the angelic doctor

what is the sound of a philosopher thinking?

in the ORDO
the day to day manual of liturgical
information
this day is dedicated to
a presbyter, religious and
doctor of the church

"the proper object of the intelligence is being: 'not
only essential or quidditive but existential.' "

The entire thought of ST Thomas
"seeks existence itself, though not,
as is the case with practical philosophy,
to produce it, but to know it."

"thomistic philosophy is an existential philosophy"

---3 quotes of Jacques Maritain


where then does human knowledge find its home?
when is it in the presence of its own object?
only at the point
where it comes in contact with the sensible
and although it does not here
totally penetrate the real
because the individual as such
implies or presupposes matter
and is therefor beyond expression
still reason is in control of the field
in which it is workinig

in order to describe man
that is the human composite
to describe the animal and its operations
the heavenly bodies and their powers
mixed bodies or the elements
rational knowledge remains proportioned
to the order or rank of the objects it is exploring
although its content is incomplete
it remains positive

what is original and truly profound
in thomism
is not an attempt either to
establish science more solidly or extend it
st thomas places
the proper object of the human intellect
in the sensible order
but he does not consider the study of this order
to be the highest function of the knowing faculty

the proper object of the intellect
is the quiddity of the sensible

but its proper function is to make
the sensible intelligible

from the particular object
on which its light falls
it draws something universal

it can do this because this particular image
carries the divine image
naturally impressed upon it
as the mark of its origin

the intellect is
in the proper sense of the term
born and made for the universal

hence its straining toward that object
which is by definition
vigorously inaccessible
the DIVINE BEING

here reason knows very little
but what little it knows
surpasses in dignity and value
any other kind of certitude

--ETIENNE GILSON
"THE SPIRIT OF THOMISM"


every act of thinking
indeed every act
carries with it
something of the metaphysical
something of the mark of humanity
distinguishing itself
from all other kinds of being

the divine spark