Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Titel: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Stichwort: Sein (esse) -> Unterschied zw. Seinsbegriff und Idee vom Sein usw.; Grundlage der Objektivität (Gilson)

Kurzinhalt: The notion of being is distinct from the concept of being; the notion and concept of being are different from knowledge of being; and the notion, concept, and knowledge of being are distinct from the idea of being

Textausschnitt: 134b [...]
What is the basis of the objectivity of our knowledge, what is its first contact with the objective? It occurs after you have a sense experience - when you ask, 'What is it?' and when you know what the answer to that is; and when you ask, 'Is it so?' An sit"? (Fs) (notabene)

134c What is this sit? It is the objective of the pure desire to know being. Questions are unlimited; you can't draw a line and say, 'So far and no further, no further questions.' The potency for asking questions is unlimited. And the object of that potency is unlimited. In that way our knowledge ties up with an unlimited objective that is being; such is our notion of being. (Fs)

134d The notion of being is distinct from the concept of being; the notion and concept of being are different from knowledge of being; and the notion, concept, and knowledge of being are distinct from the idea of being. The idea of being is God's essence. To understand God's essence is to understand God and everything else, which is what God's knowledge of himself and everything else is. The idea of being is the species intelligibilis that is the essence of God. Knowledge of being is had through judgment. The concept of being is had when you conceive anything; any concept is always a concept of being. For any concept is ordered to a judgment: Is it so? By the mere fact that it is ordered to a judgment, it is a concept of something ordered to esse. And what is being? Ens est id cui suo modo competit esse. So any concept is a concept of being. The notion of being is the desire to understand, which is prior to understanding anything. It is the wonder that is the beginning of all science and philosophy, but also the wonder that makes two-year-old children plague their parents with the number of questions they ask.1 (Fs) (notabene)