Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Operatio intellectus: prima, secunda; Bedeutung: Objekt einer Tätigkeit

Kurzinhalt: ... first and a second operation of the intellect; ... several meanings of the notion 'the object of an operation' ... It can mean what moves us to the operation, or the term immanently produced by the operation ...

Textausschnitt: 11b After speaking of the goal, we move to the act by which we attain it. That act requires our attention because, even though our aim is understanding and not certitude, still we hardly want an understanding that is uncertain rather than certain, or false rather than true. Therefore we must accurately grasp what the act of understanding is, what its properties are, and how this act is connected with what is true and what is certain.1 (Fs)

11c Ever since Aristotle, a distinction has been recognized between a first and a second operation of the intellect. In the first operation we ask, 'What is it?' or 'Why is it so?' and we grasp some reason or cause, and we conceive a definition or a hypothesis; but in the second operation we ask, 'Is it?' or 'Is it so?' and we weigh the evidence, and because of the evidence we utter a true judgment, and through the true as through a medium we contemplate being. (Fs)

11d The distinction of first and second operations does not regard a difference in time. Although the first spontaneously gives rise to the second (for we immediately ask whether what we conceive really is so), still the second operation also invites us to a further and better exercise of the first, since we want to understand better what we already know is so. Thus, in order to distinguish these two operations, we have to pay attention to their objects.2 (Fs) (notabene Fußnote)

13a There are several meanings of the notion 'the object of an operation.' It can mean what moves us to the operation, or the term immanently produced by the operation, or the objective of the operation. In the first operation the proper object, the object that moves, is, in the conditions of this present life, an intelligibility or nature that exists as embodied in corporeal matter;1 and the object as term is the conceived definition or hypothesis. In the second operation the object that moves is sufficient evidence, and the object as the immanently produced term is the true. But with each operation the object as the objective is being, which is intended throughout the entire intellectual process.2 (Fs)