The Triadic of Being…
The Image of God (Human Being)
“It is this ‘idea of existence’ or ‘light of being’ given to man which constitutes the objectivity of truth, as seen by the human mind. For truth is that which is, as falsehood is that which is not. It is this which makes man intelligent, and gives him a moral law by which he sees the beingness or essence of things, and recognises the duty of his own being,to act toward each being, whether finite or infinite, creature or God, according to the beingness or essence of being which he beholds in the light of the truth of being”…
- Antonio Rosmini
To commence our exploration of some of the ideas of 19th-century Catholic Priest, Theologian and Philosopher Antonio Rosmini, let’s begin with some questions.
What does it mean to be — The relation of this Being (Dasein) to Being (Sein) (Heidegger)?
What is meant by the Univocity of Being (John Duns Scotus) that reflects the relationship between the Contingent Being of Man (Created) and the Necessary Being of God (Creator)?
The inference of relationships of meaning between the Conscious Self & the Physical World and the Conscious Self & the Metaphysical World (a higher-order Reality).
A Triadic Semiotic relationship between an Observer ( Conscious Self — Perceiving Subject), Sign (Sign-Vehicle of Meaning ) and Observed ( Non Conscious Self — Object).
Ever expanding the fabric of knowledge through open inquiry, asking questions, and embracing a process of discovery.
Through abduction and the gift of reason, Humans can reveal potential new relationships of meaning.
“Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces a new idea: for induction does nothing but determine a value and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequences of a pure hypothesis”…
— Charles Sanders Peirce
The entire history of Western Civilisation’s intellectual thought can be understood as one of ongoing open inquiry into the nature of Reality anchored in the pursuit of Truth (i.e. correspondence of Human Beliefs to Reality (i.e. everything in the act of Being)) grounded in Triadic Relationships of Meaning ( i.e. Peircian Semiotics) and the Triadic process of Reason.
Divine Order of Things
“The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is”…
― St. Thomas Aquinas
Medieval Priest, Theologian and Philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas distinguished between different types of Truth (e.g. Ontological (Existence — act of Being), Logical (relationship of Intellect (Thought) and Reality (everything in the act of Being), Moral (Natural & Divine Law), Divine (God as the ultimate source of Truth) and Eternal (unchanging) vs Temporal (contingent — bounded- changing) ) that were necessary to bring unity and order to Reality.
It was a perspective of Truth based on a Divine Order of Things.
A formal distinction (Duns Scotus) between the nature of the Being of God and Man, and a distinction between a Temporal Immanent World and an Eternal Transcendent World.
An Order of Things that requires the Human Consciousness to integrate its semiotic relationships of meaning with the:
- Immanent World — horizontal metaphysics ( Nominalism — Mind’s temporal generalisation of the meaning of the concept or category with particular objects in the world); and
- Transcendent World — vertical metaphysics ( Realism — correspondence of the Mind’s temporal generalisation of the meaning of the concept or category( i.e. belief) with the Soul’s eternal universals and Reality (i.e. Truth — essence of Being)).
An Order of Things that for Human Consciousness to bring a sense of coherence between our beliefs and these two worlds ( Immanent and Transcendent), there must be a common first principle, abstract concept or category that applies to both of these Worlds.
A concept or category of Human Consciousness that has the same meaning in the Immanent and Transcendent World.
What could that concept or category be?
The Scholastics
The Middle Ages scholastics were attempting to reconcile Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Theology of Judeo-Christianity to understand the nature of Reality.
It was a further inquiry into the relationship between:
- Human Consciousness and God ( Transcendent World ); and
- Human Consciousness and the Natural World ( Immanent World).
The notion of a higher-order Reality was a central tenet of Judeo-Christian Philosophy (God) and Ancient Greek Philosophers such as Plato (Form of the Good) & Aristotle (Unmover Mover).
If Humans understand the World mediated via consciousness, then what was the highest order first principle category of thought common to both the Immanent and Transcendent World?
It would have to be a concept or category of understanding and meaning that could apply to Humans and the Natural World, but also God.
God was also perfectly good, and all creation depended upon God.
So what could that highest first-order concept or category of meaning be that exists in the nature of Humans (contingent, finite, imperfect) and is also prevalent in the nature of God ( necessary, infinite, perfect)?
At the time, these two Scholars developed distinct approaches to answer this question.
Univocity of Being — John Duns Scotus
Scotus proposed that the concept of Being itself is univocal.
“How can the “concept of being” be univocal without there being a nature common to God and to Creatures?” …
He believed the meaning of the concept of Being applies in the same sense to both God and Humans, even though God’s mode of Being is necessary and infinite, and humans’ mode of Being is contingent and finite.
According to Scotus, Being is the most general concept that can apply to everything that exists, including God and Humans.
This did not mean that God and Humans exist in the same way (God is infinite and self-sustaining, while Humans are finite and dependent), but that the concept of Being itself applies to both in a basic, universal sense.
This common concept of Being allows Humans to meaningfully talk about God.
If we had no common concept, the language we use about God would be incomprehensible.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” …
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Analogy of Being — Saint Thomas Aquinas
In contrast, Aquinas rejected the univocal use of Being and instead believed in the analogy of Being (analogia entis).
This means that concepts like Being, wisdom, goodness, etc, are used in an analogical sense when applied to both God and Humans.
In other words, these concepts have different degrees of meaning.
Hence, a need to bridge the concepts’ meaning via a kind of analogy that recognises the vast differences in their nature.
Synthesis of these Two Perspectives
The synthesis of John Duns Scotus’s notion of the Univocity of Being and Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Analogy of Being perspectives on the concept of Being can provide a common pathway forward.
Both recognise the importance of the notion of Being as a first-order principle of thought that bridges the transcendent (eternal) and immanent (temporal).
A common nature to God and Humans.
If one were to shift from a concept of Being to a category of Being that reflects the different degrees of meaning of Being in God and Humans, it provides a way to reconcile these two perspectives.
In this view, Being could be seen as both univocal ( in its most abstract conceptual sense, describing the most fundamental characteristic of all that exists) and analogous ( in its particular instantiations, where the Being of God and the Being of Creatures, including Humans, differ ).
Being could function as a universal category or concept that encompasses all forms of existence, but is actualised in God and Creatures differently.
The Importance of Being — an “a priori” First Principle of Thought
Why is the notion of Being important as an “a priori” first principle of Human Thought?
By defining Being as the highest category of Human Thought, it provides the foundational basis for Human Consciousness’s understanding of the nature of Reality.
Because Being pertains to everything that can be said to be in any form.
Being is the bedrock of ontology — what it means for something to exist — and it addresses questions about the nature of existence and Reality at the most abstract conceptual and universal level.
Without Being, no other categories or properties — like substance, form, essence, quantity, relation, time or quality — can be applied to anything since nothing would exist to which they could apply.
These categories and concepts depend on the notion of existence, but Being itself does not depend on anything more fundamental.
It is through the category of Being that human consciousness can seek Truth.
A Logical Truth through the Triadic of Reason that reflects the correspondence of human beliefs to Reality, noting metaphysics is the study of Being — the science of Reality.
“If the sign were not related to its object except by the mind thinking of them separately, it would not fulfil the function of a sign at all”…
— Charles Sanders Peirce
Towards a Kantian Unity of the Manifold and Peircian correspondence of the meaning of the Sign ( concept and category) with the practical effects of the Object being observed.
An alignment of our Conscious Beliefs with Reality.
“It is, rather, solely an act of the understanding, which itself is nothing but the faculty of combining “a priori” and of bringing the manifold of given representations under the unity of apperception; and the principle of this unity is, in fact, the supreme principle of all human knowledge”…
— Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Being is the categorical foundation of the Gift of Reason — Faith and Reason — connecting all forms of existence, from the contingent Being of Humans (created — temporal) to the necessary Being of God (creator — eternal).
The Logos unifies the metaphysical ( essence of Being), epistemological (knowledge and Truth) and physical ( material world).
The Semiotic Triadic of Humans’ relationship with God — Human Consciousness (Observer), Sign (the Category of Being ) and God (Observed).
“for God is not known to us naturally unless being is univocal to the created and uncreated”…
— John Duns Scotus
Antonio Rosmini — Triadic Theory of Knowledge — Idea of Being as the Foundation of Thought and Reason
“ In Rosmini the metaphysics of Being truly shines”…
— Augusto del Noce
Some 500 years after the Medieval Scholastics, 19th Century Italian Priest, Theologian and Philosopher Antonio Rosmini’s intellectual inquiry continued**** the tradition (e.g. John Duns Scotus and Saint Thomas Aquinas) of attempting to integrate Christian Theological thought with Ancient Greek Philosophy but did so in the context of modern epistemological concerns (e.g. emergence of French Rationalism (Idealisms concern — challenges in limiting explanations of ideas & forms beyond what is necessary), British Empiricism (Materialisms concern — challenges in explaining origin of ideas)).
Attempting to navigate a pathway between the two poles of extreme dogma and extreme scepticism.
His philosophy endeavours to understand the nature of knowledge at its most fundamental level, thereby integrating various branches of knowledge (e.g. sensory knowledge derived through empiricism, together with normative sciences (What ought to be? — ethics, aesthetics, logic) ) and at the same time recognising the inherent relational nature of understanding (i.e. perceiving Subject coupled with idea of Being).
Ultimately, this leads Rosmini’s philosophy to culminate in a Theological understanding as the final cause (Aristotle) — the natural teleological horizon — of his intellectual inquiry.
In other words, the development of a Theosophy that combines Theology and Philosophy into a single science that reflects Being-as-One (i.e. metaphysics, epistemology, ethics unified through the idea of Being as the light of illumination of intelligibility — All beings participate in this one idea of Being (Ideal Being).
In doing so, it presents a Philosophy oriented towards a cognitive understanding (i.e. origin of ideas & knowledge) of the relationships of Being to Being (i.e. a Relational Ontology — the relationship between the Contingent Being of Man (Created) and the Necessary Being of God (Creator)).
The idea of being is the first idea that the human intellect perceives.
It is not derived from experience but rather illuminates all our experiences and makes knowledge possible.
This idea is objective, universal, and immutable, and it provides the ground for all other ideas.
[ ****Note — This was counter to the dominant intellectual orthodoxy of Western Civilisation Modern and Post-Modern thinkers re-orientating their inquiry away from transcendental metaphysics, & realism and towards the Primacy of Man — Perceiving Subject (e.g. Marxism, Gnosticism, Idealism, Materialism, Dialectical Materialism, Historical Materialism, Scientific Positivism, Nietzschean Perspectivism etc.) ]
The development of his Metaphysical ideas would culminate in Rosmini being beatified (Blessed) by Pope Benedict XVI on 18 November 2007 — noting beatification is the proceeding step to sainthood in the Catholic Church.
Ideas that would once again ground understanding in the combination of Faith and Reason in the necessity of Being (i.e. Ontological fundamental where Reality represents everything in the act of Being) and Being-as-One (Human Beings created in the image of God).
“In his homily during the beatification Mass Cardinal Saraiva Martins said that elevating the Italian holy man to blessed status “will certainly help restore the friendship between reason and faith, between religion, ethical behaviour and the public service of Christians.
He said that Blessed Rosmini’s message that reason and faith should be intertwined has “burning relevance” for today’s world where there is “a steady eclipse of God and his providence””…
[ LINK ]
The key ideas that underpin much of Rosmini’s thinking are anchored in contemplating the nature of Human thought (i.e. Human Ideas), together with developing a triadic theory of knowledge that ultimately leads to a triadic metaphysics grounded in Being.
Rosmini’s — New Essay on the Origin of Ideas (Nuovo saggio sull’origine delle idee) — is one of his most important philosophical works.
It presents a theory of knowledge (Ideal Being) based on the idea/axiom of Being (refer to Aristotle, Aquinas & Duns Scotus) as the foundational principle of knowledge and objectivity.
It undertakes to account for ideas and presents a triadic understanding of human cognition that ultimately challenges the philosophical foundations of Modernism — British Empiricism and French Rationalism — together with challenging the subsequent philosophical foundations of Post-Modernism — relativism and subjectivism.
“ “Real” is a word invented in the thirteenth century to signify having Properties, i.e. characters sufficing to identify their subject, and possessing these whether they be anywise attributed to it by any single man or group of men, or not”…
— Charles Sanders Peirce
Some key concepts and ideas that emerge from his work include, inter alia:
- the idea of Being as the a-priori universal and necessary idea (i.e. first object given to the intellect — innate, universal and necessary) that grounds and provides the foundation for all knowledge. It is objective, simple and not a product of the mind**** but instead functions as a light (intellectual presence — form of intelligibility — first principle of knowledge) that procedes & illuminates sensory experience and enables us to know and judge anything else. Without the first-order universal of Being, no concept could be formed, as every concept implicitly assumes Being;
- Knowledge must include both subjective (perceiving subject) and objective (idea of Being) elements. In doing so, Rosmini challenges the French Rationalists, such as Descartes and German Idealists, such as Kant, who orientate our understanding to the primacy of the subject. His theory is Realist in nature in that it highlights the independence of Truth from the Perceiving Subject (Subjective Thought — Umwelt);
- Universal, necessary, and abstract ideas such as normative sciences (i.e. Truth, Ethics, Aesthetics), Philosophy and Mathematics are a refutation that all ideas come from sensory experiences (e.g. Hume, Locke, British Empiricists). Whilst experiences give us particulars, universals enable the capacity to reason, discern, generalise and make judgements;
- Knowledge can be divided into three parts: a. Ideal, which is universal, necessary and objective; b. Real, which is based on the perception of the Subjectand Object sensed, which is contingent and individual; and c. Moral, which unifies the Ideal and Real in the act of Knowledge (reconciling how we act with how we ought to act). Balancing freedom and responsibility, and orientation toward the good — the ethical dimension of knowledge, which allows a person not just to know what is true (ideal & real), but to understand how they ought to act in light of that truth. It’s about the integration of knowledge with conscience and will;
- Light of reason (idea of Being) is not a product of will or imagination but is passively received as a light that illuminates all knowledge (i.e. akin to how light enables sight without being seen itself);
- Idea of Being points to God as the fullness of Being and the ultimate source of Truth. It continues the work of the earlier Scholastics in integrating Ancient Greek Philosophy and Christian Theology. Rosmini connects his epistemology with Christian Ethics and Metaphysics; and
- Pre-intellectual perception of Being (a-priori) as the foundation of understanding was prescient in anticipating subsequent phenomenological philosophical developments in understanding, such as Husserl (Intentional Consciousness) and Heidegger (this Being (Dasein) relationship to Being (Sein)).
[ **** Note — this is a distinction (i.e. Rosmini viewed Being as intellectual presence — necessity — light that illuminates) in contrast to Medieval Scholastic Theologian and Philosopher John Duns Scotus, who viewed Being as the highest order concept of Human thought]
Rosmini’s Theosophy (Teosofia)
The metaphysical Triadic of Being is not fully realised in A New Essay on the Origin of Ideas.
His later writings expand on some of the themes outlined (e.g. epistemological triad) and transform these ideas into a comprehensive metaphysical system grounded in reason, divine revelation and the idea of being as the light of illumination.
Ideas that build on the work of the Scholastics by integrating Theology and Philosophy into a Theosophy (Teosofia — Wisdom about God).
Rosmini expands the epistemological triad into a full Theosophy.
A Triadic Theory of Being, where Being is presented as real, ideal, and moral:
- Real Being (Ontological — Being): actual existence, the realm of physical and created realities;
- Ideal Being (Rational Theological — God’s light of Intelligibility (i.e. idea of Being) that illuminates Human Reason ): pure possibility, the universal light of reason, which grounds objective truth (i.e. the idea of Being functions as the light of intelligibility); and
- Moral Being (Cosmological — Teological Order): the being of value, perfection, and goodness — the ground of moral order. It transcends Epistemology and Ontology to reflect how Beings are teologically orientated towards a higher order unity, such as divine will and the ultimate good, beyond mere individual existence. A unity of the whole — Being-as-One — Being and Knowing are united in Ideal Being — which reflects how all Beings participate in this one idea of Being (Ideal Being), which unifies intelligibility and ontology. The participation of finite beings in infinite being.
For Rosmini, Theosophy (i.e. Wisdom about God that combines Theology and Philosophy) can be considered under these three divisions****: 1. Ontology, 2. Rational Theology, and 3. Cosmology.
[ **** Note — Rosmini’s Theosophy distinctions are not dissimilar to the Triadic Categories of Thought — Aristotle (Ontological — What exists?), Kant (Epistemological — What can we know? ) and Peirce (Relationships of the Whole). Noting the Gift of Reason inherently combines Faith and Reason (akin to Rational Theology). Furthermore, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason emphasises reason as a divine and essential gift that distinguishes humans and allows them to understand the world, morality, and God.]
Whilst Rosmini saw Theosophy as a single science, the distinctions are also important to understand the relationships ( i.e. a division into three parts, both one and three).
Rosmini’s Theosophy was a synthesis of rational Science with the doctrine of the Trinity anchored in Metaphysics (Study of Being — Science of Reality) and Christian Theology (Rational Theology).
In other words, Rosmini believed:
- Human Beings couldn’t understand the universal essence (ontology) of Being, without contemplating the infinity and absoluteness of Being (rational theology). In other words, Being as the light that illuminates Reason that makes knowledge (epistemology) possible given Being is a-priori (objective), not derived from the senses (immutable), applies to everything that exists (universal) and is ultimately anchored in God (Infinite Being — intuited a-priori) as the Absolute Being (rational theology). In other words, the mind’s natural light (i.e. idea of Being) points toward the necessity of an Infinite Being (God); and
- It was also impossible for Human Beings to philosophically consider the cosmological world (created) without taking its cause (creator) — Divine Origin — into consideration.
Hence, Rosmini’s Theosophy is an understanding of Reality that inherently has a relational dependency (Human Being and Absolute Being — Contingent Being of Man and Necessary Being of God) — a relational Being.
Each of the three divisions of Theosophy is essential to the whole.
A single science that is orientated towards understanding the relationships of Being to Being ( i.e. a Relational Ontology — the relationship between the Contingent Being of Man (Created) and the Necessary Being of God (Creator)).
Theosophy is viewed as a wisdom about God, without which there is no final explanation of Being or the World or Being’s relationship to Being or the nature of Human Being.
Rosmini believed that philosophy culminates in theology, as the natural teleological horizon ( akin to Aristotle’s final Cause (part of his Four Causes)) of philosophical inquiry.
Without knowledge of God as an Absolute Being, our understanding of Being, the world, and ourselves remains incomplete.
A Human Being created in the image of God.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”…
— Genesis 1:27
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