Choose a topic from Part 1:
1. In this fife in which man's soul and body aresubstantially united, the object of the human intellect is theessences of material things. The intellect knows such essencesin universal by acquiring ideas or concepts in the manneralready described. By a second act which is a kind of reflex act orreflection, the intellect knows material things inindividual. The intellect inquires, in this bodily world,"What kind of thing is that?" When it knows thekind or essence, it can advert to the individual things and say,"Yes, these are things of that kind." Primarily anddirectly, the intellect knows universals; secondarily and reflexly,the intellect knows singulars, that is, individual materialthings.
2. The human intellect is a created and finite power.Therefore it cannot perfectly know the infinite. The intellect canknow potential infinity, which means unlimitedpossibility. The intellect itself has potential infinity inasmuchas it is never filled up, but can always know something more. Butthe intellect cannot know perfectly actual infinity.
3. Contingent things (that is, changeable things; thingsthat have not in themselves a necessity for existing) are thedirect object of sense-knowledge. The intellect, by itssecondary and reflex act, can know singulars; hence theintellect can know contingent things. The intellect also knows thenecessary and universal principles that are back of contingentthings, such, for instance, as the truth that movement alwaysrequires a mover.
4. The human intellect cannot know the future except incause. To know a thing in cause is to foresee the effects whichwill come from existing and necessitating causes. Thus astronomersknow, even centuries before the event, the exact time at which aneclipse of the sun is to occur. To know the future, not merely incause, but in itself, is beyond creatural power; suchknowledge belongs to God alone. The human intellect has anabundance of conjectural knowledge of the future; such knowledge isa reasonable guess or supposition; it is usually founded uponexperience of what has happened in the past.
"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"There is nothing which gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good."
St Philip Neri
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"It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience."
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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