Aquinas felt truth exists primarily in the intellect and secondarily in things. Augustine seemed to think truth exists in things more than in the intellect. Aquinas also seemed to believe that a thing only had being to the extent it was true, an idea I’ve never been able to get my head around.
Years ago when reading Q. 16 in the Summa I hit on Aquinas’ quote of Avicenna's (Metaph. viii, 6), "The truth of each thing is a property of the essence which is immutably attached to it." This simple sentence struck me as a better explanation of truth than others because it seemed to play out more smoothly both in real life events and as a metaphysical prelude to understanding the Bible.
BTW, though truth per se is a legit philosophical topic, I pursue it as noted above, a metaphysical approach to a theology. As such, not sure where else this post would belong, so a mod can move it elsewhere if s/he feels it necessary. Given some of the topics that make it in here without getting booted, I’m guessing this one shouldn’t be a problem.
Both Aquinas and Augustine’s versions of truth need to be modified to Avicenna’s to more closely correspond to how existence works imo. Assuming truth is an actual property or quality in every “bit” of information, and information is the abstract stuff of reality or all that exists (to in-form is to have being of some real sort), then truth permeates all things existentially and more or less equally. Truth in this view would operate as a sort of “intangible glue” holding existence together and making it work, since the properties or goods associated with truth—unification, harmony, congruity, accord, etc.—all have in their nature with other truth-derivatives a proclivity for attraction. In this view, logic, mathematical formulae, syntactic conventions and engineering design are all derived from truth in the essence of things in reaction with all other things.
An immediate problem: if the quality (or qualitative property) of all information is truth, it would seem to follow that everything would exist in a perfection. (a Biblical connection rears its head…) Obviously, everything doesn’t. Extrapolating from truth in essence as the starting point for value in existence of any kind, we have an imperfect world. As truth = perfection, falsity = imperfection. The value of at least some aspects of existence is subject to falsification, producing imperfection. This leads to a value-fragmented reality where as entities grow more complex a enmity will permeate the states of affairs of everyday life from the natural enmity between true and false in essence.
Aquinas’ privation isn’t sufficient to explain evil in itself, though it describes an aspect of it. I think the starting point above goes much further in explaining how evil operates, though obviously more information is needed to properly flesh out the idea. But enough for starters.
I propose that starting from Avicenna’s simple proposition life unfolds in ways that seem to correspond to what we would expect it to be if true. Where and why does this fail?
Years ago when reading Q. 16 in the Summa I hit on Aquinas’ quote of Avicenna's (Metaph. viii, 6), "The truth of each thing is a property of the essence which is immutably attached to it." This simple sentence struck me as a better explanation of truth than others because it seemed to play out more smoothly both in real life events and as a metaphysical prelude to understanding the Bible.
BTW, though truth per se is a legit philosophical topic, I pursue it as noted above, a metaphysical approach to a theology. As such, not sure where else this post would belong, so a mod can move it elsewhere if s/he feels it necessary. Given some of the topics that make it in here without getting booted, I’m guessing this one shouldn’t be a problem.
Both Aquinas and Augustine’s versions of truth need to be modified to Avicenna’s to more closely correspond to how existence works imo. Assuming truth is an actual property or quality in every “bit” of information, and information is the abstract stuff of reality or all that exists (to in-form is to have being of some real sort), then truth permeates all things existentially and more or less equally. Truth in this view would operate as a sort of “intangible glue” holding existence together and making it work, since the properties or goods associated with truth—unification, harmony, congruity, accord, etc.—all have in their nature with other truth-derivatives a proclivity for attraction. In this view, logic, mathematical formulae, syntactic conventions and engineering design are all derived from truth in the essence of things in reaction with all other things.
An immediate problem: if the quality (or qualitative property) of all information is truth, it would seem to follow that everything would exist in a perfection. (a Biblical connection rears its head…) Obviously, everything doesn’t. Extrapolating from truth in essence as the starting point for value in existence of any kind, we have an imperfect world. As truth = perfection, falsity = imperfection. The value of at least some aspects of existence is subject to falsification, producing imperfection. This leads to a value-fragmented reality where as entities grow more complex a enmity will permeate the states of affairs of everyday life from the natural enmity between true and false in essence.
Aquinas’ privation isn’t sufficient to explain evil in itself, though it describes an aspect of it. I think the starting point above goes much further in explaining how evil operates, though obviously more information is needed to properly flesh out the idea. But enough for starters.
I propose that starting from Avicenna’s simple proposition life unfolds in ways that seem to correspond to what we would expect it to be if true. Where and why does this fail?
