153. The Soul's Self-Knowledge Through Acts, Not Essence

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• The Soul’s Knowledge of Itself: Whether the human soul knows itself through its own essence or through its acts
• Act and Potency in Knowledge: The principle that each thing is knowable according as it is in act, not in potency
• Two Modes of Self-Knowledge: Particular knowledge (knowing one has an understanding soul) versus universal knowledge (knowing the nature of the soul)
• The Human Soul as Pure Potency: The soul in the order of understandable things is like prime matter in the sensible order
• Comparison with God and Angels: How the human soul’s self-knowledge differs fundamentally from angelic and divine self-knowledge
• The Brain-Thought Connection: Clarifying that interference with the brain affects thinking through the object (imagination), not necessarily as the organ of thought

Key Arguments #

The Principle of Actuality and Knowability #

• From Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book 9: Each thing is knowable according as it is in act, not according as it is in ability/potency
• Application to Ability: We know an ability only through the act for which it is an ability. If someone is not walking, we cannot know they have the ability to walk
• Application to the Soul: The human soul, in its essence, exists as pure potency in the order of understandable things (intellectus possibilis)
• Consequence: The soul cannot know itself through its own essence because it is not yet actualized; it must know itself through its actualized acts

Two Distinct Modes of Self-Knowledge #

First Mode: Particular Knowledge

• An individual (e.g., Socrates) perceives that he has an understanding soul from the fact that he perceives himself to understand
• This knowledge is immediate and does not require investigation
• It comes through the presence and activity of the soul itself

Second Mode: Universal Knowledge

• Understanding the nature of the human mind/soul itself
• Requires diligent and subtle investigation
• Moves from knowledge of the act (understanding) to knowledge of the nature of the understanding
• Most people know the first mode but remain ignorant of the second

The Soul’s Actualization Through Forms from Sensible Things #

• The soul is connatural to turning toward material and sensible things
• The proper object of human reason is “what it is” of something sensible or imaginable
• Forms are abstracted from sensible things by the agent intellect (intellectus agens)
• Through these forms, the possible intellect (intellectus possibilis) is actualized
• The soul comes to know itself through this actualization

Comparison with Angels and God #

• God: Pure act; knows himself through his essence and through knowing himself understands all things
• Angels: Their essence is act in the order of understandable things; know themselves through their essence, but require additional forms to know other things
• Human Soul: Exists as pure potency; knows itself through acts, not through essence; depends on forms abstracted from sensible things

Important Definitions #

• Actus (Act): The realization or actualization of a thing; what makes something knowable. Things are knowable insofar as they are in act
• Potentia (Potency/Ability): The capacity or ability to be or become; by itself, unknowable. Known only through the act it produces
• Intellectus Possibilis (Possible Intellect): The human understanding considered in its essence; exists as pure potency in the order of understandable things; analogous to prime matter (materia prima) in the sensible order
• Intellectus Agens (Agent Intellect): The active power of the human mind that abstracts intelligible forms from sensible things
• Sapientia (Wisdom): In this lecture’s context, Lady Wisdom in Boethius who comes to console him and leads him in dialogue

Examples & Illustrations #

The Exhortation “Know Thyself” #

• The seven wise men of Greece had this inscribed at the oracle at Delphi
• It addresses one who can know himself but doesn’t—not to angels or beasts
• Addressed specially to the soul (not just the body) and most specially to reason itself
• Requires movement from knowing that one has a soul to knowing what the soul is

The Mother at the Door #

• One may not know who is knocking at the door, even if it is one’s mother
• This does not mean one doesn’t know one’s mother
• Illustrates the distinction between knowing something simply (knowing one’s mother) and knowing it in a particular respect (as the person knocking)
• Similarly, one can know every man universally without knowing every particular man

The Brain and Thinking #

• Interference with the brain (through injury, alcohol, drugs) interferes with thinking
• This shows a connection but does not prove the brain is the organ of thought
• Analogy: One sees the blackness of robes; if robes leave the room, seeing the blackness is interfered with. But interference is on the side of the object, not the organ of sight
• The object of understanding is the “what it is” (quidditas) of something sensed or imagined
• Damage to the brain affects the imagination (the source of intelligible forms), not the understanding itself
• By separate philosophical argument, we can show the understanding is immaterial; therefore brain interference must affect the object side

Descartes’s Error Regarding Clarity and Distinctness #

• Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”
• He is very certain of thinking but mistakes this for clear and distinct knowledge of what thinking is
• The confused (indistinct) is more known to us than the distinct (Aristotle)
• Being certain of something does not guarantee clear and distinct knowledge of its nature
• Descartes’s reasoning is a weak third-figure enthymeme, not a strong logical argument
• Mathematics appears clearer and more distinct, but this does not mean clarity and distinctness guarantee truth

Scientific Idealization and Clarity #

• Louis de Broglie: “Nothing is more misleading than a clear and distinct idea”
• Scientists achieve clarity and distinction through idealization—rounding off data to fit equations
• Idealization moves away from reality into imagination (e.g., the law of inertia describes a body in the absence of external forces, which never exists in experience)
• Heisenberg: Scientists must “force the facts” to make science possible, but this involves losing immediate connection with reality

Measuring Walls and Precision #

• Two walls; one is obviously longer than the other
• We are more certain that one is longer than that it is exactly 7 feet 3 inches longer
• The more precise we become, the less certain we are
• Even with measurement, different instruments may give slightly different results
• The confused (indistinct) knowledge is more certain than the distinct (precise) knowledge

Notable Quotes #

“Each thing is knowable according as it is an act and not according as it is an ability.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book 9)

“The confused is more known to us than the distinct.” (Aristotle, Physics)

“Know thyself.” (The seven wise men of Greece, inscribed at the Oracle at Delphi—addressed to one who can know himself but doesn’t)

“The understanding understands itself just as it understands other things. The other things it does not understand through their essences or natures but through their likenesses. Therefore, neither does it understand itself to its own essence or nature.” (Aristotle, On the Soul, Book 3)

“Nothing is more misleading than a clear and distinct idea.” (Louis de Broglie, French physicist)

Questions Addressed #

Does the Soul Know Itself Through Its Own Essence? #

Objections Raised:

1. Augustine says the mind knows itself to itself because it is bodiless
2. The angel and human soul are both intellectual substances; the angel knows itself through its nature, so the soul should too
3. In immaterial things, the understanding and what is understood are the same

Thomas’s Resolution:

• God knows himself through his essence (pure act)
• Angels know themselves through their essence (their essence is act in the intelligible order)
• The human soul knows itself through its acts, not its essence, because the soul exists as pure potency in the intelligible order
• The soul becomes actualized through forms abstracted from sensible things by the agent intellect
• Therefore, the soul knows itself according as it comes to be in act through these forms
• The soul has the power (ability) to understand, but knows itself through the act of understanding

Why Is the Brain Connected to Thinking If the Understanding Is Immaterial? #

• The brain is involved in imagination and sense perception, which provide the material for the understanding to work with
• Damage to the brain interferes with the imagination and sensory powers, which are the source of intelligible forms
• This interference affects thinking on the side of the object (the forms that must be abstracted), not on the side of the organ
• The understanding itself remains immaterial and non-physical
• By philosophical analysis of what the understanding is, we can understand why the brain’s role is instrumental rather than as the organ of thought itself