75. Opposites, Non-Being, and the Analogy of Truth

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Opposites and Their Types #

• Contradictories: Being and non-being; they have nothing in common (e.g., something and nothing)
• Contraries: True and false; both exist as statements but with opposed meanings
• Privation: Bad understood as lack; fundamentally different from simple negation
  • Primary meaning of “bad”: blindness (a lack)
  • Secondary: something that has the lack
  • Tertiary: something that causes the lack

Non-Being, Privation, and Being of Reason #

• Non-being (nihil), non-being (privatio), and privation do not have being from themselves
• They have being only in the apprehension of the understanding (ens rationis)
• Example: Blindness is not truly something; it is the non-being of sight
• Problem: Can reason truly grasp what is not? Yes, but only through the mind’s act of understanding making it “something”

Becoming and Motion as Attenuated Being #

• Becoming/motion does not fully exist; it exists in time, and time does not exist all at once
• Motion exists “in a time,” never all together
• Thus becoming has a diminished mode of being compared to substance

The Fallacy of the Accident (Sophism of the Accident) #

• Critical distinction between what is per se (essential) and per accidens (accidental)
• Example: “You only know what’s in your mind” is true, but it is accidental to the definition of what you know
• The definition of square is not “equilateral, right-angled quadrilateral in my mind” but simply “equilateral, right-angled quadrilateral”
• This fallacy is pervasive in modern philosophy and even deceives the wise (Aristotle’s teaching)
• Application: God is not the cause of fornication itself, though fornication may occur; the cause is accidental to the act

Making (Poiesis) and Self-Perfection #

• Marx’s claim: Man is perfected through making/production; the maker transforms himself
• Counterargument: Making as such perfects the thing made, not the maker
• Accidental perfection of the maker: A carpenter may learn through complex work, but this is accidental to making
• The Greeks and medievals held that man is perfected through understanding and loving God (not making)
• Understanding and loving are activities that perfect the understander/lover, not the understood/loved
• Christ as the Teacher: Did not learn through teaching, yet was a perfect teacher; proves learning is accidental to teaching
• Distinction: Teaching as such perfects the student; learning on the teacher’s part happens “most of the time” but remains accidental

Article 6: Is There Only One Truth? #

The Question #

Whether all things are true by one truth (divine truth) or whether multiple truths exist.

Arguments For One Truth Only #

• Augustine: Nothing greater than the human mind except God; truth is greater than mind; therefore only God is truth
• Anselm: As time is to temporal things, so truth is to true things; one time for all temporal things; therefore one truth for all true things

Arguments Against (Psalm 11) #

• “Truths are diminished from the sons of men”
• The broken mirror analogy: One face produces many likenesses in broken mirrors, suggesting multiple created truths

Thomas’s Resolution: Analogical Predication #

• Univocal predication: One term with identical meaning applied to multiple things (e.g., “animal” said of dog and cat)
• Analogical predication: A term with different but related meanings, primary to one, derivative in others
  • Example: “Healthy” said of:
    • Animal (possessing health)
    • Medicine (causing health)
    • Urine (signifying health)
  • In each case, health itself exists only in the animal; medicine and urine relate to it differently

Two Perspectives on Truth #

1. Truth insofar as it exists in understanding (secundum suum proprium rationem):

   • Many truths in many created minds
   • Even in one mind: “The whole is greater than the part,” “Nothing is before or after itself,” etc.
   • These are many truths corresponding to many known things

2. Truth insofar as it exists in things (in rebus):

   • All things are true by one first truth (divine understanding)
   • Each thing is assimilated to divine truth according to its being
   • Multiple essences/natures of things, but one divine truth to which all correspond

The Mirror Analogy #

“Just as from the one face of man results many likenesses in the mirror, so from the one divine truth results many truths in the created minds.”

• Created truths are diminishings (diminutiones) of the divine truth
• They participate in divine truth but are many because they exist in many minds

Judgment by Truth #

• The soul does not judge all things by just any truth, but by the first truth
• The first truth results in the soul “as in a mirror” (cf. Paul: “we see in a mirror darkly”)
• Created truth is greater than the soul not simply (simpliciter) but in some respect (secundum quid)—as a perfection of the soul
• Nothing subsisting except God is greater than human reason

Divine and Created Truth in Dialogue #

• When two persons judge by truth between themselves, they do not see it merely in one mind or the other
• Rather, they see it through an impression (imago) of the first truth in their minds
• Example in geometry: Judging “the whole is greater than the part” involves seeing this through the divine light but through natural reason, not beatific vision
• St. John (Prologue): “This is the light that enlightens every man coming into the world”—participation in divine light through natural reason
• Not numerically one in us and in God (St. Bonaventure’s point about intuition)
• Rather: an effect of the divine light, not the divine light itself

Resolution of Anselm’s Argument #

• Anselm’s analogy (time to temporal things as truth to true things) holds if understood as:
  • Truth according as things are said to be true in comparison to divine understanding
  • All things are true by one truth: the divine truth itself, simple and unique
  • But if truth is considered as it exists in minds, there are many truths, these many being diminishings of the divine

Key Arguments #

The Structure of Opposites #

• Lack and having are posed as contraries (knowledge vs. mistake)
• Before knowledge comes: ignorance (not-knowing) and mistake (false knowing)
• Not all ignorant are mistaken; not all mistaken lack virtue
• Augustine: Better to remain ignorant on presumptuous matters than to become mistaken by judging
• Example from ethics: Before acquiring virtue, one necessarily lacks it; but lacking virtue is not identical to possessing vice

Why Becoming and Motion Exist Despite Non-Full Being #

• Becoming is a being (ens) in diminished sense
• If becoming does not exist, then things that come to be would be impossible
• Yet becoming does not possess full simultaneity; it exists only “in time”
• Thus it has less being than substance but more being than pure non-being or privation

The Problem of Causation and Accidents #

• God is the cause of fornication insofar as fornication is an act of will
• But the evil character (the “fornication as such”) is accidental to the act
• One must not confuse the cause of the act with the cause of the evil in the act
• This confusion (fallacy of the accident) seizes even the wise

Why Truth is Analogical, Not Univocal #

• If truth were univocal, it would have identical meaning in God and creatures
• But divine truth is eternal, unchangeable, and constitutive of all being
• Created truth is in temporal minds and is a participation in divine truth
• The meanings are not identical; hence analogical predication is appropriate

Why One Divine Truth Produces Many Created Truths #

• Many created understandings exist (finite minds)
• Each created understanding contains truths according to the things it knows
• The divine understanding is one and simple, yet all created truths trace back to it
• Analogy: One face, when reflected in broken mirrors, produces many images—not numerically one image but many related images

Important Definitions #

Ens Rationis (Being of Reason) #

Something that has being only in the mind, not in external reality. Examples: non-being (nihil), privation (like blindness), certain relations. These “have being” only insofar as reason grasps them, not in themselves.

Privatio (Privation) #

The absence of a quality that a subject is naturally apt to possess. Distinguished from mere non-being or negation. Example: blindness in a seeing creature is privation; but a cup is not blind because it is not apt to see.

Per Accidens (Accidental) #

What happens to belong to something but is not essential to its definition. Critical for avoiding sophistic reasoning. Example: A carpenter may learn through making, but learning is accidental to the act of making as such.

Analogia (Analogical Predication) #

Predication by analogy: A term is said of multiple things with related but not identical meanings, with one meaning primary and others derivative. Example: “healthy” applies to animal, medicine, and urine in fundamentally different ways, all related to health in the animal as primary.

Univocatio (Univocal Predication) #

Predication by univocity: A term with identical meaning applied to multiple things. Example: “animal” said of dog, cat, and horse—the meaning is the same in all cases.

Examples & Illustrations #

The Mirror Analogy #

“From one face of a man results many likenesses in a mirror; so from one divine truth results many truths in created minds.” When a mirror breaks into pieces, each piece reflects the same face but in a fragmented way. This illustrates how multiple created minds, though finite and limited, all participate in the one eternal divine truth.

Health (Analogical Predication) #

• Medicine is called healthy because it produces health in the animal
• Urine is called healthy because it signifies the health of the animal
• The animal is healthy because it possesses health
• In each case, “healthy” means something different, but all relate to health in the animal as the primary meaning

Political Philosophy #

• Fundamental meaning: polis (city-state)
• Secondary meanings: government (rules the polis), revolution (change of government)
• Why discuss government and revolution in political philosophy? Because they are connected to the polis
• Similarly, with being: substance is primary; accidents, becoming, and privation are discussed because connected to substance

The Carpenter #

• A skilled carpenter working on interesting projects may learn and develop through his work
• A McDonald’s hamburger maker doing identical work repeatedly may not learn anything
• Learning by the maker is accidental to making; it is the understanding of the subject matter that perfects the person, not the making itself
• When making is complex and novel, learning usually accompanies it, but this is not essential to making

The Teacher #

• Christ, the perfect teacher, did not learn anything through teaching
• This proves that learning is not essential to teaching
• Teachers often learn what they teach, but this is accidental to teaching as such
• Teaching as such perfects the student; the teacher’s self-perfection is incidental
• To confuse the accidental with the essential here leads to saying “if you’re not learning, you’re not teaching”—false

Judging in Geometry #

“When I judge that the whole is greater than the part, I am not seeing this in God’s mind as if in a beatific vision. Rather, this truth in my mind—that the whole is greater than the part—is a result of the divine mind. I see it through a light that is a partaking of the divine light, an effect of the divine light.”

Notable Quotes #

“Unless I want to be mistaken, [I prefer to remain] ignorant.” — Augustine, on presumptuous judging

“It’s interesting to see [that] these opposites…are not opposed in the same way.” — Berquist, on the variety of oppositional structures

“The primary meaning of bad…is blindness. And what is blindness? It’s really a lack.” — Berquist on the nature of evil as privation

“You can’t get something from nothing.” — Aristotle, quoted by Berquist on the being of non-being

“None-being and privation do not have exibs [esse, being] from themselves, but only from the grasping of the understanding.” — Thomas Aquinas (cited by Berquist)

“Does the understanding understand something by the word nothing? There’s nothing there. This can only be known if reason makes it out to be something.” — Berquist

“Just as from the one face of man results many likenesses in the mirror, so from the one divine truth results many truths in the created minds.” — Berquist, the mirror analogy

“The soul does not judge about all things according to just any truth, but according to the first truth, insofar as it results in it as in a mirror.” — Thomas Aquinas (cited by Berquist)

“You’re really stretching the word [something] when you say ‘Is becoming something? Is blindness something?’” — Berquist on attenuated being

“That’s a fallacy that, in a sense, Plato’s making when he identifies matter with lack of form. Or Jean-Paul Sartre’s when he identifies our freedom with non-being.” — Berquist on common philosophical errors

“It belongs to teaching as such to perfect the student, but not the teacher. It belongs to the maker to perfect the chair…not to perfect the maker himself.” — Berquist

Questions Addressed #

Q: Are ignorance and mistake the same thing? #

A: No. Ignorance is the mere absence of knowledge; mistake is false knowledge (believing something false to be true). Not all ignorant are mistaken; not all mistaken lack virtue. Augustine shows it is sometimes better to remain ignorant than to risk becoming mistaken.

Q: How can becoming and motion have being if they don’t exist all at once? #

A: Becoming has a diminished mode of being. It exists “in time,” and time itself does not exist all together (past and future cannot coexist). Thus becoming is a being (ens) in an attenuated sense—more than privation but less than substance.

Q: Does God cause evil/sin/fornication? #

A: God causes the act insofar as it is an act of will. But the evil character (the privation) is accidental to the act. One commits the fallacy of the accident if one concludes that because God causes the act, God causes the evil in the act.

Q: Is the maker perfected by making? #

A: Making as such perfects the thing made, not the maker. If the maker learns through making (e.g., a skilled carpenter), this learning is accidental to the act of making. It happens most of the time with complex work but is not essential to making. Christ as perfect teacher did not learn by teaching, proving learning is not essential to teaching.

Q: Is there only one truth, or are there many truths? #

A: In one sense, there is one truth by which all things are true: the divine truth to which all things conform according to their being. In another sense, there are many truths insofar as truth exists in the understanding, and there are many created minds, each containing truths about the things it knows. The divine truth is primary and simple; created truths are many, limited, and participate in the divine truth like images in broken mirrors.

Q: When we dialogue and judge something to be true by truth, whose mind are we seeing it in? #

A: Neither solely in mine nor solely in yours. Rather, both judge by the first truth as it results in both minds as an imprint or impression. We do not see it in God’s mind as if in beatific vision, but we see it through natural reason, which is a participation in the divine light. In a more precise sense, we see it through a light that is an effect of the divine light.

Q: How does Anselm’s analogy (time to temporal things as truth to true things) work if there are multiple truths? #

A: Anselm’s statement is true if understood as applying to divine truth: all things are true by one truth in comparison to the divine understanding. But if one considers truth as it exists in created minds, there are many truths. These many truths are “diminishings” (diminutiones) of the one divine truth.

Philosophical Distinctions Emphasized #

Simply (Simpliciter) vs. In Some Respect (Secundum Quid) #

• Created truth is greater than the human soul in some respect (as a perfection of it), not simply
• This distinction prevents conflating accidental properties with essential ones

Essential (Per Se) vs. Accidental (Per Accidens) #

• Learning is per accidens to teaching; teaching as such perfects the student
• Making is per se a perfection of the thing made; self-perfection of the maker is per accidens
• Avoiding this distinction leads to sophistry and false reasoning

Primary vs. Derivative Meaning #

• In analogical predication, one meaning is primary; others derive from it
• Health primarily means the state of the animal; medicine is healthy insofar as it causes this state
• Being primarily means substance; accidents are beings insofar as they exist in substance

Univocal vs. Analogical Predication #

• Univocal: identical meaning in all instances (“animal” said of dog and cat)
• Analogical: related but distinct meanings, with one primary (“healthy” said of animal, medicine, urine)
• Truth is predicated analogically of God and creatures, not univocally