Volume 1 · p. 37
Chapter VII. In what way the universal is produced into being.
secundum quod in esse producitur per intelligentiam agentem, sive generationem, quae est agentis intelligentiae instrumentum, non nisi in hypostasi producitur, quae est hoc aliquid in illa natura communi vel illa. Et ideo cum non producatur ut existens per se solum, non oportet quod productum sit hoc aliquid. Hoc autem modo omnes procedunt objectiones: et ideo patet quod nihil valent. Quod autem in alio producitur, ut in physicis docet Aristoteles 1, dupliciter producitur: aut ex consequenti, aut per accidens. Ex consequenti autem quia hic generans est homo, ideo sequitur quod homo generat hominem, et quod hic generans est homo et animal et substantia, et sic de aliis: et sic in omni praedicatione substantiali: ita quod Aristoteles dicit, quod domus est ex domo, et sanitas ex sanitate, et sic de aliis: quia productum semper est ad formam producentis, eo quod aequivocum ad univocum necessarium est reduci. Per accidens autem producitur, quod accidit producto ex ipsa productione. Si enim producitur per generationem, ad similitudinem formae et speciei generantis producitur: et ideo per accidens productus est filius, et producens est pater, et sic de aliis. Producitur autem universale ex consequenti in esse naturae: propter quod dicit Auctor sex principiorum, quod natura occulte operatur in illis: et ideo etiam in physica Aristotelis secundae substantiae vocantur. Si autem universale secundum seipsum consideretur, ipsum est imago luminis in re naturae. Imago, dico, luminis agentis intelligentiae: quod lumen terminatum est ad hoc aliquid et incorporatum illi: et hoc modo universale naturae producitur in esse ab agente intelligentia, quae operatur per suum intellectuale lumen in omni natura, et est causa rei naturalis in omnibus: quod quidem lumen in se acceptum inest universali, et ratione universale est: acceptum autem ut determinatum ad hoc aliquid, et incorporatum illi, est esse et substantia particularis dans esse substantiale et rationem singulari.
according as it is produced into being through the acting intelligence, or through generation, which is the instrument of the acting intelligence, it is produced only in a hypostasis, which is this something in this or that common nature. And therefore, since it is not produced as existing by itself alone, it is not necessary that the thing produced be this something. But all the objections proceed in this way, and therefore it is clear that they have no force. But that which is produced in another, as Aristotle teaches in the Physics 1, is produced in two ways: either consequently, or by accident. Consequently, because this generator is a man, therefore it follows that man generates man, and that this generator is man and animal and substance, and so with the others; and thus in every substantial predication, so that Aristotle says that house is from house, and health from health, and so with the others, because the product is always according to the form of the producer, since the equivocal must necessarily be reduced to the univocal. But by accident that is produced which happens to the product from the production itself. For if it is produced through generation, it is produced according to the likeness of the form and species of the generator; and therefore by accident the thing produced is a son, and the producer is a father, and so with the others. But the universal is produced consequently in the being of nature; on account of which the Author of the Six Principles says that nature works secretly in them, and therefore also in Aristotle's physics they are called second substances. But if the universal is considered according to itself, it is the image of light in the thing of nature. I say, the image of the light of the acting intelligence; that light is terminated to this something and incorporated in it. And in this way the universal of nature is produced into being by the acting intelligence, which operates through its intellectual light in every nature and is the cause of the natural thing in all things. This light, taken in itself, is present in the universal and by reason is universal; but taken as determined to this something and incorporated in it, it is the being and particular substance giving substantial being and notion to the singular.
Notes
- Text 1. (Tex. 1.) ↩
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