Part I (Prima Pars) Part 24 (1/2)

_I answer that,_ It must be said that the act of G.o.d's intellect is His substance. For if His act of understanding were other than His substance, then something else, as the Philosopher says (Metaph.

xii), would be the act and perfection of the divine substance, to which the divine substance would be related, as potentiality is to act, which is altogether impossible; because the act of understanding is the perfection and act of the one understanding. Let us now consider how this is. As was laid down above (A. 2), to understand is not an act pa.s.sing to anything extrinsic; for it remains in the operator as his own act and perfection; as existence is the perfection of the one existing: just as existence follows on the form, so in like manner to understand follows on the intelligible species. Now in G.o.d there is no form which is something other than His existence, as shown above (Q. 3). Hence as His essence itself is also His intelligible species, it necessarily follows that His act of understanding must be His essence and His existence.

Thus it follows from all the foregoing that in G.o.d, intellect, and the object understood, and the intelligible species, and His act of understanding are entirely one and the same. Hence when G.o.d is said to be understanding, no kind of multiplicity is attached to His substance.

Reply Obj. 1: To understand is not an operation proceeding out of the operator, but remaining in him.

Reply Obj. 2: When that act of understanding which is not subsistent is understood, something not great is understood; as when we understand our act of understanding; and so this cannot be likened to the act of the divine understanding which is subsistent.

Thus appears the Reply to the Third Objection. For the act of divine understanding subsists in itself, and belongs to its very self and is not another's; hence it need not proceed to infinity.

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FIFTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 14, Art. 5]

Whether G.o.d Knows Things Other Than Himself?

Objection 1: It seems that G.o.d does not know things besides Himself.

For all other things but G.o.d are outside of G.o.d. But Augustine says (Octog. Tri. Quaest. qu. xlvi) that ”G.o.d does not behold anything out of Himself.” Therefore He does not know things other than Himself.

Obj. 2: Further, the object understood is the perfection of the one who understands. If therefore G.o.d understands other things besides Himself, something else will be the perfection of G.o.d, and will be n.o.bler than He; which is impossible.

Obj. 3: Further, the act of understanding is specified by the intelligible object, as is every other act from its own object. Hence the intellectual act is so much the n.o.bler, the n.o.bler the object understood. But G.o.d is His own intellectual act. If therefore G.o.d understands anything other than Himself, then G.o.d Himself is specified by something else than Himself; which cannot be. Therefore He does not understand things other than Himself.

_On the contrary,_ It is written: ”All things are naked and open to His eyes” (Heb. 4:13).

_I answer that,_ G.o.d necessarily knows things other than Himself. For it is manifest that He perfectly understands Himself; otherwise His existence would not be perfect, since His existence is His act of understanding. Now if anything is perfectly known, it follows of necessity that its power is perfectly known. But the power of anything can be perfectly known only by knowing to what its power extends. Since therefore the divine power extends to other things by the very fact that it is the first effective cause of all things, as is clear from the aforesaid (Q. 2, A. 3), G.o.d must necessarily know things other than Himself. And this appears still more plainly if we add that the very existence of the first effective cause--viz.

G.o.d--is His own act of understanding. Hence whatever effects pre-exist in G.o.d, as in the first cause, must be in His act of understanding, and all things must be in Him according to an intelligible mode: for everything which is in another, is in it according to the mode of that in which it is.

Now in order to know how G.o.d knows things other than Himself, we must consider that a thing is known in two ways: in itself, and in another.

A thing is known in itself when it is known by the proper species adequate to the knowable object; as when the eye sees a man through the image of a man. A thing is seen in another through the image of that which contains it; as when a part is seen in the whole by the image of the whole; or when a man is seen in a mirror by the image in the mirror, or by any other mode by which one thing is seen in another.

So we say that G.o.d sees Himself in Himself, because He sees Himself through His essence; and He sees other things not in themselves, but in Himself; inasmuch as His essence contains the similitude of things other than Himself.

Reply Obj. 1: The pa.s.sage of Augustine in which it is said that G.o.d ”sees nothing outside Himself” is not to be taken in such a way, as if G.o.d saw nothing outside Himself, but in the sense that what is outside Himself He does not see except in Himself, as above explained.

Reply Obj. 2: The object understood is a perfection of the one understanding not by its substance, but by its image, according to which it is in the intellect, as its form and perfection, as is said in _De Anima_ iii. For ”a stone is not in the soul, but its image.”

Now those things which are other than G.o.d are understood by G.o.d, inasmuch as the essence of G.o.d contains their images as above explained; hence it does not follow that there is any perfection in the divine intellect other than the divine essence.

Reply Obj. 3: The intellectual act is not specified by what is understood in another, but by the princ.i.p.al object understood in which other things are understood. For the intellectual act is specified by its object, inasmuch as the intelligible form is the principle of the intellectual operation: since every operation is specified by the form which is its principle of operation; as heating by heat. Hence the intellectual operation is specified by that intelligible form which makes the intellect in act. And this is the image of the princ.i.p.al thing understood, which in G.o.d is nothing but His own essence in which all images of things are comprehended. Hence it does not follow that the divine intellectual act, or rather G.o.d Himself, is specified by anything else than the divine essence itself.

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SIXTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 14, Art. 6]

Whether G.o.d Knows Things Other Than Himself by Proper Knowledge?

Objection 1: It seems that G.o.d does not know things other than Himself by proper knowledge. For, as was shown (A. 5), G.o.d knows things other than Himself, according as they are in Himself. But other things are in Him as in their common and universal cause, and are known by G.o.d as in their first and universal cause. This is to know them by general, and not by proper knowledge. Therefore G.o.d knows things besides Himself by general, and not by proper knowledge.

Obj. 2: Further, the created essence is as distant from the divine essence, as the divine essence is distant from the created essence.

But the divine essence cannot be known by the created essence, as said above (Q. 12, A. 2). Therefore neither can the created essence be known by the divine essence. Thus as G.o.d knows only by His essence, it follows that He does not know what the creature is in its essence, so as to know ”what it is,” which is to have proper knowledge of it.