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Writer's pictureChristian B. Wagner

Whether Truth Resides Only in the Intellect?

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cf., Sent.I.D19.Q5.A1; SCG1.C60; QDeVer.Q1.A2; Peri.Bk1.L3; Metaph.Bk6.L4


Here, we begin our discussion of truth.


The first article may seem controversial to many, as if the Angelic doctor is reviving some sort of "subjectivism" where "truth" is something created by individuals and not an objective standard. St. Thomas actually brings forth this objection at the forefront of the article in the Second Objection, "If, then, truth is only in the intellect, nothing will be true except in so far as it is understood. But this is the error of the ancient philosophers, who said that whatever seems to be true is so. Consequently mutual contradictories seem to be true as seen by different persons at the same time."


Yet, if we remember what had come before in the fifteenth question on ideas, the answer will make much more sense and provide us with quite a few points of profound reflection.


He begins the article by comparing the nature of the good (which was already covered in Q. 5) to the nature of truth by comparing the nature of the appetite (whose object is the good) and the nature of the intellect (whose object is the true).

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