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033 - Xxxiii That Not All Terms Applied To God And Creatures Are Purely Equivocal · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty 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 thirty three that not all terms applied to God
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  Speaker 1: and creatures are purely equivocal. It is also clear from
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  Speaker 1: what has been said that things predicated of God and
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  Speaker 1: other things are not all purely equivocations, as are the
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  Speaker 1: effects of an equivocal cause. For in the effects of
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  Speaker 1: an equivocal cause, we find no mutual order or relationship.
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  Speaker 1: And it is altogether accidental that the same name is
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  Speaker 1: applied to various things, since the name applied to one
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  Speaker 1: does not signify that thing to have any relationship to another.
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  Speaker 1: Wherefore it is not so with the terms applied to
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  Speaker 1: God and creatures. For in employing these common terms we
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  Speaker 1: consider the order of cause and effect, as is clear
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  Speaker 1: from what we have said. Therefore, certain things predicated of
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  Speaker 1: God and other things are not pure equivocations. Moreover, where
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  Speaker 1: there is pure equivocation, we observe no likeness of things,
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  Speaker 1: but merely sameness of name. Now there is some kind
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  Speaker 1: of likeness of things to God is shown above. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: it follows that they are not said.
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  Speaker 2: Of God by pure equivocation. Again, when one thing is
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  Speaker 2: predicated of several by pure equivocation, we cannot be led
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  Speaker 2: from one to the knowledge of the other. For the
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  Speaker 2: knowledge of things depends not on words, but on the
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  Speaker 2: meaning of names. Now we come to the knowledge of
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  Speaker 2: things divine from our observation of other things, as shown above.
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  Speaker 2: Therefore the like are not pure equivocations when said of
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  Speaker 2: God and other things. Further, the use of equivocal terms
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  Speaker 2: breaks the continuity of an argument. Therefore, if nothing were
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  Speaker 2: said of God and creatures except by pure equivocation, no
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  Speaker 2: argument could be made by proceeding to God from creatures,
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  Speaker 2: whereas the contrary is evidenced by all who speak of
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  Speaker 2: divine things. Moreover, it is useless to predicate a name
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  Speaker 2: of a thing unless by that name we understand something
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  Speaker 2: about that thing. Now, if names are predicated altogether equivocally
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  Speaker 2: of God and creatures, we understand nothing of God by
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  Speaker 2: those names. Since the meanings of those names are known
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  Speaker 2: to us only as applied to creatures. It would therefore
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  Speaker 2: be to no purpose to prove about God that God
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  Speaker 2: is being good or anything else of the kind. If, however,
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  Speaker 2: it be asserted that by such like terms we only
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  Speaker 2: know of God what he is not, so that to
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  Speaker 2: wit he be called living, because he is not in
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  Speaker 2: the genus of inanimate beings. And so forth it follows
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  Speaker 2: at least that living, when said of God and creatures,
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  Speaker 2: agrees in the negation of inanimate being, and thus it
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  Speaker 2: will not be a pure equivocation. End of Chapter thirty three,
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  Speaker 2: read by Michael Shane, Craig, Lambert Elsie