26. Man's Attainment of Beatitude and Its Degrees

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Article 1: Whether Man Can Attain Beatitude #

• The Central Problem: The objection claims a hierarchy of natures—sensible, rational, intellectual—where lower natures cannot achieve the ends of higher natures. If brute animals cannot reach rational ends, how can rational man achieve intellectual beatitude?
• Thomas’s Solution: Man is capable of the perfect good because his understanding can grasp the universal and perfect good, and his will can desire it.
• Natural Desire Argument: Man’s natural desire for perfect happiness cannot be in vain; this desire indicates man’s ordering toward beatitude.
• The Vision Argument: Man is capable of seeing God’s essence (divine substance), which is the perfection constituting beatitude.
• Difference in Mode of Attainment: While man cannot transcend angels by nature, he can transcend them through understanding something above the angels (God himself). Man achieves beatitude through discourse over time, whereas angels grasp truth immediately.

Article 2: Whether One Person Can Be More Blessed Than Another #

• The Paradox of Equality and Inequality: If beatitude is the perfect and sufficient good, how can degrees of beatitude exist?
• Thomas’s Resolution: The object of beatitude (God) is the same for all, but the degree of enjoyment and possession differs among individuals.
• Basis for Diversity: Differences in disposition, charity, and virtue among the blessed account for different degrees of enjoyment of the same object.
• Scripture and Beatitude: Two biblical images illustrate this: “many mansions” (diverse degrees) and the parable of equal wages (equal object), both describing heavenly beatitude.

Article 3: Whether Beatitude Can Be Had in This Life #

• Imperfect Beatitude: Some imperfect beatitude consisting in the operation of virtue (especially contemplative virtue) can be achieved in this life.
• Perfect Beatitude: Impossible in this life because:
  • Every evil cannot be excluded (ignorance, disordered desires, bodily suffering)
  • Desire cannot be fully satisfied (all earthly goods are transitory)
  • The vision of God’s essence is impossible in the present life
• The Solon Principle: One should not be called happy until death, since earthly conditions are subject to change and loss.

The Language Question: Understanding vs. Reason #

• Angelic Knowledge: Angels possess intelligentia (understanding)—immediate grasp of truth without discourse.
• Human Knowledge: Man possesses ratio (reason)—discursive knowledge proceeding from one thing to another over time.
• Naming by Imperfection: Human reason is sometimes called intellectus umbratus (overshadowed understanding) because it imperfectly participates in the angelic mode of knowing.
• How the Imperfect Gets a New Name: When a name becomes equivocal by reason, the thing possessing the perfection fully retains the common name, while what possesses it imperfectly receives a new name.

Key Arguments #

On Man’s Capability for Beatitude #

• Argument from Natural Desire: Every natural desire tends toward a real end that can be achieved. Man naturally desires the perfect good. Therefore, man can achieve beatitude.
• Argument from Intellectual Capacity: Man’s understanding can grasp universal and perfect good; his will can desire it. What the intellect and will can grasp and desire, man is naturally ordered to achieve.
• Argument from Divine Wisdom: God has given man intellect and will precisely for grasping and desiring the perfect good. These faculties would be in vain if beatitude were impossible.
• Plato’s Argument from Imperfect Things: We judge imperfect earthly happiness to fall short of true happiness. This judgment presupposes knowledge of perfect happiness not derived from imperfect earthly things. Similarly, we recognize equality in imperfect things only because we have knowledge of equality itself.

On Degrees of Beatitude #

• The Single Object: All the blessed enjoy God, the highest good; the object is numerically one and identical for all.
• The Diverse Enjoyment: Yet one person can enjoy this same object more perfectly than another based on disposition and virtue.
• The Analogy of Sense: Two people hearing the same Mozart piece enjoy the same object but with different degrees of perfection based on their capacity and disposition.

On the Mode of Attainment #

• The Difference Between Rational and Intellectual Natures:
  • Intellectual nature (angels) transcends rational nature as regards the way of knowing the same understandable truth, not as regards the object.
  • Rational nature knows through investigation and reasoning (discourse).
  • Intellectual nature grasps truth immediately (“stopped him at once”).
• Therefore: Man, though he has a lower nature than angels, can achieve the same end (beatitude) but through a different path—through discourse extended over time rather than immediate intuition.
• The Sensible Nature Cannot Transcend: The sensible nature cannot achieve even the rational end, not even through discourse, because sense has no access to the universal.

Important Definitions #

Beatitude (Beatitudo) #

• The obtaining and enjoyment of the perfect good.
• In this life: operation of virtue, especially contemplative virtue (imperfect).
• In the next life: vision of God’s essence (perfect).

Ratio (Reason) #

• Human mode of knowing characterized by discourse—proceeding from one thing to another.
• Also called reasoning or discursive reasoning.
• Involves investigation (inquisitio) and motion from one truth to another.

Intelligentia (Understanding) #

• Angelic mode of knowing characterized by immediate grasp of truth.
• Knowing “all at once” without the process of reasoning.
• The term is sometimes withheld from human knowing, which is called ratio instead.

Intellectus umbratus (Overshadowed Understanding) #

• The human intellect or understanding insofar as it possesses understanding imperfectly, in a manner “overshadowed” or obscured by its need for discourse.
• Indicates that human reason participates imperfectly in the angelic mode of understanding.

Examples & Illustrations #

The Plato Example on Equality and Knowledge #

• Socrates argues that we cannot derive the idea of perfect equality from imperfect, near-equal things.
• Two pages examined under a microscope are not truly equal, yet we judge them as approaching equality.
• This judgment presupposes knowledge of equality not derived from the imperfect instances.
• Application to Beatitude: Similarly, we judge earthly happiness to be imperfect and insufficient. This judgment requires knowledge of perfect happiness not derived from imperfect earthly instances.

Lafayette and the Washington Statue #

• When Lafayette returned to America after Washington’s death, he could judge the accuracy of various statues.
• Upon seeing a particular statue in Virginia, he could say it truly represented Washington because he had direct knowledge of Washington.
• Application: This shows how imperfect images/instances are judged by reference to a perfect standard already known.

The Discourse Example #

• A student cannot state the Pythagorean theorem, let alone prove it, showing imperfect understanding through reason.
• This illustrates how human ratio differs from angelic intelligentia—reason must work through reasoning, investigation, and time to come to understanding.

The Journal of Animal Ethics Example #

• A contemporary journal argues animals should not be called beasts, as this reflects badly on them.
• This illustrates how people can confuse or misapply equivocal terms, not seeing the real differences in natures.
• Context: Used to show that even well-intentioned attempts can miss genuine distinctions between natures.

The Time Example #

• Man is “the animal that has a sense of time”—his life is spread out in time.
• Most of his life is past (and thus in a sense dead), and much is future (not yet alive).
• Only a small portion exists in the present moment.
• Application: This illustrates why man’s attainment of beatitude must come through a process extended in time, unlike the eternal, immediate vision of angels.

Questions Addressed #

Q1: Can Man Attain Beatitude? #

• Objection: The hierarchy of natures suggests man cannot transcend his rational nature to achieve intellectual beatitude.
• Answer: Yes. Man can attain beatitude because his understanding can grasp the universal and perfect good, and his will can desire it. Man achieves beatitude not by transcending his nature, but through the fullest operation of his rational nature in union with God.
• Key Point: Man’s mode of attainment differs from angels’—he arrives through discourse over time rather than immediate intuition, but the end (beatitude) is the same.

Q2: Can One Person Be More Blessed Than Another? #

• Objection: If beatitude is the perfect and sufficient good, there can be no degrees of it.
• Answer: The object of beatitude (God) is the same for all, but individuals can enjoy it with different degrees of perfection based on their disposition and virtue. Inequality lies in the possession and enjoyment, not in the object itself.

Q3: Can Beatitude Be Had in This Life? #

• Answer: Only imperfectly. Perfect beatitude (vision of God’s essence) is impossible in this life because:
  • Evils cannot all be excluded.
  • Desires cannot be fully satisfied.
  • The vision of God requires separation of the soul from bodily conditions.
• Imperfect beatitude in this life consists in the operation of virtue, especially contemplative virtue.

Q4: What About the Objection That Man’s Nature Is Below Angels? #

• Answer: While man’s nature is lower than angels’ as regards possessing understanding immediately, man can transcend angels through the operation of his understanding when he understands something above the angels—namely, God himself, which beatifies man. The difference is in the mode (immediate vs. discursive), not in the ultimate end or man’s capability to achieve it.