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053 - Liii Solution Of The Foregoing Doubt · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifty three 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 domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifty three Solution of the foregoing Doubt. The foregoing
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  Speaker 1: doubt may be easily solved if we examine carefully how
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  Speaker 1: things understood are in the understanding, and in order that
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  Speaker 1: as far as possible, we may proceed from our intellect
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  Speaker 1: to the knowledge of the divine intellect. It must be
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  Speaker 1: observed that the external objects which we understand do not
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  Speaker 1: exist in our intellect according to their own nature. But
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  Speaker 1: it is necessary that our intellect contain their species, whereby
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  Speaker 1: it becomes intellect in act, and being in act by
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  Speaker 1: this species, as by its proper form, it understands the
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  Speaker 1: object itself. And yet yet the act of understanding is
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  Speaker 1: not an act passing into the intellect, as heating passes
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  Speaker 1: into the object heated. But it remains in the one
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  Speaker 1: who understands, although it bears a relation to the object understood,
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  Speaker 1: for the very reason that the aforesaid species, which is
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  Speaker 1: the formal principle of intellectual operation, is the image of
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  Speaker 1: that object. It must furthermore be observed that the intellect,
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  Speaker 1: informed by the species of the object by understanding, produces
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  Speaker 1: in itself a kind of intention of the object understood,
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  Speaker 1: which intention reflects the nature of that object and is
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  Speaker 1: expressed in the definition thereof. This indeed is necessary, since
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  Speaker 1: the intellect understands indifferently a thing absent or present, and
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  Speaker 1: in this point agrees with the imagination. Yet the intellect
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  Speaker 1: has this besides that it under stands a thing as
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  Speaker 1: separate from material conditions, without which it does not exist
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  Speaker 1: in reality. And this is impossible unless the intellect forms
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  Speaker 1: for itself the aforesaid intention. Now, this understood intension, since
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  Speaker 1: it is the term, so to speak, of the intellectual operation,
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  Speaker 1: is distinct from the intelligible species, which makes the intellect
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  Speaker 1: in act, and which we must look upon as the
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  Speaker 1: principle of the intellectual operation. Albeit each is an image
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  Speaker 1: of the object understood, Since it is because the intelligible species,
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  Speaker 1: which is the form of the intellect and the principle
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  Speaker 1: of understanding, is the image of the external object, that
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  Speaker 1: the intellect in consequence forms an intention like that object.
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  Speaker 1: For such as a thing is, such is the effect
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  Speaker 1: of its operation. And since the understood intention is like
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  Speaker 1: a particular thing, it follows that the intellect, by forming
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  Speaker 1: this intention, understands that thing. On the other hand, the
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  Speaker 1: divine intellect understands by no species other than his essence,
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  Speaker 1: as we have proved. And yet his essence is the
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  Speaker 1: likeness of all things. Wherefore it follows from this that
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  Speaker 1: the concept of the Divine intellect, according as he understands himself,
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  Speaker 1: which concept is his word, is the likeness not only
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  Speaker 1: of God himself understood, but also of all things, of
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  Speaker 1: which the Divine essence is the likeness. Accordingly, many things
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  Speaker 1: can be understood by God by one intelligible species, which
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  Speaker 1: is the Divine essence, and by one understood intention, which
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  Speaker 1: is the Divine Word. End of Chapter fifty three read
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  Speaker 1: by Michael Shane, Craig Lambert el Sis. See