140. Growth of Habits: Addition vs. Participation

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Question: How Do Habits Grow? #

The apparent problem: Do habits grow by adding more habit to existing habit (like adding money to wealth, or sugar to coffee), or by some other mechanism?

Three Common Objections to Non-Addition Growth #

Objection 1: Growth is Defined by Addition

• The term “growth” (from bodily quantities) has been transferred to forms
• Bodily growth clearly occurs through addition of magnitude to magnitude
• Reference: Generation and Corruption, Book I
• Example: Becoming fat means adding fat to fat already present

Objection 2: Agents Always Produce Something New

• Every agent acting on a subject produces something in that subject
• Just as eating causes heat in the eater
• Therefore growth must involve some new addition

Objection 3: Potency and Actuality

• What is not white is in potency to the form of whiteness itself
• What is less white is in potency to more whiteness
• Just as that which is not white requires the arrival of whiteness to become white
• So that which is less white requires some whiteness coming upon it to become more white
• Reference: Natural Hearing (Physics), Book IV

Thomas Aquinas’s Solution: Two Modes of Growth #

Growth in forms (habits, qualities) can occur in two fundamentally different ways:

Mode 1: Growth According to the Form Itself #

• The form extends to more things or encompasses more objects
• Example: Knowing more theorems of geometry increases one’s science
  • First person knows 48 theorems (first two books of Euclid)
  • Second person knows 200+ theorems (all 13 books)
  • Both have the same species of habit (geometry), but different amount
• This is growth through addition in a qualified sense—adding to the comprehensiveness of the form

Mode 2: Growth According to Participation of the Subject #

• The same form remains unchanged, but the subject participates in it more perfectly or intensely
• The subject becomes better disposed to the form, grasping it more fully
• Example: Understanding the same geometric proof better upon repeated study
  • Two different people prove the same theorem (say, Pythagoras)
  • One proves it “expeditiously and clearly”
  • Another proves it slowly or with difficulty
  • Same form (the proof), different intensity of participation
• This is growth without addition—only intensification

The Metaphysical Principle: Species and Numbers #

Species are like numbers in mathematics:

• Add or subtract from a number, and it becomes a different number
• Add or subtract from a species, and it becomes a different species
• Example: A body (1) becomes a living body (2); an animal (3) becomes a human (4)
• Therefore, if growth were by adding form to form, the species would necessarily change
• But the habit (geometry, justice, charity) does not change species when it grows
• Conclusion: Growth cannot be by literal addition of form to form

What the Agent Actually Does #

When an agent acts to increase a habit:

• The agent does not produce a new form
• The agent causes the subject to participate more perfectly in the pre-existent form
• The agent intensifies the subject’s grip on or absorption of the form
• Example: Heating water
  • The heat is not a new form added to water
  • Rather, the water (subject) comes to participate more intensely in the form of heat
  • The molecules move faster, the water spreads (rarefies), but no new “form of heat” appears

Application: Three Different Cases #

Case 1: Bodily Magnitude and Growth

• Bodily growth can happen two ways:
  1. Addition of subject to subject (e.g., living things growing by acquiring more matter)
  2. Intensification without addition (e.g., rarefaction—water becoming steam without adding more matter)
• Growth in living things is typically the first way; rarefaction is the second

Case 2: Sciences and Intellectual Habits

• Can grow by addition: Learning more theorems adds to the extent of geometry
• Can grow by intensity: Understanding the same theorems more clearly or expeditiously
• Both are genuine growth, but operate differently

Case 3: Bodily Habits (Health, Strength)

• In these, growth does not come about by addition
• Instead, the body achieves a more perfect commensuration (harmony of parts)
• This involves the transmutation of simple qualities (becoming warmer, drier, etc.)
• These qualities increase only according to the intensity of the subject’s participation

Key Arguments #

Against Literal Addition of Form to Form #

1. The Species Problem

   • If form were added to form, the species would change (like adding numbers)
   • But when a habit grows, the species of habit is preserved
   • Therefore growth cannot be by addition of form to form

2. The Potency-to-Form Distinction

   • That which is not white is in potency to the form itself (absolute potency)
   • That which is less white is in potency only to a more perfect participation in the form (relative potency)
   • These are fundamentally different: the latter does not require a new form

3. What Agents Actually Produce

   • An agent produces something in the subject, but not necessarily a new form
   • Rather, the agent causes a new mode or intensity of the pre-existent form
   • Just as heat makes something “newly” partake of heat without creating new heat

For Participation Theory #

1. The Form Remains Unchanged

   • The form of geometry, justice, or heat does not multiply or change when growth occurs
   • Only the subject’s relation to the form changes

2. Intensity Parallels Physical Change

   • Just as rarefaction makes water spread without adding matter
   • Intensification makes a habit more present to the subject without adding form

3. Practical Verification

   • Students learn the same material year after year
   • A teacher grasps it more clearly the second time than the first
   • This is measurable growth without new content

Important Definitions #

Intensio (Intensity)

• The more perfect or thorough participation of a subject in a form
• Occurs without change in the form itself
• Characteristic of accidental forms and habits

Remissio (Remission)

• The less perfect participation of a subject in a form
• The inverse of intensity
• Represents diminishment of a habit without loss of the form

Partaking/Participation (Participatio)

• The manner in which a subject possesses or is affected by a form
• Can be more or less perfect while remaining the same form
• Distinguished from the form itself (e.g., the subject partakes of whiteness)

Dispositio (Disposition)

• A temporary or easily-moved quality of the body
• Can be ordered to health or sickness
• Different animals have different suitable dispositions given their nature

Commensuratio

• The proper harmony or fitting proportion of a body’s parts
• In health, the commensuratio of qualities is suited to the animal’s nature
• Growth in bodily habits comes through more perfect commensuratio

Examples & Illustrations #

Wealth and Money #

• Financial growth is genuinely by addition: you add money to money
• This makes the analogy to habits misleading—they grow differently

Geometry and Theorems #

• First person: knows Books 1-2 of Euclid (48 theorems)
• Second person: knows all 13 books (200+ theorems)
• The species is the same (geometry), but one person has “more” of it
• But also: the same person understanding Pythagoras better on second study is growth without new theorems

Heat and Rarefaction #

• Water becomes hot: molecules move faster, water expands (rarefies)
• No new matter is added, only the existing water participates more intensely in heat
• Yet we correctly say the water is “more hot”

Teaching the Same Course #

• A teacher gives the same lecture year after year
• By the third time, the teacher presents it “better, more clearly, in less time”
• The content has not changed; the teacher’s grasp has intensified
• Students perceive this as genuine improvement

Cooling the Body #

• Someone works in the hot sun all day
• They jump in the pool and stay submerged for 15-20 minutes
• Their whole body becomes cold
• This is not expansion of coldness to new parts—it is intensification of participation

Adding Sugar to Coffee #

• Berquist’s illustration of the Empedocles example
• Sugar added to bitter coffee seems to change quality (bitter → sweet)
• But Empedocles says: No change of form; only change of place of the sugar
• This illustrates how changes we think are changes of quality might be disguised changes of place

Art and Photography #

• Berquist’s mother worked at the Art Institute and Field Museum
• Debate: Is photography an art or a technical science?
• Photography involves tools/gadgets (technical), but also seeing light, shape, and composition (artistic)
• Ansel Adams’s black-and-white photographs of nature are “stunning” despite simplicity
• This illustrates that apparent additions (new techniques) can mask deeper forms of participation in beauty

Questions Addressed #

Does growth require addition of form to form? #

No. Growth in habits occurs through the subject’s more perfect participation in the same form. If form were added to form, the species would change (like numbers), but species of habits remain constant during growth.

What does the agent actually do when increasing a habit? #

The agent does not introduce a new form. Rather, it causes the subject to partake more perfectly or intensely of the pre-existent form. The agent intensifies the subject’s reception of or engagement with the form.

How can one become more hot without new heat being added? #

Through rarefaction: the existing heat becomes more perfectly participated in by the subject. The molecules move faster, the substance expands, but no new form of heat is introduced. The form of heat remains; the participation intensifies.

Can science grow by addition of new theorems and by intensity of understanding? #

Yes. Science admits of both kinds of growth:

1. Extensive growth: Learning more theorems (e.g., progressing from Euclid I-II to Euclid I-XIII)
2. Intensive growth: Understanding the same theorems more clearly or expeditiously upon repeated study

Both are genuine growths of the habit of science.

Why does Berquist emphasize the importance of studying the same thing repeatedly? #

Because students often think “I heard that already” and assume nothing new can be learned. But the form of the truth can be grasped more or less perfectly. Studying the same theorem or doctrine repeatedly allows the subject (the mind) to participate more perfectly in the unchanging truth. This is genuine growth without novelty of content.