scholarly journals “Parvus error in principio magnus est in fine”: Thomas Aquinas’s Reinterpretation of the Understanding of Being and Essence as the Basis for the Discovery of the First Cause as Ipsum Esse

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Andrzej Maryniarczyk
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The World ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
First Cause

In this article, the author notes that Thomas Aquinas, in his brief work entitled De Ente et Essentia, proved that at the base of understanding the world, the human being, and God in particular, there is our understanding of being and its essence. When we make a small mistake at the beginning (parvus error in principio) in our understanding of being and its essence, it will turn to be a big one in the end (magnus in fine). And what is “at the end” of our knowledge is the discovery of the First and Ultimate Cause of all things, known as: Ipsum Esse, God, the Absolute, The Most Perfect Substance, on whom everything depends, and who depends not on anything else. These present inquiries about the proper understanding of being and its essence are aimed at formulating proof of the necessity of existence of a Being that is the First Cause, and which, existing as Ipsum Esse, is the source and reason of existence of all beings. Without these inquiries, the proof itself would be incomprehensible, and more importantly it would be a purely a priori one (i.e., ontological). Furthermore, without the existential conception of being, which Thomas first formulated, one could not discover the First Cause which, as Ipsum Esse, is the source of the existence of every being. This issue seems to have escaped the attention of the author of the book Aquinas’s Way to God. The Proof in “De Ente et Essentia.”

The Neuronal Crisis: Meditate to Comprehend the Nature of Psychosomatic Epidemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Henri Hude
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The West ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Experimental Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Rational Consideration ◽  
Existential Problem

This articles describes the “neuronal crisis,” the epidemic of psychosomatic illnesses observed all over the world, particularly in the West. The paper looks into the deeper real causes and seeks the most effective kind of cure for this malady. This leads to rational consideration of the metaphysical dimension of the human being and the fundamental problems (those of evil, of freedom, of God, of the soul, and of the body), where lack of sufficiency plays a major part in the etiology of these pathologies, as the desire for the Absolute is the basis of the unconscious. This approach presumes the Freudian model but denies its purely libidinal interpretation that substitutes desire for the Absolute with libido. Hence, an explanatory system applied to increasingly serious pathologies: ailments, neuroses, depressions, and psychoses. Frustration of one’s desire for the Good gives rise to a sublimation of finite goodness. The inevitable desublimation, caused by anguish because of the Evil, intense guilt, and the dramatization of evils, causes neuroses as awkward but inevitable solutions to the existential problem that is still unresolved, due to lack of functional and experimental knowledge. Psychiatry and even medicine must take into account the metaphysical layer, and, therefore, operate within an existential dynamic, aiming to progress in wisdom and to discover man, man’s brain and body, as these are structured around the axis of his desire.

scholarly journals Justifying Unparticipated Causality in Proclus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Greig
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Efficient Cause ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Separate Source ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
First Cause ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
The University ◽  
Phd Thesis

Proclus introduces the concept of the unparticipated (ἀμέθεκτον) (P1) among two other terms— the participated (P2) and participant (P3)—as the first principle (ἀρχή) of any given series of entities or Forms in his metaphysical structure. For instance, the unparticipated monad (P1), Soul, generates all individual, participated souls (P2), which in turn generate the attribute of life in their respective, participating bodies (P3). Proclus looks at (P2) as an efficient cause of (P3), where (P2) must be the attribute in actuality in relation to the attribute it brings about in (P3). At the outset, this suggests that (P2) is necessary and sufficient for (P3), which then implies a problem for positing (P1): if (P2) is doing the causal legwork for (P3), what role does (P1) play? One of Proclus’ main explanations is that (P1) is responsible for ‘unifying’ the multiple participated entities (P2), so that the commonality of the participated entities (P2) must go back to a separate source (P1). However, one could easily respond that this just amounts to a reversion to a priori Platonist principles for transcendent, separate Forms without providing a real justification for the necessity of (P1) as a cause. In my talk, I wish to elaborate on how Proclus thinks about (P1)’s type of causation in relation to (P2) and (P3), particularly showing why (P2) for Proclus is ultimately insufficient as an efficient cause compared to (P1) as the absolute first cause for a given series.[Early work on a PhD thesis chapter — presentation for the University of Edinburgh, July 16, 2017. Any comments or feedback are welcome!]

A Metafísica de Copleston e o Debate com Russell

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1331-1362
Author(s):  
Alexander Maar
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Cause ◽  
The Way

Father Frederick Copleston is best known for his carefully crafted works History of Philosophy and Thomas Aquinas. Copleston’s most notable metaphysical thesis is his interpretation of the argument from contingency, which he sees as the superior choice for theists. He draws on Aquinas and distinguishes between causa fieri and causa esse to argue that God is a higher order (vertical) cause of contingent causal series (horizontal). Copleston presents God not as a temporal first cause, but an ontologically ultimate cause necessary to explain a contingent universe. His contribution changed the way we read Aquinas. Copleston’s willingness to debate his thesis with different philosophical perspectives is illustrated by his acceptance to discuss God’s existence with Bertrand Russell, in 1948. This BBC radio debate epitomises the dispute between theists and atheists from the 1940s onwards. I undertake to expound and comment Copleston’s contribution to metaphysics, present relevant parts of the debate and provide criticism.

scholarly journals The Joy of Being as Anthropological Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Agapov Oleg D. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Subjectivity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Human Condition

The joy of being is connected with one’s activities aimed at responding to the challenges of the elemental forces and the boundlessness of being, which are independent of human subjectivity. In the context of rising to the challenges of being, one settles to acquire a certain power of being in themselves and in the world. Thus, the joy of being is tied to achieving the level of the “miraculous fecundity” (E. Levinas), “an internal necessity of one’s life” (F. Vasilyuk), magnanimity (M. Mamardashvili). The ontological duty of any human being is to succeed at being human. The joy of being is closely connected to experiencing one’s involvement in the endless/eternity and realizing one’s subjective temporality/finitude, which attunes him to the absolute seriousness in relation to one’s complete realization in life. Joy is a foundational anthropological phenomenon in the structure of ways of experiencing the human condition. The joy of being as an anthropological practice can appear as a constantly expanding sphere of human subjectivity where the transfiguration of the powers of being occurs under the sign of the Height (Levinas) / the Good. Without the possibility of transfiguration human beings get tired of living, immerse themselves in the dejected state of laziness and the hopelessness of vanity. The joy of being is connected to unity, gathering the multiplicity of human life under the aegis of meaning that allows us to see the other and the alien in heteronomous being, and understand the nature of co-participation and responsibility before the forces of being, and also act in synergy with them.The joy of being stands before a human being as the joy of fatherhood/ motherhood, the joy of being a witness to the world in creative acts (the subject as a means to retreat before the world and let the world shine), the joy of every day that was saved from absurdity, darkness and the impersonal existence of the total. Keywords: joy, higher reality, anthropological practices, “the height”, subject, transcendence, practice of coping

scholarly journals PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE “HEART” SOMATISM IN STRUCTURALLY DIFFERENT LANGUAGES (BASED ON KHAKAS, BURYAT AND KHANTY)

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-158
Author(s):  
MARIA D. CHERTYKOVA ◽  
◽  
BABASAN D. TSYRENOV ◽  
ANDREY D. KAKSIN ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
The World ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Absolute

The article describes lexical, semantic and linguocultural features of the Khakas, Buryat and Khanty phraseological units with the “heart” component. As a significant and basic fragment of the phraseological picture of the world, this layer of the lexical system is formed on the basis of the cultural and ideological competence of the ethnos. The universal feature of somatic phraseological understanding, which has received a figurative expression in the Khakass, Buryat and Khanty linguistic cultures, is that the heart symbolizes not only “a reservoir of experienced emotions and innermost thoughts”, but also the absolute center of everything connected with the human being. At the same time, each of the languages studied contains the national specifics of seeing the world through an associative image of the heart. In Khanty, it is body’s physical need, in Buryat it is a container filled with liquid that can spill over. While experiencing positive emotions, in Khakas, the heart goes up but in Khanty, it falls down and oil flows down it.

scholarly journals The Dignity of the Person in the Context of Human Providence

1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Piotr S. Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute

Thomas Aquinas understands providence as the reason of directing things to ends (ratio ordinis rerum in finem), and as the execution of that directing, i.e. governance (gubernatio). Thus, providence is one of the fundamental attributes of the person that reveals the person's perfection and dignity. Providence consists in a free and reasonable directing of oneself and the reality subject to oneself in order to actualize potentialities of oneself and of other beings in the context of the ultimate goal of existence. Human providence joins the providence of the Absolute with regard to the world. In spite of its deficiencies human providence reveals the essential dignity of the human person.

Analogical Understanding of Divine Causality in Thomas Aquinas

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Roszak
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The World ◽  
Biblical Commentaries ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
Secondary Causes ◽  
Divine Causality

The article presents the question of understanding divine causality and its analogical character in the context of Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on Divine Providence. Analyzing Aquinas’s texts concerning the relation of God’s action towards nature and its activities it is necessary to emphasize the proper understanding of mutual relations between secondary causes and the primary cause which are not on the same level. Influenced by the reflection of M. Dodds and I Silva, the author of the article refers to Aquinas’s biblical commentaries which have not been discussed so far from the perspective of the character of God’s action. In the final part of the article, metaphors used by Thomas in reference to the relation of God towards the world will be presented.

The Immortality of Man

1941 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-427
Author(s):  
Jacques Maritain
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
The World

Let us think of the human being, not in an abstract and general way, but in the most concrete possible, the most personal fashion. Let us think of this certain old man we have known for years in the country, —this old farmer with his wrinkled face, his keen eyes which have beheld so many harvests and so many earthly horizons, his long habits of patience and suffering, courage, poverty and noble labor, a man perhaps like those parents of a great living American statesman whose photographs appeared some months ago in a particularly moving copy of a weekly magazine. Or let us think of this certain boy or this girl who are our relatives or our friends, whose everyday life we well know, and whose loved appearance, whose soft or husky voice is enough to rejoice our hearts. Let us remember—remember in our heart—a single gesture of the hand, or the smile in the eyes of one we love. What treasures on earth, what masterpieces of art or of science, could pay for the treasures of life, feeling, freedom and memory, of which this gesture, this smile is the fugitive expression? We perceive intuitively, in an indescribable not inescapable flash, that nothing in the world is more precious than one single human being. I am well aware how many difficult questions come to mind at the same time and I shall come back to these difficulties, but for the present I wish only to keep in mind this simple and decisive intuition, by means of which the incomparable value of the human person is revealed to us. Moreover, St. Thomas Aquinas warns us that the Person is what is noblest and most perfect in the whole of nature.

Time and Metaphysics: Kant and McTaggart on the Reality of Time

Kant Yearbook ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
Matthew Rukgaber
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Infinite Regress ◽  
First Person ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The World ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Mctaggart’S Argument

Abstract The paper examines Kant’s theory of time in light of McTaggart’s argument that time is unreal. First, it presents McTaggart’s theory of time and his argument that a contradiction inevitably emerges in time’s analysis, leading either to an infinite regress of times or the denial that time is real. The paper then shows that Kant rejects the absolute notion of time, the idea that there are eternal coordinates that are experienced by us as being in time. It argues against subjectivist or psychological interpretations of Kant’s theory of time. The main argument is that Kant’s notion of a priori intuition, rather than being the flow of mental states in consciousness, is the subject’s self-intuition as being temporally present, and, moreover, that the present acts as a temporal metric, specifying a first-person perspective in the world and designating a temporal simple.

Apophatical Metaphysics of a Subject

1998 ◽  
pp. 90-94
Author(s):  
Igor D. Nevvazhay
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

In this paper, the inevitability of the metaphysics of a subject for the philosophical understanding of a person’s being in the world is established, and the apophatic character of this type of metaphysics is discussed. Analysis of the categories of being and non-being which allow the interpretation of a subject as transcendent and as transcendental being that is characterized by uniformity, spontaneity and irreversibility is also mentioned. The suggested interpretation of a subject discloses both the rational sense of the classical points of view on the absolute, unconditional, timeless and spaceless character of the subject of knowledge, and the compatibility of the notions of the absolute character of a subject and the ontological condition of a human being in society and culture. The main idea of the suggested conception of a subject is the fact that the subject’s being cannot be "housed" into the world, nor can it be characterized as impossible existence for the world. The world can be understood only from the point of view of being impossible (symbolic) existence. The discussion of the problem of identification of a subject shows that the presumption of a subject as one of the existing structures of the world leads to paradoxes and contradictions in the interpretation of the processes taking place in the world. To understand the process of education, it is necessary to bear in mind that it is not only cognitive, but also moral: education is the process of the formation of a subject of knowledge through identification with transcendental symbolic existence, which fact demands making efforts to be on the part of the thinking person.

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