there
contradiction and of causality, to become would be only provisional formulae.
is for itself its proper reason, without a So too often is the evidence in need of
superior cause. In this ascending creative the principle of causality, which is the
evolution, the more perfect is always foundation of the traditional proofs of the
produced by the less perfect, which is existence of God, as if a free choice were
evidently impossible. It is the universal necessary for admitting the ontological
confusion of being with non-being in value and absolute necessity of this
becoming without cause, confusion of the principle, and that it would take from the
true with the false, of the good with the proofs their truly demonstrative efficacy.
evil, of the just with the unjust, as Pius IX Finally the traditional definition of truth is
affirms in the beginning of the Syllabus said «chimerical»: «Adaequatio rei et
(Denzing., n. 1701). intellectus», the conformity of judgement
These three relativist systems with extra-mental being and with its
—empiricism, Kantianism and Hegelian immutable laws, and one wants to
idealism—have unfortunately distanced «substitute for it» this new definition:
many intellectual people from their Conformitas mentis et vitae, the
salvation. One cannot joke with the «one conformity of our judgment with life and
necessary». with its subjective exigencies, and this
For how much it can appear surprising, leads to an «insufficiently objective
this relativism has influence on some certainty» regarding the existence of God,
theologians to the point that one of them, as in the proof proposed by Kant.
Guenther, in the XIX century, said that the Some have even maintained that Jesus
Church is infallible when she defines a Christ did not teach a doctrine, but that
dogma, but it is an infallibility relative to he only affirmed with his life and with his
the current state of science and death this fact, namely that God loves
philosophy at the moment of its definition. humanity and wants our salvation. But if
Under this aspect Guenther put in doubt Jesus did not teach a doctrine, how could
the immutability of the definitions of the he have said: «My doctrine is not mine,
Council of Trent, maintaining that one but his that sent me» (John, VII, 16).
cannot affirm if that Council one day can «Heaven and earth shall pass away, but

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my word shall not pass away» (Mark, XIII, offense to God requires that the current
31)? If one does not speak of the teaching teaching of the Church about the mystery
of Revelation, how could one even speak of the Redemption be modified.
of the teaching of the Church for And finally it has been proposed to
proposing to us and infallibly explaining to understand the real presence of the Body
us the revealed doctrine? of Christ in the Eucharist not insisting
Contemporary relativism in the religious anymore on the old notion of substance
field is apparent especially in the and not speaking anymore of
applications to the following questions: transubstantiation in the ontological sense
creation of the first man, the notion of the of the word. It is affirmed that it suffices
supernatural, the mystery of the to say that «the consecrated bread and
Incarnation, of the Redemption and of the wine became the efficacious symbol of the
Eucharist. sacrifice of Christ and of his spiritual
Some writers have proposed the presence; it changed their religious
following question: Although the Holy being». Symbolism, this, very similar to
Scripture, all the Tradition and the that admitted by Calvin for the Eucharist.
Councils consider Adam as an individual Somebody proposed one of these
name, could he not be considered instead innovations without accounting for those
as a collective name and through proposed by others. Now that the
conforming oneself greater to the theory Encyclical has collected them into one
of evolution to say that humanity did not single panorama, one sees better the
start with a first individual man, but with radical principle from which they proceed,
many men, with thousands of men, namely realitivism accentuated by an
wherever first superior beings sufficiently historicism that sees only the becoming,
evolved could produce with a certain from an existentialism that does not see
concourse of God a human embryo? This the essence of things, but only their
would certainly require, they come to tell existence, and from a wanted «irenicism»,
us, a notable modification of the Council that seems to believe in the reconciliation
of Trent regarding the original sin, but of things contradictory among themselves.
why could the Church not correct herself?
Even this is a clear consequence of II - What does the Encyclical say
relativism. regarding these diverse problems?
It is even maintained that the
supernatural life of the grace granted to It not only puts us on guard against
man is not gratuitous in the sense that it dangerous tendencies, but also condemns
is commonly taught, and that God could many errors, so recognizing the legitimate
not have created man without giving him liberty of the sciences in their proper
a supernatural end, namely eternal life, fields.
the beatific vision. The grace would not be First of all what does it tell us regarding
truly gratuitous as the name makes one to relativism in the philosophical field and
think. God has needed for himself the then in that of dogma? It tells us that «it
granting it to us. falls to reason to demonstrate with
Even the mystery of the Incarnation was certainty the existence of God, personal
proposed by some as a moment of the and one; to prove beyond doubt from
evolution, inasmuch as we say that the divine signs the very foundations of the
souls, even so tied to the senses and to the Christian faith (III, 1). «But reason can
animal life, have needed some of the perform these functions safely and well
influence of the universal Christ, of the only when properly trained, that is, when
cosmic Christ, head of humanity that imbued with that sound philosophy which
preceded by many thousands of years the has long been, as it were, a patrimony
progress of the world. handed down by earlier Christian ages,
Moreover even the new interpretation and which moreover possesses an
of the original sin and of sin in general as authority of an even higher order, since

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the Teaching Authority of the Church, in like St. Thomas did with the Aristotelean
the light of divine revelation itself, has system. But to do this there are two
weighed its fundamental tenets, which necessary things. One would need first of
have been elaborated and defined little by all to have the genius of St. Thomas and
little by men of great genius. For this then he would need that the philosophical
philosophy, acknowledged and accepted systems have a soul. A system that is
by the Church, safeguards the genuine founded entirely on a false principle
validity of human knowledge, the cannot be baptized.
unshakable metaphysical principles of This judgement on the relativism in
sufficient reason, causality, and finality, philosophy is completed by this important
and finally the mind's ability to attain observation (III): «[I]t is one thing to
certain and unchangeable truth». admit the power of the dispositions of the
Among the first principles of reason, St. will in helping reason to gain a more
Thomas with Aristotle (Metaphys., bk. III, certain and firm knowledge of moral
c. 4 ff) elucidates the evidence in need of truths; it is quite another thing to say
the principle of contradiction founded on [viz., "One cannot say...", as in the Italian
the opposition between intelligible and of G.-L.'s version —Tr.], as these
non-intellegible being. St. Thomas innovators do, indiscriminately mingling
constantly says that the intelligible being cognition and act of will, that the
is the first object known by the intellect, appetitive and affective faculties have a
as the colored is the object proper to sight certain power of understanding, and that
and sound is the proper object of hearing. man, since he cannot by using his reason
When the sensible object is presented, decide with certainty what is true and is
while the sight affirms the colored being to be accepted, turns to his will, by which
inasmuch as colored, the intellect affirms he freely chooses among opposite
as being, namely that it is, and that it opinions». One would arrive at, so to say,
opposes itself to nothing. (ibid.) that «[theodicy cannot] prove with
Furthermore against absolute certitude anything about God [...] but
evolutionism it is above all evident and rather to show that [this truth is] perfectly
certain that the more perfect cannot be consistent with the necessities of life» to
produced by the less perfect. One cannot avoid desperation and preserve the hope
imagine a greater absurdity than saying of salvation.
that the intellect of the greatest geniuses In this way the traditional definition of
and the goodness of the major saints truth as conformity of our judgement with
originates from a material and blind extra-mental reality would not be
fatality, or from a confused and senseless preserved, but only as conformity with the
idea, which would be the lowest grade of subjective exigencies of life and action.
intellectual life. So the Encyclical speaks regarding
The principle of causality is the most relativism in philosophy.
certain foundation of the traditional proofs
of the existence of God, and the proofs are ***
likewise objectively founded.
The Encyclical «Humani generis» adds But it is less explicit regarding dogmatic
(III): «[Some] say that this philosophy relativism. Here one reads (II, 2): «It is
upholds the erroneous notion that there evident from what We have already said,
can be a metaphysic that is absolutely that such tentatives not only lead to what
true... [T]hey seem to imply that any kind they call dogmatic relativism, but that
of philosophy or theory, with a few they actually contain it. The contempt of
additions and corrections if need be, can doctrine commonly taught and of the
be reconciled with Catholic dogma. No terms in which it is expressed strongly
Catholic can doubt how false this is». favor it... [T]he things that have been
Sometimes it is said that one needs to composed through common effort by
baptize the modern philosophical systems Catholic teachers over the course of the

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centuries to bring about some certain concourse with God a human
understanding of dogma are certainly not embryo? In other words, can one
based on any such weak foundation. These substitute polygenism with monogenism?
things are based on principles and notions The Encyclical responds (IV): «For the
deduced from a true knowledge of created faithful cannot embrace that opinion
things. In the process of deducing, this which maintains that either after Adam
knowledge, like a star, gave enlightenment there existed on this earth true men who
to the human mind through the Church. did not take their origin through natural
Hence it is not astonishing that some of generation from him as from the first
these notions have not only been used by parent of all, or that Adam represents a
the Ecumenical Councils, but even certain number of first parents. Now it is
sanctioned by them, so that it is wrong to in no way apparent how such an opinion
depart from them. Hence to neglect, or to can be reconciled with what the sources of
reject, or to devalue so many and such revealed truth and the documents of the
great resources which have been Teaching Authority of the Church propose
conceived, expressed and perfected so with regard to original sin, which
often by the age-old work of men endowed proceeds from a sin actually committed by
with no common talent and holiness, an individual Adam and which, through
working under the vigilant supervision of generation, is passed on to all and is in
the holy magisterium and with the light everyone as his own». Regarding this
and leadership of the Holy Ghost in order error, «Some — the Encyclical says above
to state the truths of the faith ever more — also question [...] whether matter and
accurately, to do this so that these things spirit differ essentially».
may be replaced by conjectural notions The Encyclical (IV, end) maintains that
and by some formless and unstable tenets «the first eleven chapters of Genesis,
of a new philosophy, tenets which, like the although properly speaking not
flowers of the field, are in existence today conforming to the historical method used
and die tomorrow; this is supreme by the best Greek and Latin writers or by
imprudence and something that would competent authors of our time, do
make dogma itself a reed shaken by the nevertheless pertain to history in a true
wind. The contempt for terms and notions sense, which however must be further
habitually used by scholastic theologians studied and determined by exegetes; the
leads of itself to the weakening of what same chapters, (the Letter points out), in
they call speculative theology, a discipline simple and metaphorical language
which these men consider devoid of true adapted to the mentality of a people but
certitude because it is based on little cultured, both state the principal
theological reasoning». truths which are fundamental for our
All this clearly shows what the Church salvation, and also give a popular
thinks about relativism in philosophy and description of the origin of the human
also in theology relative to dogma itself. race and the chosen people».
2) - Does one need to preserve the
*** traditional notion of the supernatural and
of the gratuitousness of the elevation of
What does it tell us of the application of man to the life of grace, that it is the seed
relativism to the most discussed questions of eternal life? The Encyclical (II, end)
in these recent times? responds with great precision: «Others
1) What does it say regarding the destroy the gratuity of the supernatural
creation of the first man? - Can one admit order, since God, they say, cannot create
that Adam is not an individual name, but a intellectual beings without ordering and
collective name that does not indicate calling them to the beatific vision». In this
simply the first man, but thousands of first case grace is not strictly gratuitous,
men, wherever some sufficiently evolved though the name itself designates the
primal beings have produced with a gratuitousness. There is no longer nature

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in the true sense of the word, nor preeminent both of teaching students and
therefore supernatural strictly so-called. for bringing truth to light; his doctrine is
3) - What must one think of the in harmony with Divine Revelation, and is
innovations related to the notion of most effective both for safeguarding the
original sin and to the mystery of the foundation of the faith and for reaping,
Redemption? The Encyclical says (ibid.): safely and usefully, the fruits of sound
«Disregarding the Council of Trent, some progress».
pervert the very concept of original sin, All this shows us that the Saviour did
along with the concept of sin in general as not only affirm the fact that God loves
an offense against God, as well as the idea men, but that He taught a doctrine, when
of satisfaction performed for us by he said: «Vos me vocatis magister, et bene
Christ». dicitis, sum etenim» (John, XIII, 13):
4) - What must one finally think of the «Caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem
innovations of some exponents of the new mea non praeteribunt» (Mark, XIII, 31).
theology regarding the Eucharist? The Revelation was given to us per modum
Holy Father responds (ibid.): «Some even magisterii, as word of God, as revealed
say that the doctrine of doctrine about God, his nature, his infinite
transubstantiation, based on an perfections, the free creation, our
antiquated philosophic notion of gratuitous ordination to the supernatural
substance, should be so modified that the end, the beatific vision, and about the
real presence of Christ in the Holy means for attaining it. This teaching of
Eucharist be reduced to a kind of Revelation is the foundation of the
symbolism, whereby the consecrated teachings of the Church which defend the
species would be merely efficacious signs integrity of the faith.
of the spiritual presence of Christ and of
His intimate union with the faithful ***
members of His Mystical Body».
The Council of Trent that has defined What does one need to conclude?
infallibly the transubstantiation speaks in
a manner completely different. First of all that the Encyclical is not
The Pope adds (ibid.): «Some reduce to contented with putting us on guard
a meaningless formula the necessity of against dangerous tendencies, but
belonging to the true Church in order to condemns also some errors, especially
gain eternal salvation». philosophical and dogmatic relativism and
«These and like errors, it is clear — the many of the consequences that derive
Encyclical concludes — have crept in therefrom, particularly the error that
among certain of Our sons who are warps the true notion of the
deceived by imprudent zeal for souls or by gratuitousness of the supernatural and the
false science. To them We are compelled polygenetic hypothesis, which is
with grief to repeat once again truths irreconcilable with the faith.
already well known, and to point out with The Church certainly admits that there
solicitude clear errors and dangers of is a progress in the intelligence of dogma
error.» through always more explicit definitions,
To prescribe the remedy the Holy Father but she defends the immutability of the
(III) recalls that a return to the doctrine of dogma, which is known always more
St. Thomas is needed: «If one considers all explicitly, although remaining always the
this well, he will easily see why the same.
Church demands that future priests be Some have objected regarding
instructed in philosophy "according to the polygenism: It seems that the Church does
method, doctrine, and principles of the not recognize the liberty of science, which
Angelic Doctor," since, as we well know instead is necessary for its progress.
from the experience of centuries, the Instead it is clear the Encyclical
method of Aquinas is singularly recognizes perfectly the legitimate liberty

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of the sciences, when one remains faithful
in his own environment to its certain It is also objected: But the Encyclical
principles and to its method. To convince reminds us, almost as if we had forgotten
oneself of this it is sufficient to read in the it, of the importance of the logical
Encyclical itself the preceding paragraph principles of contradiction and of
regarding polygenism. That paragraph, sufficient reason that almost nobody
about the origin of the body of the first denies.
man, does not reject the hypothesis of The response to this objection is also
evolution, to preserve this, that namely easy. The Encyclical recalls the
God only could have created the spiritual importance of these principles not only as
and immortal soul of the first man, and logical laws of our mind, but also as
that it was a very special intervention of immutable laws of the extra-mental
Providence because in an animal embryo reality. It recalls that their real value,
the superior disposition required by the ontological and transcendent, is absolutely
creation of the human soul appeared. An certain, while instead phenomenalism and
animal of a species inferior to man cannot, especially subjectivism deny it. Through
in fact, through its own virtue, give to the natural intelligence a square circle or a
embryo that from which proceeds a triangular ellipse are not only
superior disposition to that of its species. unimaginable and inconceivable, but also
Otherwise the more would be produced by unfeasible outside the mind.
the less and the more perfect would be To understand the sense and the
produced by the less perfect, and there importance of the Encyclical it would be
would be greater perfection in the effect necessary to reflect one good time
that is not in the cause, contrarily to the seriously and profoundly at what the
principle of causality. Instead of limiting proper object of natural intelligence is,
the liberty of the science, the Encyclical whose object is very superior, is
encourages its progress and invites to immensely superior to that of the external
study closely the errors to see the small and internal senses like the imagination.
part of truth that there may still be and to While the senses perceive only sensible
see where the deviation is precisely found. external and internal phenomena, natural
Sometimes in certain very manifest errors intelligence perceives the intelligible
there is also an indirect proof of the truth being of sensible things and the
that they reject. So Hegelian evolutionism, immutable laws of being and of the extra-
which admits a universal becoming mental reality, whose laws again come
without a superior cause and a God that is deepened by ontology or by general
made and that will not ever be, is a an metaphysics. Now ontology, which has for
indirect proof of the existence of the true its object the extra-mental being, differs
God, because Hegel cannot deny the true essentially from logic, because logic has
God without also denying the real value of for its object beings of reason, that is
the principles of contradiction and of conceivable, but it is unfeasible out of the
causality. Likewise today the universal mind, as for example the laws of the
desperation and nausea to which atheistic syllogism.
existentialism leads are an indirect proof Ontology also differs essentially from
of the value of Christian hope. These the positive and experimental sciences
indirect proofs are precious in their own that study phenomena and their
way. They are like some formulated phenomenological laws.
confessions from the conscience of the They who do not comprehend the
major adversaries, as when Proudon and importance of this Encyclical, confuse
Clemenceau were speaking of the more or less metaphysics with logic: for
grandness of the Church from their little them St. Thomas is not other than a great
fight. logician, and outside of logic they do not
see, as befalls nominalists and positivists,
*** that progress of the postive sciences

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which the Encyclical, they say, retards. In the Pater in the order of Faith, are the
reality the Encyclical recalls the real and most vital, the profoundest and the
absolute value of the first principles of highest truths. But to realize it one needs
natural intelligence, that metaphysics to meditate on it and put it in practice. His
then deepens. Now without these Eminence the Archbishop of Florence
principles every certainty would refers in a pastoral letter, regarding
disappear. religious ignorance, the fact of an Italian
«No being can at the same time exist count who, close to death, heard his wife
and not exist» or also, as one reads in the recite near to him with profound
Gospel: «That which is, is; that which is contemplation the Pater noster, and he
not, is not». It is the fundamental law of told her: «Have you composed yourself,
reality. Therefore the theologians who Countess, this prayer?». She had
doubt the real value of the principle of frequently recited it mechanically, and had
contradiction respond to Kant: «But not yet understood the profound meaning.
maybe Kant can at the same time be Kant The Encyclical reminds us therefore of
and not be him?» the truths of whose profundity we forget.
It was also said that the Encyclical Before criticizing these grand traditional
supposed the philosophy of being, but that doctrines, as Kant, Hegel and their
does not go against those who admit the successors have done, one needs to be
philosophy of the good. well sure of having understood them.
It is easy to respond to that the good If one truly sincerely searches to
supposes the true, otherwise it is not a understand them well, we will be largely
true good, and the true consists in recompensed and will remain marveled of
affirming that which is and denying that the good with which the supreme Pastor
which is not. speaks to us in this Encyclical.
In they who search for the truth and
*** who pray to be illuminated, the well noted
word takes place: «You would not search
The Encyclical «Humani generis» for me, if you have not already found me».
reminds us therefore, as it says, of the The grave and solemn warnings of the
truth well known, the fundamental Magisterium of the Church are given to us
importance of what is today disregarded. in the name of Christ in truth and in
In other words, it recalls what cannot be charity. This truth not only liberates us
ignored, namely the fundamental truths from errors and from doubt, but also
without some of which one completely unities to God the minds, the hearts and
mistakes the path and brings others the wills in the peace of Christ, of which
outside of the truth with the pretense of we have much need in the worldly conflict
illuminating them. It is the unum that is not yet finished. One deigns the
necessarium that is indispensable to the Lord to give it to us through the means of
life of the soul in time and in eternity. Mary Immaculate, for the glory of his
It is forgotten that the most elementary name and for the good of all.
truths, like the principle of causality and
Go back.

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