The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
Thus we get a system of a certain grand consistency and an impressively
constant re-application of certain fundamental ideas to every kind of
subject-matter. But the Platonic Dualism, though everywhere vigorously
attacked, is yet nowhere fully overcome.
For in Metaphysics, Plato’s “One alongside of the Many” becomes with
Aristotle the “One throughout the Many”: to the mind of the latter,
the Separate General, Pure Form as existing without Matter, is a mere
abstraction; Matter without Form is a simple potentiality; Matter and
Form together, and they only, constitute the Particular, and (in and
by it) all actual and full Reality. And only Reality, in the highest
and primary sense, can, according to him, form the highest and primary
object of Knowledge. Yet knowledge never refers to the Particular, but
always to the General; and, in the Particular, only to the General
manifested in it. And this is the case, not because, though the
Particular is the fuller Reality, we can more easily reach the General
within it; but, on the contrary, because, though we can more easily
reach the Particular, the General alone is abiding and fully true and
really knowable.
Again, for Aristotle the Particular, which alone really exists, is
constituted a particular and really existent Being, in virtue of its
participation in Matter; but it is constituted as abiding, true,
and knowable, in virtue of its Form. The cause of its Reality is
thus different from that of its Truth; the addition of the simple
Potentiality of Matter has alone given Reality to the pure Actuality of
Form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
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