154. Self-Knowledge of the Soul and Habits Through Acts

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Two Modes of Self-Knowledge #

• First knowledge (cognitio prima): Knowing that one has an intellectual faculty through the immediate presence of the faculty itself and its acts
  • Example: A child knows he has understanding because he perceives himself thinking
  • Requires only the presence of the faculty; no investigation needed
• Second knowledge (cognitio secunda): Knowing the nature, essence, or character of a faculty through diligent investigation
  • Requires examining the acts characteristic of the faculty
  • Ascertaining what distinguishes this faculty from others
  • Example: Understanding that intellect is immaterial, universal, and not dependent on bodily organs

The Principle of Actuality in Knowledge #

• Each thing is knowable insofar as it is in act, not insofar as it is in potency
• The human intellect is potency (ability) in the intelligible order, like prime matter in the sensible order
• Contrast with God (pure act) and angels (act in the intelligible order)
• Because the human intellect is potential, it cannot know itself through its essence but only through its acts

Knowledge of Habits #

• Habits occupy a middle position between pure potency and pure act
• A habit is known first through its presence and the acts it produces
  • One knows one has acquired a habit by observing oneself performing the characteristic act
  • Example: Knowing one has the habit of playing piano by observing oneself play
• A habit is known secondly through careful investigation of the nature of the act
  • This requires analysis: What kind of stable disposition enables this act?
  • Why does repeated practice produce this capacity?

Knowledge of Faith as a Case Study #

• One knows one has faith through perceiving oneself to believe
• This is not through exterior signs (someone genuflecting) but through the interior act of the heart’s assent
• The firmness of one’s assent to Church teaching—truths not evident to natural reason—testifies to possessing faith
• By contrast, one cannot know with certainty that one has charity (supernatural love), only conjecture it

The Problem of Different Orders #

• The principle “that to which one more so” (id cui magis inest) applies only when things are in the same order
• Habits are NOT objects of knowledge but principles by which we know
• Objects known (like premises and conclusions) are in the intelligible order itself
• Therefore, the principle does not apply to habits as it does to premises and conclusions
• Confusion of orders leads to fallacious application of the principle

Key Arguments #

Against Augustine’s Apparent Claim That the Soul Knows Itself Through Its Essence #

• Objection (from Augustine): The soul is not corporeal; therefore it should know itself through itself, as angels know themselves
• Response:
  • Being immaterial is necessary but not sufficient for knowing through one’s essence
  • Only what is pure act (God) or act-in-the-intelligible-order (angels) can know itself through its essence
  • The human intellect is potency in the intelligible order; it must be actualized
  • Therefore, it knows itself through its acts, which actualize it

Against Confusing Habits with Objects of Knowledge #

• Objection: Habits are present in the soul; external things require likenesses; therefore habits should be known through themselves
• Response:
  • Habits are present in the understanding NOT as objects of understanding but as principles by which understanding understands
  • The proper object of human understanding is “the what-it-is of something sensed or imagined”
  • Habits can become objects of investigation, but only through careful analysis of their acts
  • Confusing these roles leads to misapplying the principle that causes are “more so” than effects

Misapplication of “That to Which One More So” #

• Principle correctly stated: When the same property belongs to two things, but to one of them because of the other, it belongs more to the cause
  • Sugar and coffee are both sweet, but coffee is sweet because of sugar; therefore sugar is more sweet
  • Health and medicine are both desirable, but medicine is desirable because of health; therefore health is more desirable
• Misapplication in the objection: Claiming that since external things are known through likenesses present in the soul, and habits are present in the soul, therefore habits should be “more known” than external things
• Correction: The principle applies only when both terms are in the same order
  • In the order of objects of knowledge: premises are more known than conclusions
  • In the order of efficient causes: the mover is more a mover than the moved
  • Habits are in the order of principles of knowing, not in the order of objects known
  • Therefore the principle does not apply to them in the way the objection claims

Important Definitions #

Habitus (Habit) #

• A stable dispositional quality that enables a power to act characteristically
• Intermediate between pure potency and pure act
• Known through the acts it produces, not through direct intuition
• Examples: habit of playing piano, habit of speaking English, virtue of faith

Intelligibilia (Intelligible Things) #

• Things known through understanding
• In humans, always abstracted from sensible images
• Distinguished from sensibles (known through sense) and imaginables (known through imagination)

Cognitio (Knowledge) - Two kinds #

• Cognitio prima: Knowledge of the fact that something is present
• Cognitio secunda: Knowledge of the nature of what is present, obtained through investigation (diligentia et subtilis inquisitio)

Quidditas (What-it-is / Essence) #

• The defining nature of a thing
• The proper object of human understanding in this life: the quidditas of sensible things

Examples & Illustrations #

Knowing One’s Own Soul Through Its Acts #

• A child perceives himself to think, therefore he knows he has an intellectual soul
• But he does not yet know what understanding is
• Through investigation: examining what understanding does that imagination does not (grasps universals), how it differs from sensation, why brain injury interferes with thinking
• Concludes: understanding must be immaterial, non-corporeal, not a brain function

The Habit of Playing Piano #

• First knowledge: “I have this habit” — known by observing oneself play
• Second knowledge: What is this habit? It is a stable disposition acquired through repeated practice; it enables fluent execution; it differs from mere ability (potency) and from the act itself; it persists even when not in use

Preserving Einstein’s Brain #

• Scientists hoping to find the source of genius in his brain tissue
• Berquist uses this to illustrate the modern error of confusing the material condition (brain, images) with the immaterial principle (understanding)
• The brain is necessary for understanding in this life (it produces images) but is not the understanding itself

The Sweetness Principle #

• Sugar and coffee are both sweet
• Coffee is sweet because of the sugar in it
• Therefore sugar is more sweet than coffee
• Applied to other cases: health more desirable than medicine; premises more known than conclusions; efficient cause more a mover than what it moves

Faith vs. Charity #

• One can know with certitude that one has faith: one perceives the firmness of one’s assent to revealed truths
• One cannot know with certitude that one has charity: one’s acts of love of neighbor might stem from natural affection or social obligation rather than supernatural charity
• This shows the principle applies precisely to how different habits are manifested in acts

Notable Quotes #

“For having the first knowledge about the mind, it suffices the very presence of the mind, which is the source of the act of which the mind perceives itself. But for the second knowledge about the mind, it does not suffice its presence, but there is required a diligent and subtle investigation.”

“The soul is more where it loves than where it animates” (anima est magis ubi amat quam ubi animat) — Augustine, used to illustrate that presence and actuality differ

“Each thing is knowable except insofar as it is an act” — Aristotle’s principle that grounds the entire discussion

“The mind knows itself through itself because finally it arrives at a knowledge of itself, although through its act; it is not knowing itself through itself as if it itself was the form by which it understands itself.”

“When reason knows itself, then it begins to love itself” — illustrating the procession of the Word and the Holy Spirit as an image of the Trinity in human knowing

Questions Addressed #

How does the human soul come to know itself? #

• Answer: Through its acts. First, one knows one has a soul by perceiving oneself think, feel, will. Second, one investigates the nature of the soul by examining what these acts reveal (immateriality, universality, etc.). The soul does not know itself through its essence as God and angels do, because it is pure potency, not pure act.

How does one know one has a habit like faith? #

• Answer: Through the presence of the habit and the act it produces. One knows one has faith by perceiving oneself to believe firmly in truths not evident to reason. But knowing what faith is requires investigation of its nature through examining its characteristic acts.

Why does misapplying “that to which one more so” lead to error? #

• Answer: Because one must keep things in the same order. The principle holds for objects all in the order of what is known (premises more known than conclusions), or all in the order of causes (efficient cause more a mover than the moved). But habits are not in the order of objects known; they are in the order of principles of knowing. Therefore the principle does not apply to them the way the objection claims.

How can habits be present in the soul and yet not be objects of knowledge? #

• Answer: A habit can be present in the understanding as that by which the understanding understands without being what the understanding understands. The habit is the active principle; the object is what the power grasps. The object of human understanding is always “the what-it-is of something sensed or imagined,” not the habit itself.

Connections to Previous Doctrine #

• Extends the principle established earlier: “Each thing is knowable insofar as it is in act” to the problem of self-knowledge
• The proper object of human understanding (“the what-it-is of something sensed or imagined”) grounds why even self-knowledge must proceed through acts and investigation
• Explains why injury to the brain interferes with understanding: the brain is the source of images, which are the object of understanding, not the intellect itself
• Illuminates the ordo cognoscendi (order of knowing): objects → acts → powers → essence of soul