Intentional Species and the Identity between Knower and Known According to Thomas Aquinas

147 Pages·2013·1.45 MB·English

Intentional Species and the Identity between
Knower and Known According to
Thomas Aquinas

Andrew Murray

Catholic Institute of Sydney
Strathfield

2013

Andrew Murray © Intentional Species and the Identity between Knower and Known, Page 1
Copyright © 2013 with Andrew Peter Murray

Published by
Catholic Institute of Sydney
99 Albert Rd
Strathfield NSW 2135
Australia
Phone: [phone]
[email protected]
www.cis.catholic.edu.au

First published 1991. Revised and reformatted 2013.
The 2013 edition is available in print and in freely accessible PDF format.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Murray, Andrew Peter, author

Intentional species and the identity between knower and known according to Thomas Aquinas / Andrew Murray.

2nd edition.

ISBN: 9780908224265 (hardback)
ISBN: 9780908224241 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780908224258 (ebook)

Includes bibliographic references.

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274 -- Contributions in theory of knowledge.
Aristotle. De anima.
Knowledge, Theory of.
Philosophy, Medieval.

Catholic Institute of Sydney.

121

Andrew Murray © Intentional Species and the Identity between Knower and Known, Page 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................................. 3

PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................... 5

WORKS OF THOMAS CITED....................................................................................................................... 6

WORKS OF ARISTOTLE CITED.................................................................................................................. 9

GENERAL INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................ 11

CHAPTER ONE: THE COMMENTARY ON THE SENTENCES............................................................... 15
Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 15
Arguments for Species....................................................................................................................... 16
Alternatives to Ordinary Human Knowledge.................................................................................... 18
God’s Knowledge................................................................................................................ 18
Angelic Knowledge............................................................................................................. 19
Christ’s Knowledge............................................................................................................. 20
Human Knowledge of God in the Next Life....................................................................... 21
Knowledge as Act and Union............................................................................................................ 25
Act....................................................................................................................................... 25
Form.................................................................................................................................... 26
Union................................................................................................................................... 26
Knowledge as Passion........................................................................................................................ 31
Limitation............................................................................................................................ 31
Passion................................................................................................................................. 32
Habit.................................................................................................................................... 36
Esse Material and Esse Spirituale...................................................................................................... 37
Knowledge as Mediated..................................................................................................................... 40
Medium................................................................................................................................ 40
Object................................................................................................................................... 41
Species as Having Esse in the Soul and as Similitude........................................................ 43
Similitude............................................................................................................................. 46
An Argument from Species.............................................................................................................. 49

CHAPTER TWO: THE DISPUTED QUESTIONS ON TRUTH.................................................................... 53
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 53
Descriptions of the Act of Knowing................................................................................................... 54
The Sense of Passio Clarified............................................................................................... 54
Action and Causality............................................................................................................ 55
The Conception of the Intellect............................................................................................ 58
Relation in Knowledge......................................................................................................... 59
Knowing as Existing............................................................................................................. 61
Habitual Knowledge............................................................................................................. 61
The Central Problem: How Matter Affects Spirit............................................................................... 66
The Problem.......................................................................................................................... 66
Limited Being Knowing the Unlimited................................................................................ 67
Angelic Knowledge of Material Beings............................................................................... 68
Angelic Knowledge of Other Angels.................................................................................... 72
The Being of the Rational Soul............................................................................................. 74
Esse Immateriale and Similitude......................................................................................................... 76
Immateriality......................................................................................................................... 76
Distinctions........................................................................................................................... 78
Species and Modifications of the Identity Claim................................................................................ 83

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CHAPTER THREE: THE SUMMA AND THE DE ANIMA............................................................................ 87
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 87
Summa Theologiae Questions 84 and 85............................................................................................ 90
ST 1 q. 84, aa. 1-3.................................................................................................................. 91
ST 1 q. 84, aa.6-7................................................................................................................... 96
ST 1 q.85, aa.1-2.................................................................................................................... 100
Some Texts from the De anima Frequently Cited by Thomas........................................................... 104
II, 5. (417a17-20). Assimilation.......................................................................................... 105
II, 5. (417a21-b1). Habit...................................................................................................... 107
II, 5. (416b33-34). III, 4. (429a13-15). A Certain Affection............................................. 108
II, 12. (424a17-20) Receptive of Form without Matter....................................................... 111
Esse Intentionale................................................................................................................... 113
III, 4. (429a27-28). A Place of Forms.................................................................................. 116
III, 4. (429b29-a2). A Tablet on Which Nothing is Written................................................ 117
III,.4. (430a2-4). Intellect Understanding Itself................................................................... 118
III, 5. (430a14-16). The Agent Intellect............................................................................... 120
III, 7. (431a14-17). The Phantasm....................................................................................... 121
III, 8. (431b28-a3). The Stone............................................................................................. 122

GENERAL CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................. 125

APPENDIX ONE: A NOTE ON THE TERM SPECIES................................................................................. 131

APPENDIX TWO: TEXTS RECOGNIZED.................................................................................................... 135

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................................. 141

FURTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................... 147

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PREFACE

The contents of this volume comprised my doctoral dissertation, which was published in dissertation
form in 1991. This edition has been updated and reformatted to be more readily available both in paper and in
electronic formats. It will be freely available in the latter format.
The question that guided this study was one that had puzzled me from my first studies in philosophy. If
one claims with Aristotle and Thomas that in the act of knowing the knower and the known are one, how can
you allow a role for intermediary species or forms, which in some neo-scholastic accounts took on a life of their
own? In other words, there seemed in the general Thomistic account to be a conflict between the metaphysics of
knowing and the psychology of knowing. What I found was that there is indeed a tension in that account and
that, although Thomas was attentive to it and avoided the more serious pitfalls, his teaching is open to inadequate
interpretation.
In early modernity, ‘species’ morphed into ‘ideas’ such as are found in the teaching of Descartes and
Locke. These present other problems and call for other solutions, which in many respects, these have been better
met by phenomenological approaches to the question of knowing. The Aristotelian and Thomistic metaphysics
of knowing is nevertheless eminently worth maintaining and synthesis between it and phenomenology can, I
1
believe, be achieved.
I would like to thank again my dissertation directors at Catholic University of America – John Wippel,
Thomas Prufer and Kurt Pritzl. Prufer and Pritzl unfortunately died before their time and their deaths were a
great loss to the philosophical community and to the other communities in which they shared. I remain grateful
to these men and to the School of Philosophy at Catholic University of America for the learning that they
enabled and for a rich continuing relationship. I am also grateful to my colleagues at Catholic Institute of
Sydney who have nourished my intellectual and spiritual life for more than twenty years. Finally, I would like to
thank Elizabeth Mulcahy, Mia Moran, Mary Roddy and Paul Wei, who assisted in completing this edition.

Andrew Murray
19 October 2013

1
See Robert Sokolowski, Phenomenology of the Human Person (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), Chapters
17 and 18, pages 273 – 303.
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WORKS OF THOMAS CITED:
EDITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS, TRANSLATIONS

Works:

Opera Omnia. 50 vols. Rome: Leonine Commission, 1882-.
Opera Omnia. 6 vols. Edited by Robert Busa. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1988.

Syntheses:

Summa contra gentiles. 3 vols. Edited by C. Pera, D. P. Marc, D. P. Carmello. Turin: Marietti, 1961. (SCG)
On the Truth of the Catholic Faith. 5 vols. Translated by Anton C. Pegis (Bk 1), James F. Anderson
(Bk 2), Vernon J. Bourke (Bk 3), Charles J. O’Neil (Bk 4). Garden City, N.Y.: Image, 1955.
Summa theologiae. 5 vols. Matriti: Biblioteca de Auctores Christianos, 1955. (ST).
Summa Theologica. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York:
Benziger Brothers, 1947.

Disputed Questions:

Quaestiones de anima. Edited by James H. Robb. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1968.
(Qq. disp. de anima)
Questions on the Soul. Translated by James H. Robb. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1984.
Quaestiones disputatae de veritate. Leonine Edition, Tome 22. 3 vols. Rome: San Tommaso, 1975. (De ver.)
On Truth. 3 vols. Translated by Robert W. Mulligan (qq. I-IX), James V. McGlynn (qq. X-XX), and
Robert W. Schmidt (qq. XXI-XXIX). Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1954.
Quaestiones disputatae. Vol. II. Edited by P. Bazzi, M. Calcaterra, T. S. Centi, E. Odetto and P. M. Pession.
Turin: Marietti, 1948. This volume contains the following:
Quaestiones disputatae de potentia. (De pot.)
On the Power of God. Translated by the English Dominican Fathers. Westminster, M.D., 1952.
Quaestiones disputatae de spiritualibus creaturis. (De spir. creat.)
On Spiritual Creatures. Translated by Mary C. Fitzpatrick. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press,
1949.
Quaestiones disputatae de virtutibus in communi. (De virt. in comm.)
On the Virtues in General. Translated by J. P. Reid. Providence, R.I.: The Providence College, 1951.
Quaestiones Quodlibetales. Edited by R. M. Spiazzi. Turin: Marietti, 1956. (Quodl.)

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Aristotelian Commentaries:

Commentarium in libros Posterium analyticorum. Leoine Edition, Tome I. Rome: Polyglotta, 1882. (In Post.
anal.)
Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle. Translated by F. R. Larcher. Albany, N.Y.: Magi
Books, 1970.
In duodecim libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis expositio. Edited by M.-R. Cathala and R. M. Spiazzi. Turin:
Marietti, 1964. (In Metaph.) .
Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle (2 vols). Translated by John P. Rowan. Chicago:
Regnery, 1961.
In octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis expositio. Leonine Edition, Tome II. Rome: Polyglotta, 1884. (In Phys.)
Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. translated by Richard J. Blackwell, Richard J. Spath and W.
Edward Thirlkel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.
Sentencia libri De anima. Leonine Edition, Tome XLV, Vol. 1.. Rome: Commissio Leonina, 1984. (In De
anima)
Aristotle’s De anima with the Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas. Translated by K. Foster and S.
Humphries. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951.
Sentencia libri De sensu et sensato cuius secundus tractus est De memoria et remiscencia. Leonine Edition,
Tome XLV, Vol. 2. Rome: Commissio Leonina, 1985. (In De sensu, In De mem.)
Sententia libri Ethicorum. Leonine Edition, Tome XLIV. 2 vols. Rome: Sanctae Sabinae, 1969. (In Eth.)

Other Commentaries:

Expositio super librum Boethii De Trinitatae. Edited by B. Decker. Leiden: Brill, 1955. (In De Trin.)
The Division and Methods of the Sciences. Translated by A. A. Maurer. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, 1953.
Scriptum super libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi. 4 vols. Edited by P. Mandonnet (Bk 1-2) and M.
F. Moos (Bk 3-4). Paris: Lethielleux, 1929-47. (In Sent.)
Super Evangelium S. Ioanin lectura. Edited by R. Cai. Turin: Marietti, 1952. (In Ioan. Evang.)
Super librum De causis expositio. Edited by H. D. Saffery. Fribourg: Société Philosophique, 1954. (In lib. De
causis)

Andrew Murray © Intentional Species and the Identity between Knower and Known, Page 7
Opuscula:

De ente et essentia. Leonine Edition, Tome XLIII. Rome: San Tommaso, 1976. (De ente)
On Being and Essence. 2nd ed. Translated by A. A. Maurer. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, 1968.
De principiis naturae. Leonine Edition, Tome XLIII. Rome: San Tommaso, 1976. (De princ. nat.)
Selected Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Translated by Robert P. Goodwin. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merril, 1965.
De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas. Leonine Edition, Tome XLIII. Rome: San Tommaso, 1976. (De unit.
intell.)
On the Unity of the Intellect Against the Averroists. Translated by Beatrice H. Zedler. Milwaukee:
Marquette University Press, 1968.

Unless otherwise noted, translations are my own. However, where translations exist, they have been consulted.

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WORKS OF ARISTOTLE CITED

The Complete Works of Aristotle. The Revised Oxford Translation. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. 2 vols.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Unless otherwise specified, the references to Aristotle are
from this text.
Aristotle. De anima Edited by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
Aristotle. De anima. Books II, III. translated by D. W. Hamlyn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
The Latin De anima existed in three versions with which Thomas was familiar: the translatio vetus of James of
Venice, the translatio nova of William of Moerbeke (1267-68), and the translation accompanying
Averroes’ Long Commentary on the De anima which Thomas referred to as the Arabic version. They
are found, in turn in the following editions:
Anonymi, Magistri Artium. Lectura in librum De anima. Edited by R. A. Gauthier. Rome: Editiones Collegii
S. Bonaventurae, 1985.
Thomas Aquinas. Sentencia libri De anima. Leonine Edition, Tome XLV, Vol. 1. Rome: Commissio Leonina,
1984.
Averroes. Commentarium magnum in Aristotelis De anima libros. Edited by F. Stuart Crawford. Cambridge
MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953.

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