Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: Theorem: Wissen ist durch Immaterialität und Assimilation; Immaterialität -> intentionale Existenz

Kurzinhalt: general theorem that knowledge is by immateriality; the knower need not be the known; Form unterschiedlich je nach Rizipient

Textausschnitt: But if the object does not have to be material, nor the subject immaterial, and the action of the object on the subject has no particular claim to immateriality, what can be the meaning of the general theorem? In the first place, its meaning is negative; the knower need not be the known; assimilation indeed is necessary, but it is on the level of form and not that of matter; complete assimilation, both material and formal, would make the knower be the known but would give no guarantee of knowledge. Out of this negative and anti-Empedoclean meaning there arises a positive meaning. The form of the knowing must be similar to the form of the known, but also it must be different; it must be similar essentially for the known to be known; but it must differ modally for the knower to know and not merely be the known. Modal difference of forms results from difference in recipients: the form of color exists naturally in the wall but intentionally in the eye because wall and eye are different kinds of recipient; similarly, angels have a natural existence on their own but an intentional existence in the intellects of other angels. Thus the negative concept 'immateriality' acquires a positive content of intentional existence; and intentional existence is a modal difference resulting from difference in the recipient.