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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2024
“The true speaking absolutely is prior to the good, as appears from two reasons. First because the true is more closely related to being, which is prior to good. . . Secondly . . . knowledge naturally precedes appetite.” (Summa, 1a, q. 16, art. 4, English trans.)
The object of the intellect (i.e. Truth) “is more simple and more absolute than the object of the will” (i.e. goodness). Therefore the intellect in itself and absolutely is higher and nobler than the will—yet “the love of God is better than the knowledge of God; but on the contrary, the knowledge of corporeal things is better than the love thereof. Absolutely, however, the intellect is better than the will.” (Ibid., q. 82, part 3.)
These two texts from the Summa of the Blackfriar St. Thomas Aquinas must outline the attitude of Blackfriars towards Truth.
At the risk of failing to express what is in our mind, let us say that we fully accept the consequences of St. Thomas’s principle: “Truth is more simple and absolute than goodness, therefore the intellect is higher and nobler than the will.” In our aim of finding and telling the truth we will not primarily concern ourselves with what is good; or only with that highest good, the Truth. This is but to realize that transcendentals, such as truth, must be sought for their own sake or they will not be found in their fullness. Truth-seeking and truth-telling must not be blended and weakened with enquiries into the economic, political, ethical or theological value of the truth.
Reproduced and abridged from the first number of Blackfriars.
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