2. The Premium Structure and Excellence of Knowledge of the Soul

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Structure of Aristotelian Treatises #

• Almost all of Aristotle’s works follow a two-part structure: the premium (proem) and the tractatus (main body)
• The premium prepares the mind and establishes: the scopus (target/goal), the desirability of the inquiry, the order of procedure, and the difficulties encountered
• The tractatus is the drawn-out main body of the work
• This structure is analogous to a prologue and play (e.g., Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet)
• Thomas Aquinas’s commentary on the De Anima provides an exemplary premium with three parts: (1) what we’re aiming at and its desirability, (2) the order of consideration, and (3) the difficulties involved

Etymology and Related Terms #

• Premium comes from the Greek meaning “paving the way”
• Introduction (from Latin) means “a leading into”
• Isagogi (Greek) means introduction; Porphyry’s Isagoge introduces the categories and fundamental logical concepts
• Prologus (Latin) is similar to premium, often used for foreword

The Two Criteria for Excellence of Knowledge #

One knowledge is better than another in two ways:

1. By the object known: It is better to know a better, more wonderful thing
2. By certitude: It is better to know something more perfectly, with greater assurance

Which criterion is more important? Thomas Aquinas teaches (citing Aristotle’s Parts of Animals I) that what is known pertains to the very substance of knowledge, while how it is known pertains more to the quality of knowledge. Therefore, knowing a better thing is simply and essentially better, while knowing something better is only better “in some respect” (secundum quid).

Illustration: A glimpse of those we love is better than a long view of someone we don’t love. Homer in a good English translation is better than most works in their native language, though reading Homer in the original Greek would be best.

The Soul as the Best Object of Knowledge #

• The soul is the best thing in the material world to know
• We have greater certitude about our own soul than about external things
• Life (as self-motion) is more known to us from inward experience than from outward experience
• The characteristic notion of life is not mere motion, but self-motion—motion whose cause is within
• We experience the soul directly through hunger, anger, thirst, and other internal movements
• This direct inward experience gives us more certainty than observing external motions

Knowledge vs. Love: A Critical Contrast #

• Knowledge: All knowledge as such is good and honorable, including knowledge of the bad. Knowledge of virtue and vice is a single knowledge. Why? Because knowledge is in the mind according to the character of the mind, not the character of the thing.
• Love: Love of the good is good; love of the bad is bad. Love tends toward the thing as it is in itself, not as it is in the mind.
• This distinction shows that knowledge is reflective/abstract while love is tendential/directional.

The Procedure of Natural Science and Preparation for Wisdom #

• Natural science proceeds rationally: from sensible things more known to us toward intelligible things more known by nature
• The study of the De Anima (along with the eight books of natural hearing) depends entirely on common experience
• These two parts of natural science are closest to wisdom because they are most universal and move toward the immaterial (the unmoved mover and the rational soul)
• From these universal natural studies, one can more easily ascend to metaphysics than from specialized experimental sciences, because the method and way of proceeding in universal natural science prepares the mind for wisdom’s mode of consideration

Key Arguments #

Why Knowledge as Such is Good #

• Knowledge perfects the knower’s ability to know
• All knowledge, including knowledge of contraries, is a single act of perfection
• Examples: ethics knows both virtue and vice; logic knows both correct and incorrect reasoning; medicine knows both health and sickness
• Even knowledge of the bad is knowledge as such—the badness pertains to the user’s will, not to the knowledge itself

Why the Soul is the Supreme Object of Study #

• The soul is the principle of life in living bodies
• All agree on this definition; they disagree about what the soul is
• The existence of the soul is manifest from common experience (some bodies are alive, others are not)
• The nature of the soul requires investigation through its operations
• We have immediate, inward certainty of our own soul through experience of being alive
• Knowledge of the soul is better than knowledge of inanimate objects simply speaking, even if we know inanimate objects with greater precision

How We Know the Soul #

• The proper order of knowing is: objects → acts → powers → soul
• We know the soul indirectly through its operations
• Example: We know color before seeing; seeing before the power of sight; the power of sight before the soul itself
• This mediated knowledge is proper because the soul has no operation entirely separate from bodily organs (except understanding)

Important Definitions #

• Premium (proem): An introductory section establishing the scopus, desirability, order of procedure, and difficulties of an inquiry
• Scopus: The target or goal of an inquiry; the most essential element of a premium
• Tractatus: The main body of a work following the premium; from Latin trahere (to draw out)
• Soul (ψυχή/anima): The first cause of life within living bodies; the principle by which a body is alive
• Life: Not mere motion, but self-motion—motion whose cause is within the thing itself
• Introduction (introductio): A leading into; preparation for engagement with a subject matter
• Isagogi (Εἰσαγωγή): Greek for introduction; specifically, Porphyry’s introduction to logical thinking and the Categories

Examples & Illustrations #

Knowledge of Better Objects #

• It is better to see a sunset than to see garbage
• It is better to hear Mozart than to hear noise
• It is better to taste good wine than poor wine
• Even imperfect knowledge of Homer is better than perfect knowledge of most modern authors

The Difference Between Inward and Outward Knowledge of Life #

• From outward experience, life is most known in plants (they grow visibly)
• From inward experience, life is most known in ourselves (we experience ourselves moving ourselves)
• Then animals are intermediate
• Modern biologists, starting with the cell, begin where life is least known from inward experience and become puzzled about whether we are one living thing or a congregation
• Everyone has the inward experience of being one whole self (“I give a lecture”; “we go to dinner”—not experienced as a collection of separate consciousnesses)

Love vs. Knowledge Contrasted #

• A telephone conversation with someone we love, even with poor communication, is more important than a long conversation with someone we don’t care about
• Reading a poor performance of Mozart perfectly is still worse than hearing Mozart imperfectly on a machine
• These show that the object of love matters intrinsically (love of the good is good; love of the bad is bad), whereas knowledge can be knowledge of either good or bad and still be good knowledge

Notable Quotes #

“All knowledge as such is good and honorable” (Aristotle, De Anima premium)

“A glimpse of those we love is better than a long view of some we don’t love” (Aristotle, Parts of Animals I, cited by Thomas Aquinas)

“Wine rejoices the heart of man” (Scripture). “Good wine rejoices the heart of man” (French improvement on Scripture)

“The concepts of natural language, vaguely defined as they are, have a greater stability…than the precise terms of science. More stability means more certainty.” (Heisenberg, Gifford Lectures)

“In wisdom, you go towards the immaterial…the less material to the more immaterial. Here, you’re doing the reverse. You’re going down towards matter.” (Berquist, summarizing distinction between metaphysics and natural science)

Questions Addressed #

Question: Which criterion for excellence of knowledge is more important—the object or the certitude? #

Answer: The object is more important. What is known pertains to the substance of knowledge itself, while how it is known pertains only to its quality. Therefore, it is better to know a better thing imperfectly than to know a lesser thing perfectly.

Question: Is all knowledge good, even knowledge of bad things? #

Answer: Yes. Knowledge as such is a perfection of the knower’s ability to know. Knowledge of the bad is still good knowledge because knowledge is in the mind according to the character of the mind. The badness lies in the user’s will (intending to misuse the knowledge), not in the knowledge itself.

Question: What is the difference between knowing and loving? #

Answer: Knowledge relates to things as they exist in the mind; love relates to things as they are in themselves. Therefore, love of the bad is bad (tending toward what is bad in itself), but knowledge of the bad is good knowledge.

Question: Is life more known to us from inward or outward experience? #

Answer: Life as such—understood as self-motion rather than mere motion—is more known from inward experience. We directly experience ourselves moving ourselves through hunger, anger, and other internal causes. Outward observation gives us certainty of motion but not necessarily of self-motion or life.