Wisdom (Metaphysics 2016)
Lecture 5: The Preamble to Aristotle's Metaphysics: Knowledge, Wonder, and Wisdom

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had been, what, praised as being great cities, right, like Sparta and so on, and he saw, what, defects in these cities, right, and he pointed out those defects, right, and he says something about, you know, it was not simply to put forward himself or seek praise, you know, in considering what the best city is, but there really were difficulties about the cities that had been proposed or the cities that had been praised, right, the existing cities, right, right, the same thing he's doing, right, in the rest of book one, right, in other words, given the excellence of wisdom, right, that exceeds all the knowledge, right, the most honorable knowledge there is, right, why should he pursue this most honorable knowledge if other men have already arrived at it, right, if other men have already arrived at wisdom, then the reasonable thing to do would be to, what, learn from them, right, it's only if they have not, you know, arrived at the goal of wisdom, right, is there something insufficient what they said about causes that you must undertake your, what, your own investigation, right, and so he recalls what all his predecessors have said and why they said it, right, and shows something of the insufficiency of what they said, right, and then he's got a reasonable reason, right, yeah, yeah, to continue the investigation, and in the second book, right, Thomas Sinek speaks he said one place there is the second premium, but he's going to talk about, you know, the way of proceeding, you know, must be fit the matter and so on now, what you're talking about and so on, but he's also going to talk there about how you're dependent upon other men, right, both those of whom you've got some part of the truth, even those you disagree with, because you developed your own thinking and, you know, arguing against what you thought was defective in their things, right, you know, it's such a different thing from what you thought the modern philosophers, right, you know, they start off, you know, saying just the opposite of what the ancients said, right, what Aristotle might have said, without recalling what Aristotle said, hardly, without alone recalling the reasons he gave and not, you know, showing the insufficiency of those reasons, you know, it's kind of a pride, you know, I started to read, there's John of Avila there, you know, he's talking about, I got to the point there where he's talking about the devil, right, and the devil in pride and how he encouraged us, you know, in the same way that he went, that seems to describe the modern philosophers, huh, it's amazing how Ray Thomas will recall the opinions of, you know, men who are kind of, gone astray, but you call it the same way that he said it, and then, you know, refute the position and refute the arguments, you know, you know, it's a very, very ethereal thing, right? It's kind of, it's kind of, yeah, yeah. The utility in most of contemporary philosophy, and I ask that because I had been interested in anthropology and I was hearing about the best graduate programs were all focused within cultural anthropology on abstract theory, which, and it didn't have to have any real application to real life humans, which are supposed to be studying anthropology, and there was a very low level on the hierarchy of anthropology programs, a study of anthropology called applied anthropology, which was applying the theory to practice, to reality, to try to solve problems, but that was not highly regarded at all, so it seemed to me that the whole practice of anthropology, there was no real utility to it, and I'm wondering about, with philosophy, so much of the moderns, what's the point of it? Is there any benefit that it gives the human race, aside from 10 years of certain individuals and departments? Well, Aristotle's Nicomache in ethics, and he talks about the useless here of ethics, right? Yeah, and a man who doesn't want to live in the Corinth of the reason, right, is a useless here of ethics, right? He's going to find what's reasonable, right? And then he talks about two different, and the others who have a defect of lack of experience, right, talk about such things, right? The young, right? You can be, you know, not suitable here for either the lack of experience or because you don't have the intention of living in accordance with reason. So in the second book, it's kind of a short book, you know, much shorter, but he would start to talk about the road, you know, to follow and so on, and how man is towards knowing the truth, right? How one man depends upon other men, right? And the investigation of truth and so on. And then he gets to the third book, right, huh? And then he gives the reason why you have to proceed dialectically before you pledge in the truth, right? He gives all the beautiful reasons. And then he has, in book three, a universal dialectic about all the problems of wisdom really. And Thomas points out that for the reasons he gives to doing dialectic, right? This is the reason why in all of his books, right, Aristotle has some dialectic. And, but what's unique in metaphysics is you have a kind of universal dialectic, huh? Well, in the other parts of philosophy, Aristotle will have a particular dialectic and then he'll solve and establish some part of the truth, and then he'll go on to another part, you know. But here he has a kind of universal one, right? Because the fact that the wise man has to see the things, you know, all things in some way. It's kind of interesting. And then in the fourth book that we find out what the subject of wisdom is. That's being in one, right? In the fourth book we find out that the subject of wisdom is being in one. We manifest that. Then we find out that being in one and these other things that are spoken of are all equivocal, right? Then the whole fifth book is devoted to what? The senses of the words used. And these are the words used both, most of all in the axioms, right? And most of all in wisdom because of its universality, right? There's a whole book devoted to that, right? The commentary. I mean, the other people, you know, philosophical dictionaries are called. That's so stupid, you know. But Aristotle will, you know, distinguish the central senses of these words, right? And think out their order, you know. I was thinking here, you know, just go back now to the text we had today, recalling there. You know, this order of sensing, memory, experience, the standing reversal. Well, what would you say about the order of sensing and memory, just to take that, right? In time, yeah. Now what about the second sense of before? A sense without a memory, you cannot sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now what's the third sense? Yeah, third sense is, yeah, so you're talking about the order in our knowledge, right? Okay, sensing comes before memory, right? Okay. Now which is better, sensing a memory? I'm glad to say memory because it's moved from senses. Okay. It's more universal than sense, actually. Now, don't you like to see your friend face-to-face, you know? It's interesting to use that way of expressing the vision, right? Seeing God face-to-face. And, you know, I'm down here seeing my grandchildren, right? I like these pictures of them, you know. And I kind of remember them, you know. But it's nice to see them face-to-face, isn't it? It's nice to see your friend face-to-face. So you're sure that memory is better? So I can go home now and play a CD of Mozart, right, and get the music. And I can kind of remember the music a bit, you know. But is remembering the music as good as hearing it, right? Is even a CD as good as having the orchestra right there, you know? Nothing like that. It's definitely comparable. You know? Or just, you know, seeing the beautiful sunset, you know. I told you I was down in Virginia one time. And I went down there on spring break and reading and kind of an outdoor restaurant kind of thing. And the sky, I've never seen the sky like that. You know, like it folds of red all the way up the sky, you know. And I said, I said, I said to the waitress, I said, hey! She kind of looked like I was crazy, you know. I've never seen it like that, John. I suspect that the sun and the sun sets are more striking than the air. It's like, here, you know. I remember one time in Quebec, you know, and they're in Quebec, the boardwalk there, you know. And there was a, it was after rain, and there was a, you know, a rainbow, you know. And, oh, oh, oh, yeah, that reminds me of what Socrates says about one day. He says, it's not a bad genealogy, the man who said that the rainbow was the offspring of Thalmas. Yeah, and so I said, what does Socrates mean by that? Why is, it had a good genealogy to say that the father or the parent of the rainbow is wonder. Well, the rainbow unites, what, heaven and earth, right? See, so wonder leads us to pursue the cause, right? The embrace of the cause, so it unites heaven and earth, right? It isn't, you know, we have it in the Old Testament there, after the flood, right? And there's a reconciliation between man and God there. And does he point to the rainbow as a, what? A sign. Yeah, yeah. But why is a rainbow a good sign of that, right? It's a heaven and earth, yeah. And in a different way, philosophy, right, the investigation of causes, right? Unites heaven and earth, right? It's kind of beautiful, beautiful things. It's not going to be sooth, right? But I don't know if anybody sees it like I see it, you know? It'd be a profound thing, you know? It wasn't a bad genealogy, he said. But whoever, you know, it was a Hesseyad, I think, maybe someone, you know, said that wonder is the rainbow, you know? You know, I remember this rainbow, because the boardwalk was open, you know, you had the St. Lawrence there and so on. It's like, you never really see that rainbow, so we were all kind of struck. It's like after dinner, you know, you know, it came out, it had rain or something, and this rainbow was there, you know? Isn't that better than, you know? I remember of it now, it was a crater to be there in the boardwalk, you know, and see that, isn't it, it's a scene? In the Caribbean, I, right after the rainstorm, I saw the most brilliant rainbow I've ever seen, it's astonishing, and it seemed to come down very close to where I was, so I was laughing as I hit it, but I ran over and I see it, and it kept on receding, but it was a, yeah, well, there's gold at the end of it, too, you know, they say, you know, because of all of it, so, now, if you take memory and experience, right, memory is before experience and time, right, and can memory be without, what, experience, but can experience be without memory? No. So, in those two senses, right, and in the third sense, which is the order in I knowing, right, which you, now, what about the fourth sense, which is better, memory or experience? Yeah, in terms of knowledge, yeah, it's an advantage, right? And now, can experience be without a knowledge of the universal? It comes before a knowledge of the universal, right, and it can be without it, right, okay? But, you know, again, the knowledge of the universal, then you start to know also, maybe, why, too, right, and then you have superiority in knowledge, right, you know, so you can see that, you know, oh, so much of this bringing, you know, about the order there, the natural order, the natural road is a road from the senses into reason, because man is nano, then it has reason, right? I was curious, one that seemed to be different, in the sense and memory, in terms of being better, the others all seem to be, yeah, well, you see, you see, one knowledge is better than another, because it's about a better thing, or because it's more certain, right, and the senses are more, what, yeah, yeah, and so they say after an accident, right, and you get the, people make their statement right away, so to speak, and two weeks later, they're going to have much, it's going to be more and more divergent, the longer, you know, they go, right, because memory is not as certain as sensation, right, or your thing, or what? We, um, hmm? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. God, our enlightenment, help us, God, to know and love you. Guardian angels, strengthen the lights of our minds, order our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. St. Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor, help us to understand what you've written. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. So you never know when your angel's helping you, you know. Sometimes I get this idea, I gotta go read that text, you read that text, you know. There's something in that text, nice, was in need of, you know. And you say, how did that happen, you know. I suppose my guardian angel is laughing at me, right. My first great teacher there, Kassaric, said, you know, the angel watching you make a decision is like you watching an angleworm make a decision. You want to connect this premium of Aristotle on wisdom. with the definition of reason, right. Because wisdom is the highest perfection of reason, right. And therefore, we've looked, I think, at that text from Thomas there, the Kranium to the Nicomachean Ethics, where he refers back to what Aristotle says here, that it belongs to the wise man to order things. And he says the reason for this is because it's proper to reason to know order, right. We know it from Shakespeare's definition, too, of reason is the ability for a large discourse looking before and after, right. But I think this gives you a little hint, you know, that what is most magnificent in the way of the analogy of reason, right, is characterized by what is characteristic of what reason, huh. I take the example, I say, you know, what woman stands out most of all, who is the most excellent woman? Well, it's Mary, right, and you say in the prayer there, Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, right. Well, why is she called the Mother of Mercy, but not the Mother of Justice, right? Well, she's a woman, right? She is the woman, right, in Pono Vosia. Yeah, and the woman is characterized more by mercy than by, what, justice, yeah. Yeah, and a more just, you know. But not as merciful, right? So there's all kinds of examples of that, right? So what is in the definition of reason should help us to understand wisdom, because that's the highest perfection of reason. But what we see as characterizing wisdom should, in some ways, reflect back upon the nature of that, right? Okay, okay. Now, who is the first guy in the history of philosophy to really talk about something like the divine mind, huh? A mind that is, huh? Well, I'll preach to Christ, one of the ones at the end of an age. Yeah, yeah, Anaxagoras, right? Comes very late among the early philosophers. And Anaxagoras said, you know, that matter is all a mix-up, you know? And then this greater mind began to, what, separate things, right? That's the first thing that we say about the mind, huh? It separates things. And then it began to, what, order these things, right? And so I was thinking about that, and I went back in my text there and see what the Greek text was, right? And the Greek word for order there, of course, is the one that has something, it's taken from the same word as cosmos, right? Which means order in Greek, right? And so he's, seeing reason is characterized by distinguishing and then seeing the order of what it's distinguished or making the order of what's distinguished. And that's said, what, that's a good confirmation of what Shakespeare said in his definition. Well, I have a bad habit of hanging around these bookshops, you know, and picking up odd editions of Shakespeare right now. And these go back years and things. This is a Shakespeare's Hamlet, right? And it's edited by William J. Rolfe, you know, who does very thorough things. This one here, and actually, sometimes you'll find a little bit of writing, you know, for whoever owned the book in the past. And this guy, Mr. Woodward, huh? Shakespeare Class, February 19, 1896. 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he has very good notes, you know? So, I find out odd facts I didn't know, you know. Act 4, scene 4, right? Where'd he have the definition? We've got to go to the notes here, there. See what he has in the notes. Hmm, note 36 here, huh? Such large discourse, etc. Now, he quotes two things, right? One from Samuel Johnson, who edited one of the famous editions of Shakespeare, right? And one from, what, Theobald, right? One from Theobald is the one that I really find interesting. Theobald, you know, was another editor of Shakespeare, right? He didn't like Alexander Pope's edition, and so he sat down to set it right. And Theobald, you know, is famous for the most famous emendation of Shakespeare, and one that's been universally adopted, but everybody's come after, you know? Which is really interesting, what do you do, right? This is a different one now from Theobald, right? But I'll just give you what he says here. Johnson talking about large discourse, right? Such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past and anticipating the future, right? Well, that does touch upon the first sense of what? Looking before and after, yeah. Now, the second note is the one I find really interesting. Theobald remarks that looking before and after is, quote, an expression purely Homeric. It refers to the Iliad, Book 3, 109, 18, 250, okay? Now, if you know Homer, this is a Homeric phrase, right? Not quite as good as Shakespeare is, but it's the phrase, look before and behind yourself, right? Like in the Middle Ages, they had the man of prudence, you know, with an eye here and an eye here, look before and behind him. And the men who are wisest, right, in the Iliad, right, they look before and behind, right? So the famous example, what brought Homeric or Iliad in was too much, it's already weighed down. When Achilles is coming back into battle, right, and he decides to come back after his best friend has been killed and so on, and it's almost like nighttime and he just comes to the edge of the battle and roars, you know. And, of course, up to this time, the Trojans are getting pretty confident that they could, you know, set the fire of the ships and the Cans and so on. And the one guy, who alone could look before and behind him, Homeric says, right, he says, let's get back into the walls, you know, before tomorrow. And, you know, the great warriors, you know, say, you coward, you know, what do you think? And, of course, the next day, he just mows him down, you know, see. That's kind of a stock phrase, right? That's interesting, huh? Because by Antonia Messiah, right, huh? You know what Antonia Messiah means? That's kind of a horrible word that comes from the Greek rhetoricians, right? But Antonia Messiah is the figure of speech where the name that is common to many is given to one in particular. He's said to be the, right, okay? Now, the Bible is very fond of Antonia Messiah. So the Bible is named by what? Antonia Messiah. The Bible means what? The book, right? Well, there's many other books. But among all books, this is the book because it's the word of God, et cetera, right? The Gospels are named by Antonia Messiah. You know, well, good news, we've got a new child, a new grandchild. But this is, you know, by Antonia Messiah, the good news of our salvation and so on, huh? God becoming man to save us and so on. So this is by Antonia Messiah good news, right? Okay? Christ himself is named by Antonia Messiah. Because Christ means what? Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, all these kings and priests, you know, prophets are anointed, right? But he is the anointed one, right? Okay. So that's a very important figure of speech, right? And so Thomas in the text, you'll see sometimes instead of saying Aristotle says, he'll say the philosopher says, right? But Aristotle himself had called Homer what? The poet, right? And so by Antonia Messia, Homer is called sometimes the poet instead of, well, he's the greatest poet, right? Okay. Sophocles is pretty good too. Well, now I was reading the Federalist Papers, huh? They were talking about, you know, arguing for the union of the colonies and so on. If they don't do this, you know, in the words of the poet, they say, a long farewell to all my greatness. Well, they didn't say who the poet is. They said, the poet. And as the poet says, well, any dummy should know that the poet is, for us, Shakespeare. Yeah. Well, it's interesting to see that the poet in ancient times and the poet in modern times, right, both have a similar phrase, right? And it's magnificent that Theobald points that out, right? He's good, right? And someday I'll bring in that happy amendation, but it's not freaking necessary for our purposes here today. You know, but it's a magnificent one. I mean, it's just so good that it's been universally adopted. There's no question that this is, you know, I mean, there are certain defects in Shakespeare's thing that there's obviously something wrong here with the text, right? You know? And people try to amend these things, and sometimes they're more happy than other ones. But this is known as the happiest commendation there's ever been of the lion of Shakespeare. So, I mean, he's really something to the involved, you know, in some ways. And so that's a beautiful text there, right? But notice, when Aristotle is praising the great Homer, right, one thing that Aristotle says is that plot, right, is the soul of tragedy. It's not like the moderns think, you know, sometimes the plot is there to reveal the characters. What does reveal is something about them, right? But Aristotle sees that the characters are there for the sake of the, what, action, right? So the plot is the very soul of tragedy, and even of epica. And Aristotle praises Homer for teaching all the Greek poets how to make a good plot. What Homer saw was that a good plot was not about what happens to the main hero, but that it's about a course of action that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's the most, highest praise that the poet gets, right, from Aristotle. He talked to all the Greeks that this is what a plot has to be. It has to be a course of action as a beginning, middle, and an end. Then Aristotle goes to define beginning, middle, and an end. And what does he say? Beginning is before something, but not after something. And end is after something, but not before something. And the middle is before something and after something. Now there's no part that is either before or after anything, because it wouldn't fit in. But notice, huh? A phrase, purely Homeric, as he says. And then the praise that Aristotle gives of the, what, what a plot should be, right? It's in terms of before and after, right? And this is similar to before and after. Look before and behind yourself, right? Okay. Trying to read it. Yeah, yeah. So it's beautiful to see these harmonies, right? Okay? Now, I don't just read Shakespeare. I mean, some people think I just read Shakespeare, right? Yeah, you do read St. Thomas. Yeah. I come out to the bookstore and my wife says, no, no, not another edition of Shakespeare. It was, I had an uncle that died and he had some, you know, a lot of gift additions, you know, huh? Okay, they were kind of picking out these ones. Why get the Shakespeare gifted? Well, what is the most famous biography in the English language? Hmm? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. In fact, it's so good that some people claim it's the greatest biography ever written. Okay? There's something very vivid about this biography because he's giving the actual conversations of him. How many people read it? Possible stuff? Yeah. Yeah, back in college. Yeah, yeah. It's in the great books, right? You have a great books edition around here somewhere? You probably have a ball somewhere. You have a document on the University of Chicago, what is that? Yeah. We have a lot of hidden myths of the series, and I think we have one of the whole series, I think. Anyway, it's right in the great books, right? And some people claim it's the greatest biography ever, you know? But anyway, now, what's that got to do with the definition of reason, right? Well, I had escaped from Aristotle a while, so I said, I'll reread Basel's Life of Johnson, right? And this is the abbreviated one, but anyway, it goes through his whole life. I think he had the last days and the death of Johnson and so on. And so at the very end of the Basel's Life of Johnson, you have, he feels he should kind of sum up the character of Johnson, right? And it goes on for a couple of pages here, but just read you part of it, huh? He was steady and inflexible in maintaining the obligations of religion and morality. But that's the next sentence now. Both from a regard for the order of society, right? And from a veneration for the great source, and great and source are capitalized. And from a veneration for the great source of all order. What's that referring to? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like with Anaxagoras, right? And then Mars, he sees that, right? So I enjoyed reading the Life of Samuel Johnson. So then I decided I'd go get Boswell's, you know, the journey, the tour, the Hebrides Islands. Did you ever read that? I'm sorry. Hebrides, journey, journey to the Hebrides. No, but I've read some biographical information about Boswell. It was quite a lot of wire and quite a bit from Samuel Johnson. Yeah, yeah. And he became a better man, right? I was reading in the journey of the Hebrides, he got into a bad storm, right? You know, traveling one out into the other one. He said, if I got out of this, you know, I'm going to be much better. Very good, you know? But anyway, in the beginning of the journey to the Hebrides, right? He brings in the character, you know, and again, he sums up, right? He's that same thing there again. Great source of what? All order, right? You know? Well, remember how Shakespeare says, you know, God-like reason, right? What's God-like about reason? Well, in many ways, there's something God-like about reason, right? But if God is a source of all order, and order means a before and after, right? And reason looks before and after, there's something, what? God-like about reason. That's one way of seeing it being God-like, huh? I see Thomas is always quoting a passage from St. Paul. And if I remember rightly, it's the epistle to the Romans, but anyway, it's in the epistles. And I've seen a quote so many times, I kind of remember the Latin, you know. The things which are from God are ordered. The things which are from God are ordered. The things which are from God are ordered. So, let's turn here now to Aristotle's premium, huh? Now, when Thomas has a commentary on the book of Aristotle, or an exposition, as they call it, right? Which means a laying out, how it states out the book. And... And... And... And invariably, he makes a first division of the whole work of Aristotle. I used to tell my students in class, it's divided like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. And of course, if you wanted to divide Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a whole, what would be the first division of Romeo and Juliet? And the play. Yeah. The prologue is very short compared to the play, right? But it's like the division that Thomas gives of Aristotle. The premium is the word they use. And the, what, traktatus, right? Which means the drawing out. And the way we used to translate premium is paving the way, right? So the main thing in the premium is to say what you're aiming at, right? The desirability of what you're aiming at, right? And in the first two readings here in the premium, he's going to talk about what wisdom is about, right? And then in the second part, the third reading, he's going to talk about the kind of knowledge wisdom is, right? Okay? So it's divided in a way like Roman and Juliet, right? Okay? You have the main play itself, but then you have this prologue. I take Roman and Juliet because most of Shakespeare's plays don't have a prologue, right? It's only said an epilogue. It's kind of a prologue to Henry VIII, right? But the prologue to Romeo and Juliet is marvelous, huh? And the prologue is written in the same form as the sonnet. It's got 14 lines, right? And it's divided into three quatrains and a couplet. And the, you know, if I am a pentameter and so on, right? Okay. Now what does the prologue do to Romeo and Juliet? Do you remember that prologue at all? The first quatrain, if I remember rightly, says, Now if you know what Aristotle teaches in the book, in the Poetic Art, about tragedy, right? Tragedy is about men, women I guess sometimes, who are in a state of, what, society above most of us, right? Ability, that sort of thing, right? Two households, both alike in dignity, and fair of her own number they are seen, being the place, right? Where civil blood makes the lions unclean and so on, huh? From fourth, okay. He's talking about two noble families here, right? Raised above, huh? Common thing. And what? They're in feuding, right? Now, in the second quatrain, he says, From fourth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives, Whose misadventured, piteous over thos, Do with their death, bury their fair and strike. Now you get more idea what the play's going to be about, right? Out of these two feuding families, huh? Strange as it may sound, right? A man and a woman, right? One the son, one the daughter. I guess the only son, right? The only daughter, right, in these cases, right? They're going to fall in love, and it's going to be, what? Piteous, right? Now when Aristotle talks about tragedy, He says that it moves us to, what? Pity and fear. So in the second quatrain, you expect something tragic, huh? You're being prepared for a tragedy, Whose misadventured, piteous overthrows, Do with their death, right? They're pitiful. Misadventures, right? The message doesn't get to Romeo, right? Which is not really dead. Now what's the third quatrain? Well, the other emotion. Their fearful passage of their death marked love, Continuous in their parents' rage, Which put their children's in, Not could remove, Is now the two-hour traffic of our stage, right? And I've got the whole thing prepared, right? And Aristotle compares a premium to a prologue, right? Even to an overture, right? You listen to the overture of Mozart's Don Giovanni In the overture of Cosi Mantuti, And you're being prepared for an entirely different thing, right? Which if you with patient here attend, But here shall miss our toil, Shall strive to mend, right? Pay attention and we'll do it any better next time. So it's preparing the way, right? So the premium is like a prologue, right? And the premiums for our style are magnificent, right? And the greatest teacher I had was Monsignor Dionne, right? I know when my friend Warren Murray went up to Laval To study with Charles DeConnick, Who's this literate man up there, Much more famous than Dionne, Because Warren had a background in natural science, right? And so on, and DeConnick taught natural philosophy, and so on. But he made perfectly clear to Uncle Warren, as he called, And the family, That the greatest mind up here is Dionne. And I know when I was writing my doctoral thesis under Monsignor Dionne, And there was some big thing on my thesis there, And I'd go and talk to DeConnick, see what he thought about it, you know? So when I asked him the question, he says, Why are you asking me when you've got Dionne? I wonder what you have to think too, so I said, I said, okay, so he told me what he thought. Well, it's kind of interesting, right? That humility, right? Why didn't you bother asking me, you know? Why didn't you bother asking Berkweson? You can ask Tom's acquaintance, right? Now why did I mention that, right? Well, because Monsignor Dionne, Among other courses he gave, He gave a whole course on what a premium is. It was on this premium in particular. But in general, about a premium and how important they are. So, they expect a lot from a premium. Not from the preface of a modern author in his book, no, no. But Aristotle's premium, huh? Or Thomason's premium, huh? Something. That's enough to allow your attention. I mean, this is something very significant, right? Sometimes Dionne would take like a premium there in logic, and, oh my goodness, he's got another lecture on that same premium. Okay, so let's look at the beginning of the premium here. Now, Thomas, when he begins his commentary exposition of the premium, he says it's divided into two parts, right? Now, let's cheat. Let's cheat, huh? And you know how he turns to the last part of the book and see what happens. Yeah. Well, sometimes Aristotle, at the end of a premium, he has an epilogue, right? Where he recalls, in the reverse order that he did it, what is in the premium, right? And so look at the last paragraph there on page five, huh? Aristotle's an epilogue here, right? What is the nature of the knowledge sought then has been said, Aristotle says, right? That's the second thing he does, huh? That's what he does in the third, what, reading, right? And what is the goal that the investigation, right, and the whole knowledge over a road must reach? That's the first thing he does in the first two, what, readings, right? Okay. Now, when Thomas, you know, says the premium is divided into two parts. First, he shows what the goal is, right, of wisdom, and then secondly, the kind of knowledge it is. Aristotle's recalling those two things, but in the, what, reverse order, the thing he just finished last, and then goes back to the thing he did before. He does the same thing in the great premium to the Nicomachean Ethics, huh? That is three parts, right? And he recalls the three things he's done, right, in the reverse order that he did it. okay so let's look now but this is you know many other things are being done and irisdall kills many birds with one stone now all men by nature desire to know that's the way it's usually translated right i put in in brackets there to understand because it's not the common word for knowledge he uses the word identi right which usually is translated by intelligere you know to understand right in english but either way makes sense okay but why do you think he wants to begin with that statement it's by nature that they desire to know what's that going to say about the kind of good that knowledge is right the good is what all desire because it all want right but if all men not only desire to know but they desire to know by nature what does that tell you about this good it's an actual good it's a real good right it's a very nature man to to know right aristotle gives a sign from the senses right okay but to understand is something that belongs to what reason right and it's interesting that he goes to the uh sign from the eyes right now when i was a little boy my mother used to say i see said the blind man but he couldn't see it all did your mother ever say that to you i think she thought it was very clever my mother never went to college or anything like that with secretarial secretarial school right and so i got into being right because she applied for a job and my father's doing the hiring it was all for the no and they started to go out i guess he had to uh he had to keep a secret because the other secretaries would be you know furious you know or jealous anyway i see said the blind man but he couldn't see at all it's kind of a little pun on the word to what to see but why do we take the word to see more for understanding right and then to what hear maybe or smell or taste right yeah it's more spiritual sense right more perfect right and so on that's kind of interesting right he takes the example from the eye but he could take it from other senses to some extent too right see more difference yeah yeah but now he says a sign that men by nature desire to know is the love of the what senses huh now he's going to point out touch upon the fact that we use our senses to do all kinds of things right to make things and so on right but do we use our senses sometimes just to know and not to do anything yeah so he says and that's what's important to what he's talking about here right because wisdom is going to be a knowledge that is sought right but don't say great you know we're christians and our goal is to see god as he is right st john says we know when he appears we shall be like him we shall see him as he is right okay now why do you want to see god as he is are you going to make something out of him you're going to do something with him it's just to know right not to make you do anything right making and doing is over right mary has chosen the better part and she'll not be taken away from her right yeah she'll have a job yeah i used to tell students this himself well then you got to be practical in this life because you don't want anything from the next life so he says apart from the usefulness they are love for themselves and especially right among the others that through the eyes for we choose to see he says before all the others not only in order that we might do something but also not aim to do anything right look at that beautiful sunset tonight right or somebody you know had bought a house you know and i went to visit him you know look at that view he was very impressed that he had bought a house on this beautiful view right now i was on the internet the other day there and uh they had something you know about the the most expensive houses in the in the country right and the most expensive house you go state by state you know they started out there like three million and went up to five million see they're wearing the high things end up with some 150 million dollar house in california but uh they just you know you're sitting outside the house you know inside you know but somebody really had magnificent views right huh i mean say uh beautiful right i remember my wife and i were down in uh virginia one time and we're having dinner they're kind of an outdoor place you know and so on look up at the sky i've never seen the sky like that i think southern sunsets are more what impressive than the ones up north i think you know it's like they're folds and folds are red i mean it's amazing i said secretary that's the waitress you know you're like what's wrong with you you know i just do a thing like that you you know huh down in virginia yeah yeah the old movie the spanish mania had these glorious things it's broader it's wider it's deeper the equator and then things gets narrower i guess if that's the way it would inscribe it in the caribbean the uh the subsets the skies are yeah yeah yeah yeah but even you know i get reading the hebrides you know journal to the hebrides and so look what hebrides on the internet right new computer and uh you know slide thing you know you can you press the thing you know this is something you know and uh uh but why i'm looking at these things right i'm gonna i'm probably not gonna go there everybody is i probably won't get a chance to go there maybe just to see the thing right huh you know and uh when i was in come back used to have a little ferry that went across the same lawrence and you see all the beautiful hills around their mountains and so on you know and why are you going across there you're not going to do anything just just to see it you'll go up there you know some of the afternoon see the things right he says they are loved for themselves and especially among the others that through the eyes right for we choose to see before all the others you know one time i was talking about this in a little class there and this one young lady there she said she'd rather i took it as a sign people would rather be deaf than what blind you wouldn't want to be either one of course and she said she'd rather be deaf i mean blind and deaf because she doesn't love her music she played block on the organ and she plays in one of the churches around here you know even today you know but uh she was an exception to the rule i mean you know i just sent to mozart and just about every day and why do i do that and does it help me you know to make something or to do something or just for its own sake right yeah so we do have a desire to know apart from making or doing right let's see especially in those higher senses huh for we choose to see before all the others not only in order that we might do something but also not aiming at doing anything right the cause is that this sense this one among the senses especially makes us know something and shows many what differences now when i was uh in the sixth grade i got a great interest in astronomy right the library was really in one room in nativity grade school there and uh but in the back of the of the right room there was a place you could go up into the ramp kind of you know up the place and there's a thing there we go up there and fool around a little bit and that's where the astronomy books were you're supposed to take a book out when you go to the library i started taking astronomy books out and i got very interested in them right but notice i didn't have the eye i just had hearing i can't hear the stars or the planets or orion you know