Foundations of Thomistic Philosophy

255 Pages·1956·8.006 MB·English

by  Antonin Sertillanges

FOUNDATIONS OF THOMISTIC
PHILOSOPHY

Foundations
°f
Thomistic Philosophy
BY
A. D. SERTILLANGES, O.P.
TRANSLATED BY
GODFREY ANSTRUTHER, O.P.
TEMPLEGATE
Publishers • Booksellers
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS
Nihil obstat: F. Edwin Essex, O.P.
F. Thomas Gilby, O.P., S.T.L., Ph.D.
Imprimatur: F. Bede Jarrett, O.P.
Prior Prov. Angliae.
Nihil obstat: F. Stanislaus W. Lamb, O.P., S.T.L.
Imprimatur: ^Andreas Joseph, O.S.B.,
Archiep. S. Andr. ei Ed.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS LIMITED
GATESHEAD ON TYNE
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 7
II. BEING AND KNOWLEDGE • !5
III. GOD • 49
IV. CREATION • 93
V. PROVIDENCE . . 136
VI. NATURE AND LIFE M a o
cs
VII. THE HUMAN SOUL • T99
VIII. MORALITY • 232

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Those who know St. Thomas well are at times
tempted to ask whether, in spite of his world-wide
reputation, he is really understood by many. Indeed,
we like to lose sight of his fame, and fondly imagine
that we are the first to discover his breadth of outlook,
and extraordinary subtlety.
People like to picture him as a good sort of man, a
simple, holy, uneccentric friar, quite ordinary, in spite
of his holiness. They hardly bother about his mere
mortal life, so much so that now it is impossible to piece
it together. This is a pity, and it is a good sign that
scholars are getting tired of mere pamphlets and pane¬
gyrics. Yet this neglect is itself instructive. St. Thomas’s
life is so bound up with his thought and ideas, that, once
you have grasped them, you have understood the man.
It is his thought that matters. We need have no more
interest in his life than he had himself. We discover
him in his effects, as we find God in the universe.
Catholics have a special reason for studying St.
Thomas; he is their own philosopher, and his works
are a family treasure : he is the “ Catholic Doctor ” par
excellence. When many outside the Church are taking
an interest in him, it is surely wrong for Catholics to
neglect him. Leaders of Catholic thought, and the
whole Church through them, owe much to him for their
7
8 THOMISTIC PHILOSOPHY
fundamental principles, and Pius X has said that “ none
can depart from St. Thomas’s teaching, especially in
metaphysics, without danger.”1
Every earnest, thinking man who wishes to know
more about his religion—and every Catholic implicitly
professes to be such—must take at least some sort of
interest in this teaching. Not that he is expected to
study it deeply, for specialization in this matter is the
work of a few. All we mean is that there is no excuse
for ignorance, and in saying this we put ourselves under
an obligation of doing our share to make this know¬
ledge as accessible as possible.
This is not a résumé : there are quite enough of them
already. They are not of die slightest use to those who
know the matter, and are ignored by the beginner.
Much less is this a learned treatise. We have tried that
elsewhere for scholars,2 and we are not doing it over
again. But there is still another way of treating a great
philosophy. One can write for a public consisting of
just ordinary people—neither advanced students nor
wholly unlearned. Pascal wanted to forget that he was
an author, and in the same way we may write for the
general run of people, and not think of the reader as a
student at any particular stage.
As regards philosophy, the ordinary man is one, who,
while not making it his special study, feels that inevitable
curiosity about it which we all have, and which know¬
ledge alone can satisfy. We are not writing techni¬
calities, as a teacher for students, but merely putting
1 Encyclical Pascendi Gregis.
2 Saint Thomas d’Aquin. Paris, Alcan.
INTRODUCTORY 9
the thinking man in direct contact with reality and
thought.
That is the simplicity we aim at. And Thomistic
philosophy is remarkably suited to such treatment, for,
in St. Thomas, clearness and technical precision are
joined to the broad outlook, if I may use the expression,
of the intelligent man in the street.
Those who know already will easily see what lies
beneath our bare outlines: those who do not already
know must not expect to learn, as if they were back at
school, but I hope they will understand. What I mean
is that they will not be in a position to teach others, or
to call themselves philosophers, but they should have
gained some real appreciation of this veritable poem of
St. Thomas.
I call it a poem, for it really is one, if read in the
right way. St. Thomas is, properly speaking, a meta¬
physical poet, taking the word in its broadest sense to
signify one who interprets the universe; a prophet of
being—of God, humanity, nature. Poet and philoso¬
pher here unite. He writes his poem in abstract lan¬
guage, as Victor Hugo or Pindar in image, Beethoven
in sound, and Michael Angelo in line and mass. Yet
his poetry is nearer reality, for he gives us, instead of
an artistic interpretation, which is arbitrary, a true
account of things. He analyses where others only de¬
pict: he deduces where they introduce: he makes us
understand, where they make us see : he reveals when
others sing. Yet always his theme is their theme. He
treats of the universe, of man, of divinity, and its atten¬
dant beings. He strives to create within us a representa¬
tion of all these things—a new world, the double of
this one, which will enable us, despite our narrow
10 THOMISTIC PHILOSOPHY
limitations in time and space, to live in the whole of it.
We want to reach the very soul of the poem of ideas,
to probe its spirit, to grasp its underlying unity. This
means that we shall dwell little on detail and avoid
discussion. If we can get at the source, it will explain
itself. Nor shall we trace the historical growth of the
doctrine, though quite aware that it did not drop ready¬
made from heaven. It simply is not necessary for our
purpose.
A genius belongs to the ages preceding him before
he lives for the future. A work of genius is a product
of society, and the more it owes to society, the more it
has begged from men and things, the greater it is. And
it is precisely because it absorbs everything and trans¬
forms everything into itself, that it is always young
and original. A genius is full of life, and living con¬
sists in adapting and assimilating, and thus recreating
and manifesting itself anew. He is more adapted than
others to his particular age, he is steeped in it and alive
to its wants, but nothing can satisfy him save the quest
of eternity, which is of every age, and that is what
makes him the concern of all.
Just as a genius can unite a variety of peoples into
one empire, so he can bind all ages together into a
permanent whole. He treads the same path as his
contemporaries, and it leads him towards the eternal.
He proclaims what his fellow men are vaguely thinking
about, and he is found to voice the sentiments of all.
Heedless of his own popularity, he is self-sufficient and
self-contained. He gathers every ray of light he can
find in his obscure surroundings, and concentrates in
himself their finest qualities.
To profit by a time-honoured genius, then, we have