Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: Thomas, natürlich gewusste Prinzipien, 2 Arten von ersten Prinzipien; ens als Objekt, principle of noncontradiction

Kurzinhalt: Such a natural habit differs both from acquired habit and from infused habit, Satz vom Widerspruch, Ganzes - Teil,

Textausschnitt: Reasoning not merely terminates in understanding; equally it begins from understanding; for unless we understood something, we never should begin to reason at all. Accordingly, to avoid an infinite regress, it is necessary to posit a habitus princpiorum, which naturally we possessc. Such a natural habit differs both from acquired habit and from infused habit. The natural habit, though it has a determination from sense, results strictly from intellectual light alone; the acquired habit ... Nowhere, to my knowledge, did Aquinas offer to give a complete list of naturally known principles. His stock examples are the principle of noncontradiction and of the whole being greater than the part. But it does not follow that the list of such principles is quite indeterminate. As there are naturally known principles, so also there is an object which we know per se and naturally. That object is ens; and only principles founded upon our knowledge of ens are naturally known.
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If we are correct in urging that intelligibility is the ground of possibility and that possibility is possibility of being, so that the concept of being is known naturally because it proceeds from any intelligibility in act (= any intelligence in act), then it is equally clear that the principle of noncontradiction is known naturally; for ...
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The other stock example of a naturally known principle is that the whole is greater than the part. ... For, as every being is one, so every finite being is a whole compounded of parts, an ens quod made up of entia quibus. Moreover, we know this naturally. Natural form stands to natural matter, as intelligible form stands to sensible matter; and when by a natural spontaneity we ask quid sit, we reveal our natural knowledge that the material or sensible component is only a part and that the whole includes a formal component as well.