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069 - Lxix That God Knows Infinite Things · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixty nine of Suma Contragentilees, first Book on God,
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  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas Aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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  Speaker 1: domain Chapter sixty nine. That God knows infinite things, We
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  Speaker 1: must next prove that God knows infinite things, for in
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  Speaker 1: knowing that He is the cause of things, he knows
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  Speaker 1: things other than himself. As was shorn above, Now he
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  Speaker 1: is the cause of infinite things if there be infinite things,
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  Speaker 1: since He is the cause of whatever is, therefore he
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  Speaker 1: knows infinite things. Again, God knows his own power perfectly,
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  Speaker 1: as was proved above. Now, a power cannot be known
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  Speaker 1: perfectly unless all the things to which it extends be known,
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  Speaker 1: since its quantity is gaged in a manner according to them.
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  Speaker 1: But his power, being infinite, as we have shown, extends
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  Speaker 1: to infinite things. Therefore God knows infinite things. Moreover, if
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  Speaker 1: God's knowledge extends to all things that exist in whatever
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  Speaker 1: way they exist, as we have shown, it follows that
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  Speaker 1: He knows not only actual being, but also potential being.
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  Speaker 1: Now in natural things there is the infinite potentiality, although
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  Speaker 1: not actually now in natural things there is the infinite potentially,
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  Speaker 1: although not actually, as the Philosopher proves in the Third
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  Speaker 1: Book of Physics. Therefore, God knows infinite things, even as unity,
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  Speaker 1: which is the principle of number, would no infinite species
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  Speaker 1: of numbers if it knew whatever is potentially in it,
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  Speaker 1: For unity is every number potentially. Again, God knows other
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  Speaker 1: things in his essence, as in a prototypical medium. Now,
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  Speaker 1: since he is infinitely perfect, as was shown above, it
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  Speaker 1: is possible for an infinite number of things with finite
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  Speaker 1: perfections to be copied from him. Since it is impossible
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  Speaker 1: for any single one or any number of copies to
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  Speaker 1: equal the example of their prototype, and thus there always
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  Speaker 1: remains some new way in which some copy can imitate it.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing therefore prevents him from knowing infinite things by his essence. Further,
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  Speaker 1: God's being is his act of understanding. Therefore, even as
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  Speaker 1: his being is infinite as shown above, so his act
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  Speaker 1: of understand standing is infinite. Now as finite is to finite,
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  Speaker 1: so is infinite to infinite. If therefore, by our act
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  Speaker 1: of understanding, which is finite, we are able to understand
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  Speaker 1: finite things, God also, by his act of understanding, is
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  Speaker 1: able to understand infinite things. Moreover, according to the philosopher
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  Speaker 1: in the third Book of de Anima, an intellect which
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  Speaker 1: knows the supremely intelligible knows the less intelligible, not less,
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  Speaker 1: but more. And the reason for this is that the
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  Speaker 1: intellect is not corrupted by the excellence of the intelligible,
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  Speaker 1: as the sense is, but is the more perfected. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if we take an infinite number of beings, whether they
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  Speaker 1: be of the same species as an infinite number of men,
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  Speaker 1: or of an infinite number of species, even though some
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  Speaker 1: or all of them be infinite and quantity, if this
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  Speaker 1: were possible, all of them together would be of less
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  Speaker 1: infinity than God, since each one and all together would
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  Speaker 1: have being confined and limited to a certain species or genus,
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  Speaker 1: and thus would be in some way finite. Wherefore it
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  Speaker 1: would fall short from the infinity of God, who is infinite,
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  Speaker 1: simply as we proved above. Since therefore God knows himself perfectly,
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  Speaker 1: nothing prevents him from also knowing that infinite number of things. Further,
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  Speaker 1: the more efficacious and clear an intellect is in knowing
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  Speaker 1: the greater the number of things it is able to
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  Speaker 1: know from one even as every power, the stronger it
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  Speaker 1: is the more united it is. Now, the divine intellect
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  Speaker 1: is infinite in efficacy or perfection, as was shown above. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: it can know an infinite number of things by one,
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  Speaker 1: which is his essence. Further, the divine intellect, like the
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  Speaker 1: divine essence, is perfect simply, wherefore no intellectual perfection is lacking. Thereto. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that to which our intellect is in potentiality is its
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  Speaker 1: intellectual perfection, and it is in potentiality to all intelligible species.
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  Speaker 1: But these species are infinite in number. Since the species
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  Speaker 1: of numbers and figures are infinite, it follows therefore that
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  Speaker 1: God knows all like infinite things. Again, since our intellect
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  Speaker 1: is cognizant of the infinite in potentiality, forasmuch as it
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  Speaker 1: is able to multiply the species of numbers indefinitely, if
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  Speaker 1: the Divine intellect knew not also the infinite in act,
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  Speaker 1: you would follow either that our intellect knows more things
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  Speaker 1: than the divine intellect knows, or that the divine intellect
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  Speaker 1: knows not actually all things that it knows potentially, And
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  Speaker 1: each of these is impossible, as proved above. Further, the
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  Speaker 1: infinite is repugnant to knowledge, in so far as it
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  Speaker 1: is incompatible with being counted, for it is in itself impossible,
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  Speaker 1: as implying a contradiction for the parts of the infinite
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  Speaker 1: to be numbered. Now, the knowledge of a thing by
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  Speaker 1: counting its parts belongs to an intellect that knows one
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  Speaker 1: part after another in succession, and not to one that
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  Speaker 1: understands the various parts together. Since then the divine intellect
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  Speaker 1: knows things together without succession. It is no more hindered
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  Speaker 1: from knowing the infinite than from knowing the finite. Moreover, all,
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  Speaker 1: quantity consists in a certain plurality of parts, for which
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  Speaker 1: reason number is the first of quantities. Accordingly, where plurality
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  Speaker 1: involves no difference, neither does it cause any difference consequent
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  Speaker 1: upon quantity. Now, in God's knowledge, many things are known
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  Speaker 1: in the same way as one, since they are known
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  Speaker 1: not by various species, but by one, which is God's essence.
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  Speaker 1: Wherefore many things are known by God simultaneously, and Consequently,
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  Speaker 1: plurality makes no difference in God's knowledge. Neither therefore does
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  Speaker 1: the infinite, which is consequent upon quantity. Therefore, knowledge, whether
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  Speaker 1: of infinite or of finite things, differs not to the
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  Speaker 1: divine intellect, and Consequently, since it knows finite things, nothing
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  Speaker 1: prevents it from knowing also infinite things. The words of
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  Speaker 1: the Psalm are in agreement with this and of his wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: There is no number. From the foregoing, it is clear
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  Speaker 1: why our intellect knows not the infinite as the divine
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  Speaker 1: intellect does. For our intellect differs from the divine intellect
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  Speaker 1: in four respects which constitute this difference. In the first place,
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  Speaker 1: our intellect is simply finite, whereas the divine intellect is infinite. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: our intellect knows different things by different species, wherefore it
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  Speaker 1: cannot grasp infinite things by one knowledge, as the divine
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  Speaker 1: intellect can. The third difference results from the fact that
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  Speaker 1: our intellect, since those different things by different species, cannot
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  Speaker 1: know many things at the same time, so that it
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  Speaker 1: cannot know an infinite number of things except by taking
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  Speaker 1: them one after the other, whereas it is not so
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  Speaker 1: in the divine intellect, which considers many things simultaneously, as
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  Speaker 1: seen by one's species. Fourthly, because the divine intellect is
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  Speaker 1: about things that are and things that are not, as
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  Speaker 1: we proved above, it is also clear how the saying
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  Speaker 1: of the philosopher that the infinite as such is unknown,
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  Speaker 1: is not in contradiction with this statement, For since, as
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  Speaker 1: he says, the notion of infinity is becoming to quantity,
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  Speaker 1: the infinite would be known as such if it were
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  Speaker 1: known by the measuring of its parts, because this is
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  Speaker 1: proper knowledge of quantity. But God does not know thus. Wherefore,
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  Speaker 1: so to say he knows the infinite not as such,
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  Speaker 1: but inasmuch as in comparison with his knowledge it is finite.
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  Speaker 1: As we have shown. It must be observed, however, that
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  Speaker 1: God does not know infinite things by his knowledge of vision,
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  Speaker 1: to use the expression employed by others, because the infinite
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  Speaker 1: neither is, nor was, nor will be actual, since according
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  Speaker 1: to the Catholic faith, generation is not infinite on either part.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he knows the infinite by his knowledge of simple intelligence.
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  Speaker 1: For God knows the infinite number of things that neither
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  Speaker 1: are nor will be, nor have been, and nevertheless are
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  Speaker 1: in the power of a creature. He knows also the
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  Speaker 1: infinite things that are in his power that neither are,
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  Speaker 1: nor have been, nor shall be. Wherefore, as regards the
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  Speaker 1: question about the knowledge of singulars, we might reply by
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  Speaker 1: denying the major premise, since singulars are not infinite. If however,
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  Speaker 1: they were, God would know them none. The less end
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter sixty nine, read by Michael Shane, Craig Lambert,
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  Speaker 1: l SI