Knowing and being to St. Thomas Aquinas is the same. In-fact for St. Thomas, Knowing is his way of being. So without knowing there is no being. The metaphysics that St. Thomas wrote is mainly about knowledge. Everything in creation is intelligible at one degree or another. Animal’s sense knowledge is his knowledge of being. Metaphysics starts with ordinary experience and common sense. This common sense is a pre-reflective and instinctive knowledge that can blossom into genuine philosophical understanding.
With common sense we accept the fact that things exist, but unfortunately, existence is simply a predicate we give to each of the hings around us, and then think no more about it. St. Thomas Metaphysics summarized change; he thought that it can be explained by using the four causes. Also in his metaphysics he states that all physical things are composed of matter and form. Matter remains a constant throughout change; the form is what determines what type of thing it is.
For example two rocks, by virtue of being of being separate clumps of matter the two rocks are different, but by the virtue of having the same form, these two rocks are the same. St. Thomas’s believed in Sense Perception, Imagination, and the Intellect. According to St. Thomas Sense Perception is basically an element (matter) of intellective perception. Intellective perception, composed of matter and form, cannot be said to resemble sense perception which is subordinate to and an element of intellective perception; it is neither equal to nor a copy of intellective perception.
We do not normally say that a particular mouth is like the head containing the mouth, just as we do not normally say that the square shape of some particular object resembles the substance of the object, although the body is square in shape. On the other hand, the relationship between a bodily sense perception and the ntellective perception of that body is so lose that with each perception we perceive the same thing identically although in a different mode. With intellective perception we perceive in a universal mode what we perceive in a particular way with sense perception.
The intellect adds being, that is, it adds the cause to the effect perceived by sense. According to St. Thomas Imagination is the inner sense. Imagination is what you think about, for example lets say you look at a tree, looking it self is the outer sense witch is looking, then when you look away from the tree you imagine the tree, because at this point in time the real presence f the tree is not there it is in the mind, so basically it is in your imagination.
Another example is when you look at a rock, at the time you are looking at the rock or in other words when the rock is present in front of you it involves the outer sense, but when you look away from the rock you then start to imagine it because the actual presence of the rock is no longer there, this is when the inner sense comes into play which is imagination. According to St. Thomas the Intellect is the nous, which understands. The intellect not only knows the facts but also hunts for the causes.
There re two types of intellects according to St. Thomas passive intellect which does not just become a form. The passive intellect receives the essence of the thing known. The essence receives a new kind of existence in the intellect. Outside of the mind, the essence is particular, in the here and now. For example the tree has existence outside of the mind. It is there, now, actually green and brown, actually large, etc. And it is particular. But keep in mind; the essence and existence are really distinct.
The active intellect abstracts the essence from its individuating conditions, and fter impressing the essence onto the passive mind, the essence acquires a new kind of existence (an intentional existence, or a logical existence). The essence exists universally in the mind. The tree has not changed. The tree is still there, a composite of essence and existence. But the essence is existentially neutral (it can exist in the mind or outside the mind). It does not need to necessarily exist in any particular way.
The intellect gives the essence a new existence or in other words an intentional existence. The essence is capable of existing universally, because the essence is potency to existence. It receives a different kind of existence in the mind, an immaterial existence, a universal mode of existence, an abstract mode of existence, unlike its existence outside of the mind. In basic words the intellect is an idea, the connection of the senses and then the imagination will create the idea.
This is what St. Thomas thought the intellect was and how it acted. St. Thomas then went on to explain the Raditio or in other words the self consciousness, self presence, or self possession. Raditio means in the process of knowing something in the self consciousness state. St. Thomas hought raditio or self consciousness is basically being of oneself as an individual or of one’s own being, actions, or thoughts. According St. Thomas reason is the mind’s capacity of distinguishing and connecting the things that are learned.
Ratio est mentis motio ea quae discuntur distinguendi et connectendi potens. He also calls it an aspectus animi, quo per seipsum, non per corpus verum intuetur. It precedes the exercise of the intellectual capacity. He says of man: Nam ideo vult intelligere, quia ratio praecedit. Reason is, however, inferior to the intellect. Man possesses reason before he begins the activity of intellection, which is ontemplation. Then St. Thomas went on to explain the Human causes, he said that it was not pure recessive ness.
St. Thomas then went on to explain Sensibility. He thought that sensibility was the faculty by means of which the mind receives sensuous intuitions. The sensibility is receptive (passive), while understanding and reason are spontaneous (active). This is what St. Thomas Aquinas thought that sensibility was he also thought that sensibility is a change of being. This is the following metaphysical proposition: Being and Knowing is the same, according to St. Thomas Aquinas.
