Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: auch "letzte" Begriffe (hier: Potenz, Akt, ens) abgeleitet von Einsicht,

Kurzinhalt: Akt und Potenz abgeleitet von Einsicht, Intelligibilität als Grund von Potentialität, bumpkin, actus essendi

Textausschnitt: But what about ultimate concepts that defy definition? ... In closed eyes we discern the possibility of actual seeing; in eyes we discern the possibility of sight; what is possible is the act, and its possibility is the potency; both are objective, but the act is objective when it occurs, the potency when the act is possible; and that objectivity of possibility is, for instance, what makes die difference between an invention and a mere bright idea. Ultimate concepts, like derived concepts, proceed from understanding.
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I think much less ink would be spilt on the concept of ens were more attention paid to its origin in the act of understanding. Tell any bumpkin a plausible tale and he will remark, 'Well now, that may be so.' 'Well now, that may be so.' He is not perhaps exercising consciously the virtue of wisdom, which has the function of knowing the 'ratio entis et non entis.' But his understanding has expressed itself as grasp of possible being. Intelligibility is the ground of possibility, and possibility is the possibility of being; equally, unintelligibility is the ground of impossibility, and impossibility means impossibility of being.
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Hence, the first operation of intellect regards quiddities, but the second, judgment, regards esse, the actus essendi. Note, however, that being is not reduced through possibility to intelligibility as to prior concepts; being is the first concept; what is prior to the first concept is, not a prior concept, but an act of understanding