Degrees of Knowledge

Jacques Maritain

Description

Maritain argues that there are different ‘kinds’ and ‘orders’ of knowledge and, within them, different ‘degrees’ determined by the nature of the thing to be known and the ‘degree of abstraction’ involved. The book is divided into two parts: Part one discusses the degrees of knowledge for science and philosophy – or ‘rational knowledge,’ and part two discusses the degrees of knowledge for religious faith and mysticism – or ‘super-rational knowledge.’

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Épistémologie
• Philosophie moderne
• Philosophie moderne
• mysticism
• Surveys
• Modern
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Thomas Aquinas
• Modern history
• General officer
• Ethics
• Epistemology
• General
• History
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268201371
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 38 Mo

Extrait

The Degrees of Knowledge THE COLLECTED WORKS OF JACQUES MARITAIN
Volume7
Honorary Editor-in-Chief
Theodore M. Hesburgh, c.s.c.
Editors
Ralph Mcinerny
Frederick Crosson Bernard Doering
Acknowledgments
A grant from the Homeland Foundation enabled this series to get under
way.
The following Notre Dame graduate students worked on some stage of the
production of this book: John O'Callaghan, Michael Waddell, Melissa Pirelli,
Christopher Kaczor, Michael Letteney, Randall Smith and Brendan Kelly. Mrs.
Jean Oesterle served as proofreader of several chapters. DISTINGUISH TO UNITE
or
The Degrees of Knowledge
JACQUES MARITAIN
Translated from the fourth French edition
under the supervision of
Gerald B. Phelan
Presented by
Ralph Mcinerny
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana University of Notre Dame Press Revised Edition
Copyright © 1995of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Paperback published in 1998, reprinted in 2002, 2009, 2011, 2014
First published in 1959, copyright © Jacques Maritain,
by Charles Scribner’s Sons
This ebook has been made possible in part by a major grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring
the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or
recommendations expressed in this book do not necessarily
represent those of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Maritain, Jacques, 1882–1973
[Degrés du savoir. English]
The degrees of knowledge / Jacques Maritain : presented by Ralph
McInerny : translated from the fourth French edition under the supervision
of Gerald B. Phelan.
p. cm. — (The collected works of Jacques Maritain : v. 7)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-268-00876-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN 13: 978-0-268-00886-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 10: 0-268-00886-8 (pbk.)
1. Knowledge, Theory of. 2. Philosophy of nature.
3. Metaphysics. 4. God—Knowableness. 5. Mysticism. 6. Wisdom.
I. McInerny, Ralph M. II. Title. III. Series: Maritain, Jacques,
1882–1973. Works. 1995
BD162.M273 1995
121—dc20 94-45159TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface to the Ongmal French Edition ix
Postscript to the Second Edition xv to the Third XVl
Foreword xvii
Introduction by Ralph Mclnemy XlX
Maritain Chronology xxii
Chapter I. The Majesty and Poverty of Metaphysics 1
First Part: The Degrees of Rational Knowledge: Philosophy and
Experimental Science
Chapter II. Philosophy and Science 23
I. The Object of This Chapter 23
Science in General
Necessity and Contingency
A Digression on "Determinism in Nature"
Another Digression. How Do We Attain Essences?
Sciences of Explanation (In the Full Sense of the Word)
and Sciences of Observation
II. The Degrees of Abstraction 37
Table of the Sciences
III. Science and Philosophy 50
Clarifications on the Notion of Fact
The Structures and Methods of the Principal Kinds of
Knowledge
The Proper Conditions for Philosophy. Its Relation to
Facts
Knowledge of the Physico-Mathematical Type and
Philosophy
Knowledge of a Biological and Psychological Kind
Conclusion
Speculative Philosophy 73
Chapter III. Critical Realism 75
I. "Critical Realism" 75
Scio aliquid esse
II. Realism and Common Sense 86 Vl Contents
Truth
Thing and Object
Digression on Phenomenology and the Cartesian
Meditations
Concerning Idealism
III. Concerning Knowledge Itself 118
The Concept
Idealistic Positions and Attempts at Reaction
The Universe of Existence and the Universe of
Intelligibility
Being of Reason
Chapter IV. Knowledge of Sensible Nature 145
I. The Main Types of Knowing 145
Modem Physics Considered in its General
Epistemological Type
Real Being and Being of Reason in Physico­
Mathematical Knowledge
Ontological Explanation and Empiriological
Explanation and Some Recastings of the
Notion of Causality
The New Physics
A Digression on the Question of "Real Space"
II. The Philosophy of Nature 184
Complementary Elucidations
196 III. Mechanism
Dangerous Liaisons
Ontology and Empiriology in the Study of the
Living Organism
The Anti-Mechanist Reaction in Biology
Concerning the True and the False Philosophy of the
Progress of the Sciences in Modem Times
Chapter V. Metaphysical Knowledge 215
I. Dianoetic Intellection and Perinoetic Intellection 215
Scholastic Digression
The Human Intelligence and Corporeal Natures
II. The Metaphysical Intelligible 224
The Transintelligible and Ananoetic
Intellection
III. The Divine Names 240
The Name of Person
The Way of Knowing and the Way of Non-Knowing
The Superanalogy of Faith CONTENTS vii
Second Part: The Degrees of Suprarational Knowledge
Chapter VI. Mystical Experience and Philosophy 263
I. The Three Wisdoms 263
II. Sanctifying Grace 270
The Indwelling of the Divine Persons in the Soul
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost
Knowledge by Connaturality
Fides Illustrata Donis
III. Transition to a Few Problems 282
Is There an Authentic Mystical Experience in the
Natural Order?
First Objection
Second
Third Objection
Does Metaphysics of Itself Demand Mystical
Experience?
Natural Analogies of Mystical Experience Connections
Between Metaphysics and Mysticism
Chapter VII. Augustinian Wisdom 310
A Typical Problem
The Gift of Wisdom Making Use of Discourse
Platonic Reason and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
The Character of Augustine's Doctrine
Augustinism and Technical Differentiations Within
Christian Thought
Thomas Aquinas, Augustine's Heir
Thomism and Augustinism
Chapter VIII. St. John of the Cross, Practitioner of Contemplation 329
I. Communicable Knowledge and Incommunicable
Knowledge 329
II. The Speculative Order and the Practical Order 330
Practically Practical Science
The Practical Science of Contemplation
III. The Meaning of Human Life 338
Theological Faith
IV. The "Practicality" of St. John of the Cross' Vocabulary 346
The Doctrine of the Void
V. Mystical Contemplation 359
Contemplative Purity and Poverty of Spirit viii Contents
Chapter IX. Toda Y Nada 375
Appendixes
Appendix I: The Concept 411
Appendix II: On Analogy 442
446 Appendix III: What God Is
Appendix IV: On the Notion of Subsistence 454
Further Elucidations (1954)
Appendix V: On a Work of Father Gardeil 469
Appendix VI: Some Clarifications 475
Appendix VII: "Speculative" and "Practical" 481
I. On the Proper Mode of Moral Philosophy
II. General Remarks About the Speculative and Practical
Appendix VIII: "Le Amara Tanto Como es Amada" 490 IX: The "Cautelas" of St. John of the Cross 493
Index 496 PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL FRENCH EDITION
1 THE TITLE OF THIS WORK suffices to declare its plan and purpose. To scatter and
to confuse are both equally inimical to the nature of the mind. "No one," says
Tauler, "understands true distinction better than they who have entered into
unity." So, too, no one truly knows unity who does not also know distinction.
Every attempt at metaphysical synthesis, especially when it deals with the
complex riches of knowledge and of the mind, must distinguish in order to
unite. What is thus incumbent upon a reflexive and critical philosophy is above
all to discriminate and discern the degrees of knowing, its organization and
its internal differentiations.
Idealism usually chooses a particular order of sciences as the univocal type
of the world of knowing and constructs its whole philosophy of knowing with
reference to that chosen type. Not only does it thus systematically neglect vast
areas of knowledge but it also tends to reduce the diversities of the life of the
mind to a noetic monism, more sterile, no doubt, and less excusable than the
ontological monism of the first philosophers. (For, after all, the mind knows
itself; and what excuse can idealism offer when it deceives itself about the very
structures of thought?)
In retaliation, many realists seem disposed to abandon the problems proper
to the mind as the price they pay for the possession of things. And we are
witnessing today a new "cultural"
"dogmatic identifying the anti-idealism of which it makes profession with
dialectical materialism.
We hope to show in this book that Thomistic realism, in preserving, accord­
ing to a truly critical method, the value of the knowledge of things, opens the
way to an exploration of the world of reflection in its very inwardness and to
the establishment of its metaphysical topology, so to speak; thus, "philosophy
of being" is at once, and par excellence, "philosophy of mind."
The mind, even more so than the physical world and bodily organisms,
possesses its own dimensions, its structure and internal hierarchy of causali­
ties and values-immaterial though they be. Contemporary idealism, in the
last analysis, refuses to recognize that mind has any nature or any structure.
It sees it only as a pure movement, a pure freedom. Hence, it never really gets
beyond spreading it out, whole and entire, upon a single plane of intellection,
like a two-dimensional world, infinitely flat. One is, however, justified in
thinking that the four dimensions of which St. Paul speaks "quae sit latitudo et
longitudo et sublimitas et profundum," (Eph. 3. 18) belong not only to the sphere
(or super-sphere) of the contemplation of the saint, but, generally, to the
fundamental organization and structure of the things of the mind, both in the
natural and in the supernatural order.
From the noetic point of view which we have adopted, let us say that
1 The French title of this book is Distinguer pour unir, ou Les Degres du Savoir (tr.). X Preface
"length" symbolizes for us the manner in which the formal light that charac­
terizes a particular type of knowing falls upon things and defines in them a
certain line of intelligibility; to "breadth" corresponds the ever-increasing
number of objects thus known; to "height" the difference of level
created among different sorts of knowing by the degrees of intelligibility and