Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Vollkommenheit; Ordnung der Einheit als perfectio; Endziel; Beispiele: Universum, Engel, Mensch

Kurzinhalt: ASSERTION 14/2 - Perfection has two formalities ... Second, there is another formality of perfection, which is found in the unity of order.

Textausschnitt: 423d
Second, there is another formality of perfection, which is found in the unity of order. (Fs)

Note that order can be understood in two ways: first, according as relation is defined as the order of one to another; second, according as many things are ordered to one another in such a way as to constitute a unity. In the first sense, therefore, any relation is an order; but in the second sense, there is no order except insofar as many things compose an intelligible unity through many mutual relations. A pile of stones or of wood, for example, lacks the unity of order, and yet stones and wood properly arranged make one house. (Fs)

423e Note too that nothing can have the formality of end unless it has the formality of perfection. For the end is the final perfection of each thing, and therefore each and every thing, inasmuch as it exists, is a being in the strict sense, but inasmuch as it attains its end, it is good in the strict sense and perfect in the strict sense.1 (Fs) (notabene Fußnote)

425a Furthermore, the formality of end and of final perfection applies not only to individual things as individual but also to many individual things as many. For every agent acts because of an end, and so if there occur many, they occur because of an end. (Fs)

But of course this end cannot be the material multitude itself, for a multitude as material lacks a definite term. For example, if it is thought better to make two things than one, it follows that it is much better still to make three than two, and so on to infinity. But this infinity is contrary to the formality of end.2

Nor can the end of the many be to make one substance out of many substances, since that would mean the destruction rather than the perfection of the many. (Fs)

Nor can the end of the many be that each individual as individual attain its maximum perfection, for this leaves the many, precisely as many, without an end. (Fs)

425b We must conclude, then, that the end and final perfection of the many consists in the unity of order. This unity does not do away with the multitude or multiply it indefinitely or leave it unstructured, but perfects it precisely as a multitude. This is confirmed by a number of examples. (Fs)

425b First of all, 'the universe as a whole more perfectly participates in and represents the divine goodness than does any single creature.'3 But the universe is not a single whole except through the unity of order.4 This order is the intrinsic end of the universe: 'The end of the universe is a good existing in it, that is, the order of the universe itself.'5 (Fs) (notabene)

Also, the angels are ordered both among themselves and in relation to other creatures.6

425d Moreover, human beings in this life are perfected, not only through the particular goods that each one desires and seeks to obtain, but also through the unity of order, whether domestic or economic or political or social, that the many as many desire all the more eagerly the more clearly they perceive the causes of things and move away from the error of exaggerated individualism. (Fs)

427a Besides, since individual human beings are made up of many parts, these many parts also, as many, tend to their proper perfection. And so the greatest among the goods of the body is considered to be health, which is the well-ordered disposition of the parts both among themselves and for the person as a whole. Similarly, among spiritual goods the greatest is considered to be that interior justice at which supernatural justification terminates, which is a certain Tightness of order according to which the highest element of a person is subordinated to God and the lower powers of the soul are subordinated to the highest, namely, to reason.7 (Fs) (notabene)

427b From all this it seems we must without doubt conclude that perfection has two formalities, since individual beings as individuals attain their end and perfection through act, and these same many beings as many are perfected through the unity of order. (Fs)