155. The Order of Knowledge and Self-Knowledge in the Human Mind

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Order of Knowledge in Human Understanding #

• The human intellect knows in a specific order: objects first, then acts, then powers
• First object known: the “what it is” (quiddity) of material/sensible things
• Secondary knowledge: the act by which the object is known (reflection on understanding)
• Tertiary knowledge: the understanding itself as a power/ability
• This order is foundational and cannot be reversed

Being and Truth as the Common Object of Understanding #

• The object of understanding is something very general: being (ens) and truth (verum)
• This common object encompasses even the act of understanding itself
• Critical distinction: Being and truth are first understood concretely in material things, not abstractly as universal being
• The mind must ascend from particular material beings to universal being through investigation
• This contrasts with how angels grasp being universally from creation
• Bad Thomists conflate being as first understood with being as the subject of metaphysics—this is an error

The Principle: Quod unum quod quae ilud magis #

• “When the same property belongs to two things, but to one because of the other, it belongs more to the cause”
• Critical application: This principle only applies when things are in the same order
• Examples of correct application:
  • Sugar is sweeter than sweetened coffee (sweetness belongs to sugar, to coffee because of sugar)
  • Health is more desirable than medicine (both are desirable, but medicine is desirable for the sake of health)
  • In a syllogism: premises are more known than conclusions (both are known, but conclusion is known through premises)
  • The engine is more a mover than the wagons it pulls (both move, but wagons move because moved by engine)
• Incorrect application: Habits are NOT in the order of objects known; they are that by which we know
  • We know geometric theorems through knowing premises, NOT through knowing what the habit of geometry is
  • Therefore, the principle does not apply to the relationship between habit and knowledge

Knowledge of One’s Own Act of Understanding #

• The act of understanding is the last perfection of the intellect (ultimum in potentia)
• Unlike making (ποιεῖν/facere), which perfects the thing made, understanding remains in the one understanding as its perfection
• Making is essentially a perfecting of the thing made, not the maker; therefore, man’s highest end cannot be making
• Understanding perfects the one understanding; therefore, man’s highest end is an act of understanding
• Three levels of intellectual being know their acts differently:
  • God: Knows His own act of understanding through His essence (pure act; no composition between essence and act)
  • Angels: Their first object is their own nature; they know their own substance and its perfection (their act of understanding) by one and the same act
  • Humans: Neither their own essence nor their own act is their first object; they know acts through reflection

How Humans Know Their Own Acts #

• When I understand what a triangle is, I do not simultaneously understand my understanding of it
• My understanding is not a perfection of the triangle itself, so it is not known by the same act that knows the triangle
• A second act is required to know that I understand
• This second act of reflection does not cause infinite regress because:
  • The first act (understanding a triangle) is not the perfection of what is understood
  • The second act (understanding that I understand) is a different act of a different order
  • The intellect is in potency regarding its own acts, so it can come to know them without infinite regress
• Augustine anticipated this: “I understand myself to understand” (Intelligo me intelligere)

The Connection Between Self-Knowledge and Self-Ruling #

• Anaxagoras said the mind (νοῦς/nous) is infinite and self-ruling (αὐτοκράτης/autocrates)
• The infinity of the mind is not spatial but in its objects—it is not limited to color (like the eye) or sound (like the ear)
• The mind knows being and truth, including the difference between something and nothing
• Self-ruling requires self-knowing; there is a necessary connection between being infinite in knowledge and being self-ruling

Key Arguments #

Against Knowing Through Essence Alone #

• Objection: The mind knows itself through its own essence (as angels do)
• Response: The human understanding is pure potency regarding intelligible things (like prime matter in the sensible order)
• Only what is in act is knowable; the human mind must come to act through abstraction from sensible things
• Therefore, the mind knows itself through its acts, not through its essence

Why Habits Are Known Through Acts #

• Objection: Habits are present in the soul; why not know them directly?
• Response: Habits are intermediate between pure potency and perfect act
• Only what is in act is knowable; habits fall short of perfect actualization
• Therefore, habits must be known through their acts
• Example: We know someone has the habit of playing piano by observing them play

Against Infinite Regress in Self-Reflection #

• Objection: If understanding knows its own act by another act, and that act by another act, this regresses infinitely, which is impossible
• Response: There is no infinite regress because:
  • The act of understanding a triangle is not the perfection of the triangle
  • The act of understanding that I understand a triangle is a different act not in the same order of perfection
  • The intellect can know itself without the impossibility of infinite regress

Important Definitions #

Key Terms #

• Quiddity (τί ἐστι/ti esti, quod quid erat esse): The “what it is” of a thing; the essence or nature
• Act (ἐνέργεια/energeia, actus): The realization or actualization of a power; what makes something knowable
• Potency (δύναμις/dynamis, potentia): The capacity to be or to act; not knowable in itself, only through its acts
• Habit (ἕξις/hexis, habitus): A stable disposition that enables a power to act
• Intelligible species (species intelligibilis): The immaterial form by which the intellect understands

The Proper Object of Human Understanding #

• The “what it is” of something sensible or imaginable
• Being and truth considered in material things (not abstract being)
• The reason children cannot understand reason itself: they use reason before they understand what reason is

Examples & Illustrations #

Triangle vs. Cube Knowledge #

• You can know what a triangle is without knowing what a cube is
• But you cannot know what a cube is without knowing what a square is
• These show an order among objects known; some require knowledge of others
• By contrast, knowing what a triangle is does nothing for knowing what tragedy is

Geometry Lessons with Children #

• Children learn geometric theorems through knowing premises and axioms
• They use their ability to understand (their reason) to grasp geometry
• They do NOT know geometry by understanding what the habit of geometry is as an object
• The habit is that by which they know, not what they know
• Even kindergarteners who learn to identify a circle, triangle, and square are using their mind, though not yet understanding what reason itself is

The Pole Pushing Someone Off a Cliff #

• I push someone off a cliff using a pole
• The pole moves the person, but only because I move the pole
• Both the pole and I are movers, but I am more truly the mover
• The pole is a mover only because it is moved by me
• This illustrates that the principle applies across all sciences

The Train Engine and Wagons #

• One wagon pulls another wagon
• But the wagon pulls only because it is moved by the engine
• The engine is more a mover than the wagons
• The wagons move only insofar as they are moved (quantum moventur)

Little Children with Shapes #

• A kindergartener is shown a paper with a circle, triangle, and square
• The child is told: “This is a circle. This is a square.”
• The child is using their mind to some extent
• But not as an object known—not through understanding what the mind is
• This shows the distinction between using an ability and knowing that ability as an object

The Infinity of the Mind #

• When Anaxagoras says the mind is infinite, he does not mean it is spatially infinite like air
• The mind is the thinnest of things (subtlest)
• It is infinite in its objects: it can know universal statements
• Example: “No odd number is even” covers an infinity of things
• The mind grasps this universal truth about infinitely many odd numbers

Notable Quotes #

“Each thing is knowable according as it is an act and not according as it is an ability.” — Aristotle, Metaphysics IX (via Thomas)

“I understand myself to understand.” — Augustine, On the Trinity X

“Know thyself.” — The Seven Wise Men of Greece (discussed as addressed to one who can know himself but doesn’t)

“Being and truth considered in material things” — Thomas Aquinas (the proper first object of human understanding)

“The object of the understanding is something very common, namely being and truth, under which is comprehended also the very act of understanding.” — Thomas Aquinas (on how the act of understanding can be known)

Questions Addressed #

How does the human mind know itself? #

• Not through its essence (like angels), but through its acts
• First: by experiencing that one understands (immediate self-presence)
• Second: by investigating the nature of understanding through its acts (discursive knowledge)
• A second act of understanding is required; this is not infinite regress

What is the order of knowledge? #

• Objects → Acts → Powers
• The child knows what a triangle is before knowing that he understands what a triangle is
• The child knows that he understands before understanding that he has the ability to understand
• The child understands the ability to understand before knowing that his soul is not entirely immersed in matter

Why doesn’t knowing through habit violate the principle ‘quod unum quod quae ilud magis’? #

• The principle only applies within the same order (ordo)
• Habit is not in the order of objects known; it is that by which we know
• Therefore, the principle does not apply; we do not know conclusions through knowing what the habit is

Can knowledge of an object and knowledge of understanding the object be had simultaneously? #

• No, at least not in the way angels know
• When I understand what a triangle is, my understanding is not a perfection of the triangle
• Therefore, it is not known by the same act that knows the triangle
• A separate act of reflection is required
• This is not infinite regress; it is the proper order of human knowledge

How do we rise above material thinking to understand immaterial things? #

• We must ascend from the particular to the universal (a particulari ad universale)
• Being and truth are initially grasped in material things
• Through investigation and proof of immaterial substances (God, angels), the mind comes to separate being from body
• We understand immaterial realities through analogical extension from sensible realities
• This requires negation: God is not a body, not limited in time, etc.