The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
Learn by Watching, Smelling, Touching...
August 21, 1998
How would you like a big chocolate fudge sundae with whipped cream and a cherry? Or, how about a nice big juicy hamburger with all the fixins’?
Sorry, I’m not really offering such things.
Chances are that you can picture these in your mind, if you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not from the south and I offered you some biscuits and gravy, you might not understand how the two go together. It would be rather difficult to put the two together.
Aquinas spends a little bit of time in the Compendium of Theology (Ch. 82-83) discussing these matters – not biscuits and gravy, but man’s need for an agent of the intellect. Senses are those agents of the intellect.
It’s rather simple really. Aquinas argues that the intellect knows things universal, while senses detect particulars. The intellect is associated with act, while senses are associated with potency – the corporeal.
The senses, however, provide the intellect with information necessary to grasp the universal.
You can only imagine a big chocolate fudge sundae if you have seen and tasted one before. But, having seen one, you are able to picture a sundae without having to physically see it again.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
