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070 - Lxx That God Knows Trivial Things · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventy of Summa Contragentilees, First Book on God by
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  Speaker 1: Saint Thomas aquinas translated by the Fathers of the English
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  Speaker 1: Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventy that God knows trivial things. This being established,
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  Speaker 1: we must show that God knows trivial things, and that
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  Speaker 1: this is not inconsistent with the nobility of his knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: For the stronger an active power is the Further, does
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  Speaker 1: its action extend as appears even in the action of
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  Speaker 1: sensible things. Now, the force of the divine intellect in
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  Speaker 1: knowing things is likened to an active power, since the
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  Speaker 1: divine intellect knows not by receiving from things, but rather
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  Speaker 1: by pouring itself into them. Since then it is of
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  Speaker 1: infinite power in understanding as shown above, it follows that
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  Speaker 1: its knowledge extends to the most remote things. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: degrees of nobility and meanness in all beings depend on
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  Speaker 1: nearness to and distance from God, who is in the
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  Speaker 1: summit of nobility. Therefore, God, on account of the exceeding
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  Speaker 1: power of his intellect, knows things, even though they be
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  Speaker 1: in the last degree trivial. Further, whatever is forasmuch as
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  Speaker 1: it exists, or as such is actual and a likeness
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  Speaker 1: of the first act, and for this reason has nobility. Again,
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  Speaker 1: whatever is in potentiality has a share of nobility through
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  Speaker 1: its being ordained to actuality. For so is it said
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  Speaker 1: to be. It follows therefore that everything considered in itself
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  Speaker 1: is noble, but is said to be mean in comparison
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  Speaker 1: with that which is more noble. Now, the noblest of
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  Speaker 1: things other than God are no less distant from Him
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  Speaker 1: than the lowest creatures are from the highest. If therefore
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  Speaker 1: this latter distance hindered God's knowledge much more with the former,
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  Speaker 1: and thus would follow that God knows nothing other than himself,
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  Speaker 1: which has been disproved above. If therefore he knows something
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  Speaker 1: other than himself, however most noble, it may be for
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  Speaker 1: the same reason he knows everything, no matter how mean
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  Speaker 1: we call it. Moreover, the good of the order in
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  Speaker 1: the universe is more noble than any part of the universe,
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  Speaker 1: because each part is directed to the good of the order,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole as to its end. As the philosopher
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  Speaker 1: states in the Eleventh Book of Metaphysics, If then God
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  Speaker 1: knows some other noble nature, most of all must he
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  Speaker 1: know the order of the universe. But this cannot be
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  Speaker 1: known unless both noble and mean things be known, because
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  Speaker 1: the order of the universe consists in their mutual distances
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  Speaker 1: and relationships. It follows therefore that God knows not only
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  Speaker 1: noble things, but also those that are deemed trivial. Further,
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  Speaker 1: the meanness of things known does not of itself reflect
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  Speaker 1: on the Knower, for it belongs to the nature of
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  Speaker 1: knowledge that the knower contains the species of the things
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  Speaker 1: he knows according to his mode. And yet the meanness
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  Speaker 1: of things known may reflect accidentally on the Knower, either
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  Speaker 1: because while considering mean things, he is withdrawn from the
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  Speaker 1: thought of noble things, or because through considering mean things
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  Speaker 1: he is inclined to certain undo affections. But this cannot
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  Speaker 1: take place in God, as appears from what has been said. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of trivial things is not derogatory to the
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  Speaker 1: nobility of God. Rather does it belong to his perfection,
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  Speaker 1: forasmuch as he prepossesses all things in himself. As we
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  Speaker 1: have shown above, again, a power is accounted little, not
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  Speaker 1: through being capable of little things, but through being confined
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  Speaker 1: to little results. Since a power that is capable of
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  Speaker 1: great things is also capable of little ones. Accordingly, knowledge
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  Speaker 1: that comprises both no noble and trivial things is not
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  Speaker 1: to be accounted trivial, but only that which comprises none
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  Speaker 1: but trivial things, as happens with us. For our thoughts
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  Speaker 1: of divine things are distinct from our thoughts of human things,
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  Speaker 1: and of each we have a distinct knowledge. Wherefore, in
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  Speaker 1: comparison with the more noble, the less noble is accounted mean.
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  Speaker 1: But it is not thus in God, because he considers
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  Speaker 1: all things with the same thought and knowledge. Therefore, no
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  Speaker 1: meanness is to be ascribed to his knowledge on account
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  Speaker 1: of his knowing any mean things whatever. In accord with
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  Speaker 1: this is the saying of Wisdom Chapter seven, Verses twenty
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  Speaker 1: four and five, about divine wisdom, that she reacheth everywhere
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  Speaker 1: by reason of her purity, and no defiled thing cometh
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  Speaker 1: into her. It is clear from what has been said
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  Speaker 1: that the argument put forward in opposition is not subversive
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  Speaker 1: of the truth we have demonstrated. For the nobility of
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  Speaker 1: a science depends on the principal object of that science,
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  Speaker 1: and not on whatever may come under that science. Because
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  Speaker 1: with us, not only the highest but also the lowest
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  Speaker 1: beings come under the most noble of sciences, for the
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  Speaker 1: treaties of metaphysics extends from the first being to potential being,
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  Speaker 1: which is the lowest of all beings. Thus, then the
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  Speaker 1: divine knowledge comprises the lowest beings as being known at
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  Speaker 1: the same time with the object known principally. For the
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  Speaker 1: divine essence is the principal object of God's knowledge, and
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  Speaker 1: in it he knows all things. As we have shown above,
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  Speaker 1: it is also evident that this true truth is not
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  Speaker 1: in contradiction with the statements of the philosopher in the
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  Speaker 1: Eleventh Book of Metaphysics, for there he intends to prove
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  Speaker 1: that the divine intellect knows not something other than himself,
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  Speaker 1: that is a perfection of his intellect as the principal
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  Speaker 1: object of its knowledge. And in this sense he states
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  Speaker 1: that it is better not to know mean things than
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  Speaker 1: to know them, when that is, knowledge of trivial things
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  Speaker 1: is distinct from the knowledge of noble things, and the
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  Speaker 1: thought of mean things is an obstacle to the thought
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  Speaker 1: of noble things. End of Chapter seventy read by Michael Shane, Craig,
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  Speaker 1: Lambert Elsie