Autor: Thomas Aquinas

Buch: Aquinas on Being and Essence

Titel: Aquinas on Being and Essence

Stichwort: Seiendes - analoges Wort; logische Intentionen; univok, äquivok, analog (Beispiel: gesund); Substanz, Akzidenz

Kurzinhalt: The word "being" is an analogical word. Its first predication and meaning is apropos of real being which is actual substance ... As regards the word "being," substance is prior to accident in our knowledge (intellectual) as well as in their reality...

Textausschnitt: The Word "Being" Is an Analogical Word.

52b St. Thomas' reason (perhaps) here for maintaining that essence is properly in substances, but only in some way with qualification in accidents, invites one to ask the question, What is an analogical word? An analogical word is conveniently understood in reference to the univocal word and to the equivocal word.1 A univocal word is a word said of many things with a meaning wholly the same; for example, the word "animal" said of John, Fido, and this horse is said of each with wholly the same meaning, namely, sensitive organism. An equivocal word is a word said of many things with meanings wholly diverse, for example, the word "pen" said of the writing instrument and of the enclosure for swine. An analogical word is a word said of many things with a meaning which is partly the same and partly different; different because each meaning includes a different relation; the same because each meaning includes a same meaning (which is for us humans, in some given context, the first meaning of the word) as a same point of reference. For example, the word "healthy" is said of many things in this way. Healthy said of animal is included in the meaning of healthy said of medicine; healthy said of medicine means cause of health in the animal. Further, healthy said of urine means sign of health in the animal; healthy said of climate means conservative of health in the animal. Healthy said of animal is the first meaning of the word "healthy," and it is included in all posterior meanings of the word "healthy."

53a The word "being" is an analogical word. Its first predication and meaning is apropos of real being which is actual substance (see page 40-42). The meaning of the word "being" so predicated is included in all posterior meanings of the word "being." For example, being said of accident means that which exists in being (the word "being" in the expression that which exists in being is being as said of substance) (for convenience, we shall use the word "substance" to stand for real being which is actual substance); being said of blindness, a privation, means absence of sight, and sight is an accident which is what exists in being (being, as said of substance); being said of nothing means negation of being (being, as said of substance).2 (Fs) (notabene)

53b The extension of an analogical word from its first predication and meaning to its posterior predications and meanings indicates what is first in our knowledge and what is posterior in our knowledge. It also points to the fact that we name things according as we know them, so that we name first what we know first. It is to be noted again that what is first in our knowledge, in the context of analogical words, may or may not be what is first in the reality of the things of which the analogical word is said (see page 51). As regards the word "being," substance is prior to accident in our knowledge (intellectual) as well as in their reality. It is prior to accident in our knowledge in at least two senses: (1) in the sense that our temporally first knowledge (all our knowledge by intellect is via sense experience) is a knowledge whose explicit content is a sense experience (not an intellectual grasp) of a sensible accident and whose implicit content is an intellectual grasp of something-there, i.e., being without qualification (see pages 4-5); (2) in the sense that it is included in the definition of the essence of an accident (see page 50). It is prior to accident in their reality in the sense that substance is that on which accidents depend, at least as on a proper subject, for their existence. The word "substance" (as well as the word "being") is said of composed substances before it is said of simple substances, since composed substances are prior in our knowledge; in their reality, however, simple substances are prior to composed substances. The word "essence" is used first to designate the essence of substances, then that of accidents; the essence of material substances, then that of immaterial substances. (Fs)