Transcendentals

Last updated

The transcendentals (Latin : transcendentalia, from transcendere "to exceed") are "properties of being", nowadays commonly considered to be truth, unity (oneness), beauty, and goodness.[ citation needed ] The conceptual idea arose from medieval scholasticism, namely Aquinas but originated with Plato, Augustine, and Aristotle in the West. It is believed to be prefigured in the Bhagavadgita, an ancient Hindu classic, which illuminates the doctrines of Yoga. Viewed ontologically, the transcendentals are understood to be what is common to all beings/things/identities, and all things that exist (theologically, metaphysically, normatively) can be judged, or appraised, or may be said to be or possess the innate qualities and characteristics which we consider or deem True (Thought and Logic), Beautiful (Aesthetic and Artistic) and Good (Morals and Action). From a cognitive and "first principles" horizon, going all the way back to Aristotle, they are the "first" concepts, since they cannot be logically or deductively traced back to "a prior metaphysics" preceding their Rational unfoldment and display.

Contents

In the ancient, premodern subjective understanding of Aristotle, the transcendentals operate via man/woman's Reason, or the reasoning subject. Seen as a whole, rather than reducing everything to Truth, the transcendentals are part of a harmonious or complete unity each within its applied domain of Reason, which is within the domain of a possibly higher unity: Soul. Plato's conception may be more intangible but they certainly anticipating Aristotle, and Aquinas via Aristotle.

Prior to the Enlightenment Era of human consciousness, these spheres/domains were synonymous with rationality, or dispositions of rationality. Theoretical Reason (what I understand), Practical Reason (what I do), and Aesthetic Reason (what I appreciate) were understood for what they did rather than as mere abstractions.

The True, can be demonstrated empirically within: Mathematics, Science, and Metaphysics. Beauty can be seen empirically within: Aesthetics and Art. The Good, via Practical Reason can be seen empirically within: Ethics and Politics.

Finally, Reason is an underlying generalization in each. Each object-domain makes strides by uniquely generalizing from a particular level to the general concepts, rather than from the generals to any particular.

The transcendentals are, lastly separate, mutually interacting, and potentially coordinated whole domains, are ultimately distinct, cannot be reduced without serious harm to the transcendental in question, and are vast but expansive unto themselves.

Ken Wilber calls these real concepts "The Big Three" and claims that more than a dozen or so people grapple with them. Kant (Pure Reason, Practical Reason, and Judgment), Habermas (Truth, Justice, Truthfulness), Popper (World 1, World 2, World 3), and finally Plato (Truth, Beauty, Goodness). Another way to state experientially is 1st person, second person, and third person experiential awareness.

Howard Gardner conceptualizes the Good as Goodness a property of relationships, the true as a property of statements, and the beauty as a property of experiences. The Golden rule stabilizes relationships at the local level, but according to Gardner, global relationships (the ethics of roles) consists of citizenship and work. [1] We must be good citizens, good people, and good workers. Citizens and workers collaborate in Commons to share the best ethical practices.

The Beautiful consists of experiences, or tastes concerning the natural world and the Arts. Beautiful experiences are interesting, memorable, and they invite returning. Some tastes seem quite universal, but tastes change as we actively change them. Global realities, including the internet, mean our tastes are changing more than ever. And our Tastes of "the beautiful" are divergent.

The world of truth is ever-evolving, as we seek to overcome postmodern conundrums. However, truth may still be established in this age. Truths generally converge. So Gardner thinks there's hope. Truth and False can be seen by noting the type of truth and the methods that were used to obtain legitimacy preliminary knowledge.

There are two types of truth: Truths emanating out of academic disciplines (history, science), and truths emanating from daily life (professions, trade crafts). Within these fields propositions and statements are the basis for making truth claims. Statements and propositions are either True, False, or Indeterminate. There is no longer a singular truth, but now many truths and meta-cognitive truth. We may never obtain Truth, but our knowledge in these domains points us in a proper direction.

From the time of Albertus Magnus in the High Middle Ages, the transcendentals have been the subject of metaphysics. Although there was disagreement about their number, there was consensus that, in addition to the basic concept of being itself (ens), unity (unum), truth (verum) and goodness (bonum) were part of the transcendental family. [2] Since then, essence (res), otherness (aliquid) and, more recently, beauty (pulchrum) have been added. Today, they are found in theology, particularly in Catholic thought, as unity, truth, goodness and beauty.

History

Parmenides first inquired of the properties co-extensive with being. [3] Socrates, spoken through Plato, then followed (see Form of the Good ).

Aristotle's substance theory (being a substance belongs to being qua being) has been interpreted as a theory of transcendentals. [4] Aristotle discusses only unity ("One") explicitly because it is the only transcendental intrinsically related to being, whereas truth and goodness relate to rational creatures. [5]

In the Middle Ages, Catholic philosophers elaborated the thought that there exist transcendentals (transcendentalia) and that they transcended each of the ten Aristotelian categories. [6] A doctrine of the transcendentality of the good was formulated by Albert the Great. [7] His pupil, Saint Thomas Aquinas, posited six transcendentals: ens, res, unum, aliquid, bonum, verum; or “being,” "thing", "one", "something", "good", and "true". [8] Saint Thomas derives the six explicitly as transcendentals, [9] though in some cases he follows the typical list of the transcendentals consisting of the One, the Good, and the True. The transcendentals are ontologically one and thus they are convertible: e.g., where there is truth, there is being and goodness also.

In Christian theology the transcendentals are treated in relation to theology proper, the doctrine of God. The transcendentals, according to Christian doctrine, can be described as the ultimate desires of man. Man ultimately strives for perfection, which takes form through the desire for perfect attainment of the transcendentals. The Catholic Church teaches that God is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, as indicated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church . [10] Each transcends the limitations of place and time, and is rooted in being. The transcendentals are not contingent upon cultural diversity, religious doctrine, or personal ideologies, but are the objective properties of all that exists.[ citation needed ]

Modern “integral” or holistic philosophy within the Wilberian lineage (see:Ken Wilber), as well as Steve Mctintosh, author of Evolution’s Purposr seek to integrate Beauty,Truth, and Goodness as necessary requisites of all evolution in the Kosmos (body, mind, soul, spirit) within the individual at the microcosmic developmental level, as well as sociologically.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albertus Magnus</span> German Dominican friar and saint (c.1200–1280)

Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Problem of universals</span> Philosophical question of whether properties exist and, if so, what they are

The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: "Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be considered to exist beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?"

Reason is the capacity of applying logic consciously by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a distinguishing ability possessed by humans. Reason is sometimes referred to as rationality.

Hylomorphism is a philosophical doctrine developed by the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, which conceives every physical entity or being (ousia) as a compound of matter (potency) and immaterial form (act), with the generic form as immanently real within the individual. The word is a 19th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη and μορφή. Hylomorphic theories of physical entities have been undergoing a revival in contemporary philosophy.

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric and aesthetics. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and later evolved into Roman philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divine simplicity</span> View of God without parts or features

In monotheistic theology, the doctrine of Divine Simplicity says that God is simple.

Christian philosophy includes all philosophy carried out by Christians, or in relation to the religion of Christianity. Christian philosophy emerged with the aim of reconciling science and faith, starting from natural rational explanations with the help of Christian revelation. Several thinkers such as Origen of Alexandria and Augustine believed that there was a harmonious relationship between science and faith, others such as Tertullian claimed that there was contradiction and others tried to differentiate them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aristotelianism</span> Philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle

Aristotelianism is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the social sciences under a system of natural law. It answers why-questions by a scheme of four causes, including purpose or teleology, and emphasizes virtue ethics. Aristotle and his school wrote tractates on physics, biology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. Any school of thought that takes one of Aristotle's distinctive positions as its starting point can be considered "Aristotelian" in the widest sense. This means that different Aristotelian theories may not have much in common as far as their actual content is concerned besides their shared reference to Aristotle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomism</span> Philosophical system

Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.

Summum bonum is a Latin expression meaning the highest or ultimate good, which was introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero to denote the fundamental principle on which some system of ethics is based — that is, the aim of actions, which, if consistently pursued, will lead to the best possible life. Since Cicero, the expression has acquired a secondary meaning as the essence or ultimate metaphysical principle of Goodness itself, or what Plato called the Form of the Good. These two meanings do not necessarily coincide. For example, Epicurean and Cyrenaic philosophers claimed that the 'good life' consistently aimed for pleasure, without suggesting that pleasure constituted the meaning or essence of Goodness outside the ethical sphere. In De finibus, Cicero explains and compares the ethical systems of several schools of Greek philosophy, including Stoicism, Epicureanism, Aristotelianism and Platonism, based on how each defines the ethical summum bonum differently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platonism</span> Philosophical system

Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. In its most basic fundamentals, Platonism affirms the existence of abstract objects, which are asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite of nominalism. This can apply to properties, types, propositions, meanings, numbers, sets, truth values, and so on. Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called Platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "Platonism" and "nominalism" also have established senses in the history of philosophy. They denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object.

This is a history of aesthetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Ways (Aquinas)</span> Aquinas arguments that there is a real God

The Quinque viæ are five logical arguments for the existence of God summarized by the 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas in his book Summa Theologica. They are:

  1. the argument from "first mover";
  2. the argument from universal causation;
  3. the argument from contingency;
  4. the argument from degree;
  5. the argument from final cause or ends.

The argument from degrees, also known as the degrees of perfection argument or the henological argument is an argument for the existence of God first proposed by mediaeval Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas as one of the five ways to philosophically argue in favour of God's existence in his Summa Theologica. It is based on ontological and theological notions of perfection. Contemporary Thomist scholars are often in disagreement on the metaphysical justification for this proof. According to Edward Feser, the metaphysics involved in the argument has more to do with Aristotle than Plato; hence, while the argument presupposes realism about universals and abstract objects, it would be more accurate to say Aquinas is thinking of Aristotelian realism and not Platonic realism per se.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. Someone who studies metaphysics can be called either a "metaphysician" or a "metaphysicist".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Aquinas</span> Italian Dominican theologian (1225–1274)

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily.

Double-truth theory is "the view that religion and philosophy, as separate sources of knowledge, might arrive at contradictory truths without detriment to either".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medieval philosophy</span> Philosophy during the medieval period

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, understood as a project of independent philosophical inquiry, began in Baghdad, in the middle of the 8th century, and in France, in the itinerant court of Charlemagne, in the last quarter of the 8th century. It is defined partly by the process of rediscovering the ancient culture developed in Greece and Rome during the Classical period, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine with secular learning. This is one of the defining characteristics in this time period. Understanding God was the focal point of study of the philosophers at that time, Muslim and Christian alike.

Giovanni Ventimiglia is a Swiss–Italian philosopher. He is full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) and Vice Dean of its Faculty of Theology. He is director of the new Centre for Theology and Philosophy of Religions. Between 2017 and 2022, he was Visiting Professor of Medieval Philosophy in philosophy at the University of Italian Switzerland. He is (founding) President of the Reginaldus Foundation, Switzerland.

References

  1. Gardner, Howard (2011). Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Twenty-First Century. Blackstone. ISBN   978-1441780539.
  2. Albertus Magnus named exactly these four values. See Aertsen, Jan A. (2001). "Die Frage nach dem Ersten und dem Grundlegenden. Albert der Große und die Lehre von den Transzendentalien" Albertus Magnus. Zum Gedenken nach 800 Jahren. Neue Zugänge, Aspekte und Perspektiven." ed. by Walter Senner and Henryk Anzulewicz. Berlin: Akademie1, pp. 91–112.
  3. DK fragment B 8
  4. Aristotle, Metaphysics 1028b4; Allan Bäck, Aristotle's Theory of Abstraction, Springer, 2014, p. 210: "Since all that is, in any category is in virtue of having some relation to substance..., being a substance belongs to being qua being. Because of the centrality of substance for something to be, Aristotle says, "what is being is just the question what is substance." [Metaph. 1028b4] Given Aristotle’s account of focal meaning, it has turned out that x is a being only if x is a substance. Items in non-substantial categories are beings, secondarily, only given their being in substance. ... [Ι]n Metaphysics IV, Aristotle offers both transcendental and categorical items as proper subjects for first philosophy."
  5. Aristotle, Metaphysics X.1–2; Benedict Ashley, The Way toward Wisdom: An Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Introduction to Metaphysics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), p. 175.
  6. Scott MacDonald (ed.), Being and Goodness: The Concept of the Good in Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology, Cornell University Press, 1991, p. 56.
  7. Medieval Theories of Transcendentals (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
  8. Disputed Questions on Truth, Q. 1 A. 1.
  9. De Veritate, Q. 1 A.1
  10. Catechism of the Catholic Church references these three at Section 41.

Bibliography