Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: Materialist; Leugnung der Existenz der Seele; Leugnung der Objektivität des Intelligiblen

Kurzinhalt: ... for the denial of soul today is really the denial of the objectivity of the intelligible, the denial that understanding, knowing a cause, is knowing anything real.
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Textausschnitt: 36/1 For the materialist, the real is what he knows before he understands or thinks: it is the sensitively integrated object that is reality for a dog; it is the sure and firm-set earth on which I tread, which is so reassuring to the sense of reality; and on that showing, intellect does not penetrate to the inwardness of things but is a merely subjective, if highly useful, principle of activity. To the Pythagoreans the discovery of harmonic ratios revealed that numbers and their proportions, though primarily ideas, nonetheless have a role in making things what they are; and for Aristotle the ratio of two to one was the form of the diaposon.1 Socratic interest in definition reinforced this tendency,2 but the Platonist sought the reality known by thought, not in this world, but in another. (33; Fs) (notabene)

37/1 Aristotle's basic thesis was the objective reality of what is known by understanding: it was a commonsense position inasmuch as common sense always assumes that to be so; but it was not a commonsense position inasmuch as common sense would not be ablej to enunciate it or even to know with any degree of accuracy just what it means and implies. Aristotle is the representative of unconscious common sense; but conscious common sense found voice in the eminent Catholic doctor and professor of philosophy whom I heard ask, 'Will someone please tell me what all this fuss is about ens?' When, then, Aristotle calls the soul a logos, he is stating his highly original position, not indeed with the full accuracy which his thought alone made possible, but in a generic fashion which suited his immediate purpose; and it is that generic issue that remains the capital issue, for the denial of soul today is really the denial of the objectivity of the intelligible, the denial that understanding, knowing a cause, is knowing anything real. (33f; Fs) (notabene)