ANTHROPOLOGY

The truth

Vocabulary related to the truth:

Truth: the correspondence between our intellect and the thing.

Falseness: lack of truth.

Ignorance: lack of knowledge or information that one must know.

A lie: a false statement with the purpose to deceive (intentionally).

POSITIVE DEGREES TOWARDS TRUTH

Certainty: the firm conviction of something.

→Evidence: irrefutable adhesion to the truth because it is patent to the mind. Offers a clear commitment to the truth.

→Faith: inclination of the will towards a proposition, acquired by trust.  

INTERMEDIATE DEGREES TOWARDS TRUTH

Doubt: not able to affirm the truth or falseness of something (the mind cannot decide between a positive or negative judgement).

Opinion: inclination towards a statement with the possibility to be the opposite.

TYPES OF GNOSEOLOGY

1) Relativism: Truth depends on the perspectives and points of view.

   1.1) Subjectivism: Truth depends on the individual point of view. A kind of relativism.

2) Scepticism: Lack of belief. Hesitation and distrust of truths.

    2.1) Criticism: Submit everything to a relentless examination based exclusively on judgment. Continuous state of hesitation. A kind of despair to know some truth. A kind of scepticism.

3) Dogmatism: Confidence in truth.

Examples:

Photoshop: Newspaper (remove persons from the picture to let the “important” ones in the front.

The will

MOVEMENTS OF THE POWERS OF THE SOUL

Power of the soul = disposition to be moved by a certain group of objects.

➔ Ex: power of sensory appetite = the inclination to seek pleasure and avoid pain

             power of hearing= the inclination to be affected or moved by sound

         power of intellect= the inclination towards knowledge or truth

Whenever a particular power of the soul is moved, the object that moves the power must necessarily be a good one that is proper to that power.

The will is a rational disposition to be moved towards universal good.

1. It is a rational power
2. It goes from inside to outside (centrifugal)
3. Allows human action
4. Allows freedom
5. Allows ethics
6. It is concerned about feelings

HELP TO OTHER POWERS

When such a situation occurs in which a power’s proper good is not sufficient to move the power, “the will can intervene by inclining to the proper good of the power as a particular good.”

When an agent cannot hear a particular sound because of faintness or distance, a volition causes the agent to strain or concentrate, or when an agent cannot see something because of darkness, the will intervenes and a volition causes the agent to squint.

THE WILL CANNOT CAUSE OTHER POWERS

It must be noted, however, that while the will can command the intellect to the exercise of its act, it cannot lead the intellect to form specific judgments about specific objects.

For instance, the will cannot cause the power of sight to see a color that is not actually present. The will can only command a power to perform certain kinds of acts in pursuit of the power’s proper object (such as truth in the case of the intellect).

STRUCTURES OF A COMPLETE HUMAN ACT

Elicited acts of will with respect to an END (each of these acts presupposes acts of the intellect by which good is grasped and, in the wholly virtuous agent, ordered by one another and to the agent's ultimate end):

a) Voluntas (simple volition)

b) Intentio (points to a real good)

c) Fruitio (delight of having a good)

Voluntas: willing some intellectually cognized good as an end, i.e., as something desirable in itself; in other words, being attracted to an end presented by intellective cognition.  (This is mere wishing if it does not move beyond this stage to intentio.)

Intentio (intention): willing the end as something to be acquired through means that are ordered to the end, i.e., willing the end in such a way as to order someone, oneself or another, toward the end.

Fruitio (pleasure or delight or enjoyment): willing the end as something possessed; antecedently, enjoying or taking pleasure in the end insofar as the end is presented in thought as being possessed.

STRUCTURES OF A COMPLETE HUMAN ACT

Elicited acts of will with respect to the means to an intended end:

1) Consensus (consent)

2) Electio (choice)

3) Usus (put into action)

Each of these presupposes consilium (deliberation), and choice presupposes iudicium (judgment):

1) Consensus (consent): willing one or more means as acceptable.

2) Electio (choice): willing a particular means as to be executed.

The following presupposes imperium (command): 

3) Usus (use): willing to apply the appropriate faculties to exercising their acts so as to attain the intended end.

ACTS OF INTELLIGENCE AND WILL

→ DO NOT CONFUSE:

1- “Desire” and “simple volition”: the first is about the sentient tendency, the second about the rational tendency (the inclination toward a universal good).

2- “Intention” and “Consent”: the first is the interest to achieve the good, the second is the personal disposition to obtain that good. With  consent you are accepting something with its consequences. Consent involves the inner person and it has ethical effects.

3- “Joy” and “Delight”: the first is an emotion in the sentient appetite, the second is a kind of peace inside because you have obtained certain good, your rational inclination stops at that moment.

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