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(More customer reviews)The work of a great mind
Out of the many books Jacques Maritain wrote, his Degrees of Knowledge can be considered as his Magnum Opus in the field of speculative philosophy. First published in 1932, it is his major work on the theory of knowledge, inspired by the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas and the mystical works of St John of the Cross.
The whole purpose of the book is to make a synthesis between science, philosophy and theology. It has always been said that the vocation as a philosopher meant two things for Jacques Maritain: "the dignity of the human person and the restoration of the intellect". The first part of this project can be found in his works on social and political philosophy, like Integral Humanism and Man and State, etc. The other part led his philosophical activity gradually from his Bergsonian background to the critical realism of Thomas Aquinas.
The critical realism is to be found in the Degrees of knowledge which is Maritain's testimony of the second part of his philosopical vocation: the restoration of the intellect. Knowledge for Maritain contains two realms: natural and supernatural. The whole enterprise Maritain undertakes is to find an epistemology that embraces the full range of human knowledgde, from the simple knowledge of sense perception, to the supernatural knowledge, knowledge of the Divine essence.
The book is separated in two parts, a part about the degrees of natural knowledge and a part about the degrees of supranatural knowledge.
My intention is to represent the basic ideas of the book, I do not find myself able to criticize the book. Understanding what Maritain is trying to show, takes a lot of time, and I am still in the phase of understanding. This book deserves a honest and clear evauation, more than a simple good or bad label. The book contains more than 500 pages of text, in which a lot of very difficult material is presented. Let's be clear about it: The Degrees of Knowlegde is a very difficult book, and I think you need a decent philosophical training to understand it.
Degrees of rational knowledge
Let's look at the first part: the domain of natural knowledge. Natural knowledge is the domain of unaided reason, in which the intellect has as its formal object: being. Being is known by way of abstraction. Maritain dinstinguishes three degrees of abstraction. In the first degree of this process, the mind knows an object, which it disengages from the singular and contingent moment of sense perception, but is still in reference to the sensible. This first degree of abstraction belongs to physics and philosophy of nature. The second degree is the mathematical abstraction, in which the mind knows an object whose intelligibility no longer implies an intrinsic reference to the sensible, but to the imaginable. Finally, in the highest degree of intellectual vision, the metaphysical degree, the intelligibility is free from any intrinsic reference to the senses or imagination. This is the field of trans-sensible reality. The mind starts with knowledge from the sensible, and penetrates deeper and deeper in the mystery of reality by way of ascending towards objects of thought which both can be conceived and exist without matter, which is the domain of metaphysics. The three degrees are on a hierarchical line, in which the first participates in the third.
The kinds of knowledge which belong to the natural order are also called, the dianoetic knowledge: in which things are known in themselves; perinoetic knowledge, in which there is knowledge of essences by way of signs, or some measurable properties. And there is finally ananoetic knowledge, or knowledge by analogy. This is the domain of metaphysics in which the intellect ascends from sensible being to the knowledge of the first being, which is God. It is at the same time called: natural theology.
Also there is knowledge which belongs to the natural order, which is called knowledge by connaturality. This kind of knowledge is not by means of a concept, but knowledge by inclination. It can be found in moral knowledge, the work of the artist, and the knowledge we have of other persons. We are co-natured with our object.
Knowledge starts with sense perception, the intellect receives through the sense perception a concept, an intelligible similtude, on which the intellect makes a judgement. The concept is called a formal sign: that by which we know, a means by which we know the very nature of a thing. The thing exists and the formal object is grapsed by the intellect. The object has intentional being, the thing has natural being. The concept is a formal sign by which the intellect becomes the other as other. By way of the judgement, the intellect asserts the existence of the thing as an extramental being.
The judgement is an important aspect in the theory of knowledge. By way of the judgement we assert that our knowledge is not only about a phenomena, a mental thing, but by the judgement we confirm the existence of the extra-mental being, the correspondence of intellect and reality. Things can be known in themselves, the truth of knowledge consists in the conformity of the mind with the thing. Truth is possible but difficult for man to attain. It is therefore called critical realism.
So we can conclude that: Truth is the conformity of the mind with being. Knowledge is immersed in existence, given to us first by sense, sense attains the object as existing. Sense delivers existence to the intellect, it gives the intellect an intelligible treasure which sense does not know to be intelligible, and which the intellect knows as being.
The degrees of supra-rational knowledge
The second part of the book deals with supra-rational knowledge. It's about the knowledge of God. For Maritain, faith and reason are not conflicting. There is a great harmony between nature and grace. Again Maritain distinguishes in order to unite. There are three wisdoms. The first one belongs to the natural order, it is based on reason, the domain of metaphysics. It's the ananoetic knowledge, also called natural theology. Above the natural theology, stands the science of revealed mysteries, which is called theology. It is reason illuminated by faith. It's certitude is superior to metaphysics, because it has a divine origin. Then above all, there is the mystical wisdom or infused wisdom which consists in knowing the essentialy supernatural object of faith and theology, Deity as such, the expierence of God, in which we can know Him in His essence. Faith alone is not sufficient, it needs the gifts of the Holy Spirits and the theological virtues of faith and hope, infused moral virtues.
Some remarks
Like I said earlier, you need a decent philosophical training to understand the material presented. The book presupposes knowledge about the battle for the universal in the middle ages, the philosophy of Descartes, the tradition of idealism and logical positivism.
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