139. Growth in Habits and Spiritual Forms

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Problem of Transfer Language #

• Growth (augmentum) primarily means addition to pre-existent bodily magnitude
• How can we speak of growth in immaterial things like habits, virtues, and sciences?
• Thomas explains this through connaturality: our understanding is naturally oriented to bodily things that fall under imagination
• All words applied to immaterial things are taken from the continuous and temporal
• Example: “Large discourse” transfers the word “large” (from quantity) to reason’s ability to treat universals

Two Modes of Perfection and Growth in Habits #

Growth According to the Form Itself #

• A form can extend to more objects or conclusions
• Example: Geometry grows when one learns theorems from Euclid Book I through Books II-XIII
• The science itself becomes “greater” in scope
• This is extension of the form, not intensification

Growth According to Participation of the Subject #

• The same habit can be possessed more or less perfectly by a subject
• Example: Two people know the same geometric theorem, but one understands it more clearly and expeditiously
• The form remains identical; the subject participates in it more fully
• This is the primary mode of growth in virtues
• Example: Reading Shakespeare’s sonnets repeatedly—deeper understanding of the same sonnet vs. memorizing more sonnets

The Form-Subject Distinction #

• This distinction does NOT claim forms exist separately from matter/subject
• Rather, it is a distinction in how we consider the same reality
• A form can be considered:
  1. According to the form itself (what it extends to)
  2. According to the subject’s participation (how fully it is possessed)

Four Historical Opinions on Quality and Habit #

1. Plotinus and Platonists: Qualities and habits receive more/less because they are material and have indetermination from matter’s infinity
2. Aristotelians (Simplicius’s reading): Qualities themselves don’t receive more/less; only the qualified things (the concrete particulars, qualia) do
3. Stoics: Some habits receive more/less (arts), others do not (virtues)
4. Others: Immaterial forms don’t receive more/less; only material ones do

The Species-Number Analogy #

• Aristotle: “Species of things are as numbers, in which addition or diminution varies the species”
• Adding or subtracting changes the kind of thing, not the degree
• Example progression: body (1) → living body (2) → animal (3) → man (4)
• Therefore, what defines a species must be fixed, standing, and indivisible
• Whatever deviates from this definition belongs to another species (more or less perfect)
• Consequence: substance, quantity, and figure cannot receive more and less because indivisibility belongs to their very definition

What Cannot Receive More and Less #

Substance #

• One dog is not more or less a dog than another dog
• Substance is being per se (ens per se) and cannot be intensified or remitted
• In the genus of substance, nothing is said according to more and less

Quantity and Figure #

• A line of 10 feet is not more or less 10 feet than another such line
• One circle is not more circular than another circle
• These have indivisibility in their very definition
• When something takes on a form or figure, it “comes to be” (becomes), not becomes altered

Qualities Tied to These #

• Heat and whiteness, when considered absolutely and not as participated in, don’t receive more/less
• But they do receive more/less when considered as participated in by subjects

What Can Receive More and Less #

Qualities Ordered to Something Else #

• Motion: Can be more or less intense while remaining the same species (motion toward the same term/goal)
• Health: Diverse dispositions suitable to an animal’s nature can vary in more/less while remaining health
  • “There is not the same measurement in all, nor in one and the same always”
  • Health receives more and less by this varying participation
• Science: Can be possessed more or less perfectly by a subject while remaining the same science

The Principle of Participation #

• A quality that receives its species from being ordered to something can be diversified in more/less
• Yet it remains the same in species because of the unity of what it is ordered to
• Habits and dispositions do NOT have indivisibility in their definition, so they can receive more/less

Key Arguments #

Objections Against Growth in Habits #

First Objection: Growth pertains to quantity

• Growth (augmentum) is treated in the fifth book of the Physics as pertaining to quantity
• Habits are in the genus of quality, not quantity
• Therefore habits cannot grow

Thomas’s Response: The word “growth” is transferred from bodily quantities to spiritual perfections. Just as “magnitude” is carried over from bodily to intelligible perfections, so “growth” is transferred. The word’s limit is the magnum (the great/perfect).

Second Objection: Perfection implies terminus

• Habit is a perfection
• Perfection implies reaching an end (finis) and a limit
• What reaches its end/limit cannot receive more or less
• Therefore habits cannot grow

Thomas’s Response: Habit is a perfection, but not the kind of perfection that is the terminus of its subject or that gives it specific being. Nor does it include indivisibility in its definition (unlike numbers or figures). Therefore nothing prevents it from receiving more and less.

Third Objection: Habits don’t undergo alteration

• Things that receive more and less undergo alteration
• It is proved in the seventh book of the Physics that habits do not undergo alteration
• Therefore habits cannot increase

Thomas’s Response: Alteration is first found in the sensible qualities (the third species of quality—hot/cold, white/black). In the first species of quality (habit/disposition), there can be alteration only per posterius (consequentially). When there is alteration in sensible qualities, alteration follows in habit. Likewise, alteration in the passions of the sense-desiring power causes alteration in sciences and virtues. But this is a consequential alteration, not the primary form.

Important Definitions #

Augmentum (Growth) #

• Primary meaning: Addition to pre-existent bodily magnitude
• Transferred meaning: Increase in perfection of a form or habit in the intelligible order
• Word derived from bodily quantities by means of connaturalitas (natural affinity) of understanding to bodily things falling under imagination

Perfectio (Perfection) #

• Can be considered in two ways:
  1. According to the form itself (secundum formam ipsam): What the form extends to; its scope or comprehensiveness
  2. According to the subject’s participation (secundum participationem subiecti): How fully the subject possesses and partakes of the form
• Not every perfection is a terminus that gives specific being to a subject

Intensio et Remissio (Intensity and Remission) #

• Intensio: Increase in the degree to which a subject participates in a form
• Remissio: Decrease in the degree of participation
• Occur without change in the form itself or its species
• Characteristic of qualities that are ordered to something else

Indivisibilitas (Indivisibility) #

• A defining characteristic of what constitutes a species
• Species of numbers are indivisible (three cannot be more or less three)
• Figures like triangles and circles are indivisible in their definitions
• Habits and dispositions do NOT have indivisibility in their definition, which is why they can receive more/less

Ratio (Reason/Definition) #

• Often translated as “reason why” but more precisely understood as pertaining to the thing itself, not merely our mind
• “The reason what something is” (ratio quid est) is more on the side of the thing than on the side of our understanding
• Distinguished from the mere definition, which exists in the mind

Qualia (Qualified Things) #

• The concrete particulars that participate in a quality
• Distinguished from the quality itself
• Qualia can be said to be more or less even when the quality itself cannot

Examples & Illustrations #

Geometry and Science #

• Extension of form: Knowing theorems 1-48 of Euclid Book I vs. knowing theorems across Books I-XIII
  • The science itself is “greater” in the first sense
  • But a person might understand Book I theorems better than Books II-XIII
• Participation: Two students both knowing the Pythagorean theorem
  • One understands it more clearly and can demonstrate it more readily
  • One penetrates it more and sees how it fits with other theorems
  • Same science, different degrees of possession

Shakespeare’s Sonnets #

• Extension: Memorizing 20 sonnets vs. 5 sonnets = greater extension of knowledge in terms of breadth
• Participation: Understanding 5 sonnets more deeply through repeated reading = greater intensity of participation
• Berquist’s experience: had first 20 sonnets memorized, now forgotten them; has memorized a few, understands them better through use and contemplation
• Both are real forms of growth but in different senses

Large Discourse #

• First meaning (closer to quantity): Discourse about the universal; covers many things
  • Universal is said of many things; some universals are said of infinite things
  • Socrates in Parmenides wrongly pictures universal like a blanket spread over things
  • But the universal covers differently than a blanket; the whole is said of each thing
• Second meaning (more properly perfection): Discourse about great things
  • “Small talk” talks about unimportant and insignificant things
  • “Large discourse” treats great things: the soul, human happiness, God, the cosmos
  • The largest discourse: About God, since God is the greatest thing
  • Cosmology: Very large discourse because cosmos includes everything and is ordered to God
  • Einstein pursued cosmology to understand the cosmos as a whole (1905 special relativity, 1915 general relativity)

Alexander the Great and Empire #

• Distinction between extending empire (adding territory) and stabilizing it (deepening control)
• Alexander wept because there were no more worlds to conquer
• Hitler expanded rapidly (Czechoslovakia, France) but made mistake of invading Russia
• Should have consolidated gains, developed more firmly what he had
• Parallel to habits: extending knowledge by learning new theorems vs. deepening understanding of ones already known

Shrewsbury Houses #

• Berquist’s example of observing houses in Shrewsbury
• Some houses are very small (like “boxes”)
• New houses much larger
• Distinction between quantity (physical size) and quality (what makes something large in a non-quantitative sense)

Health #

• Diverse dispositions of a body can be suitable to an animal’s nature
• Some dispositions more perfect, others less perfect
• All remain within the notion of health
• Health itself receives more and less according to these diverse dispositions
• Measurement of health varies: “there is not the same measurement in all, nor in one and the same always”
• A body can be slightly unwell and still be in health up to some point

Understanding through Repetition #

• Reading the same theorem in Euclid repeatedly: begin to understand it better
• See how theorems fit together better
• Reading Summa Contra Gentiles, then Summa Theologiae, then Disputed Questions on same topic
• Each approach slightly different context, helps understand better
• Professor explaining same thing differently: yields deeper understanding

Notable Quotes #

“All our kind of thoughts that we have, the words that we have, applied to these immaterial things, are taken from the continuous and time.” — Thomas Aquinas, quoted by Berquist, explaining the principle of connaturality

“Species of things are as numbers, in which addition or diminution varies the species.” — Aristotle, Metaphysics VIII, quoted by Aquinas

“In things which are great, but not in quantity, to be greater is the same as to be better.” — Augustine, quoted by Aquinas

“What is worth saying can be said more than once.” — Pedicles (quoted by Berquist)

Questions Addressed #

Q1: Can habits grow at all? #

• Objection: Growth is about quantity; habits are qualities; therefore no growth
• Answer: Yes, but growth in habits is transferred language. Habits grow in perfection, not in bodily magnitude. The word is carried over from bodily to intelligible things by means of our natural affinity to bodily things.

Q2: In what ways can habits grow? #

• Answer: Two primary ways:
  1. According to the form itself: Extension to more objects or conclusions (learning more theorems)
  2. According to participation of the subject: Understanding the same thing more deeply and fully (grasping a theorem more clearly)

Q3: Why is growth in habits different from bodily growth? #

• Answer: Bodily growth involves addition of matter/parts. Growth in immaterial habits involves intensity of participation in the same form, not addition of new forms. The subject comes to participate more fully in a form that was already present.

Q4: Why can habits receive more and less but substances cannot? #

• Answer: Substance is being per se and gives specific being to the subject. Habits do not. Moreover, substances and figures have indivisibility in their very definition (what makes them what they are), while habits do not. Therefore habits can be intensified or remitted.

Q5: What is the role of “being ordered to” something in determining whether a quality can receive more/less? #

• Answer: Qualities that receive their species from being ordered to something (like health being ordered to the animal’s nature, or science being ordered to knowing) can be diversified in more/less while remaining the same in species. The unity of what they are ordered to preserves their species despite variation in participation.

Q6: How does alteration relate to growth in habits? #

• Answer: Alteration is first found in sensible qualities (hot/cold, white/black). Growth in habits does not involve alteration in this primary sense. However, alteration in sensible qualities can consequentially cause alteration in health and virtue. But the growth in the virtue or habit itself is not alteration but intensification of participation.