Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: 3 Grade von Begriffsbildung, emanatio intelligibilis; Begriff als Ergebnis einer Einsicht

Kurzinhalt: Abstraktion nach Thomas (Aristoteles): abgeleitet vom Akt des Verstehens; Selbstbesitz des Verstehens als Bedingung der Begriffsbildung;

Textausschnitt: Conceptualization is the self-expression of an act of understanding; such self-expression is possible only because understanding is self-possessed, conscious of itself and its own conditions as understanding; insofar as the understanding has its conditions all within the intelligible order, the expression abstracts from all that is sensible and imaginable, and so is in the third degree; insofar as the understanding has conditions in the imaginable, but not in the empirical, order of sensible presentations, the abstraction is of the second degree; insofar as the understanding has conditions within the empirical order of sensible presentations, the abstraction is of the first degree; but there is always some abstraction; for the 'here and now' of sensible presentation or of imagination is never relevant to any understanding. ... The Aristotelian and Thomist theory of abstraction is not exclusively metaphysical; basically, it is psychological, that is, derived from the character of acts of understanding. On the other hand, it is in the self-possession of understanding as the ground of possible conceptualization that one may best discern what is meant by saying that the self-expression of understanding is an emanatio intelligibilis, a procession from knowledge as knowledge, and because of knowledge as knowledge.
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The concept is the definition, provided there is a definition. Perhaps enough has been said to make the point that defining is a fruit of intelligence, the quid rei of understanding the thing, and the quid nominis of understanding the language. But what about ultimate concepts that defy definition?