275. Know Thyself and Nothing Too Much: Reason, Wisdom, and Divine Likeness

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Delphic Maxims and Human Nature #

• The two inscriptions at the Oracle of Delphi: “Know thyself” and “Nothing too much”
• “Know thyself” is an exhortation directed specifically to human beings, not to animals, angels, or God
• Angels and God naturally know themselves—no exhortation needed
• Animals cannot know what they are; they lack the capacity for self-knowledge
• Humans occupy a unique position: capable of knowing themselves but often failing to do so perfectly

The Progressive Narrowing of Self-Knowledge #

• “Know thyself” is directed to man as a whole, but more precisely to the soul (not merely the body)
• Not all parts of the soul can know themselves equally:
  • Anger cannot know what anger is
  • Hunger cannot know what hunger is
  • Only reason can truly know itself
• Therefore, the exhortation is most fundamentally directed to reason knowing itself

Reason’s Likeness to God #

• When reason knows itself, it becomes like God
• God’s primary activity is self-knowledge: God knows himself and through knowing himself, knows everything else
• God is blessed (beatus) through knowing himself, not through knowing the universe
• Reason’s self-knowledge mirrors God’s self-knowledge proportionaliter (proportionally)
• This participation in God’s activity of self-knowledge is genuinely ennobling and God-like

The Danger: “Nothing Too Much” #

• If reason confuses self-knowledge with its highest end, it errs gravely
• The deception arises from likeness: because reason is like God in knowing itself, one can be deceived into thinking this is the ultimate good
• Reason’s highest object is not itself but God himself
• Therefore: reason should know itself (in order to direct itself properly), but if it makes self-knowledge its end-all and be-all, it has taken “too much”
• This is the hidden dimension of “Nothing too much”—not merely physical moderation but spiritual moderation in aspirations

Likeness as a Source of Deception #

• Berquist illustrates this with a conversation about children offering strawberries to “Grandpa” from a table centerpiece
• Likeness is the cause of deception (similitudo est causa deceptionis)
• One can be deceived precisely because something resembles the truth
• Applied to reason: because it truly is like God in self-knowledge, one can be deceived into making this its ultimate goal
• The remedy lies in proper understanding of the hierarchy of goods

Key Arguments #

Why “Know Thyself” is Addressed to Reason Specifically #

• Argument from capability:
  • God knows himself necessarily; no exhortation is needed
  • Angels know themselves necessarily; no exhortation is needed
  • Animals cannot know themselves; exhortation would be futile
  • Therefore, the exhortation must address a being that can know itself but may not
  • This is uniquely true of human reason

The Structure of Reason’s Self-Knowledge #

• Reason is the only faculty capable of reflecting upon itself
• This reflects Berquist’s earlier definition of reason as possessing the ability to “look before and after”
• Reason must first achieve distinction to grasp anything, including itself
• Only through proper apprehension can reason know itself as reason

The Paradox of Godlikeness #

• Thesis: To know oneself as reason is to be godlike
• Apparent consequence: Therefore, reason’s self-knowledge is the human beatitude
• Refutation of apparent consequence: But God knows himself as the highest good; reason knows itself as not the highest good
• Resolution: Reason’s self-knowledge is good and godlike, but it is not the ultimate human end

Important Definitions #

Exhortatio (Exhortation) #

• An urging or encouraging toward some action or state
• Presupposes the addressee has the capacity to respond but may not spontaneously do so
• Thus narrows the field of possible recipients to those capable but not necessarily willing

Similitudo (Likeness) #

• That which causes or grounds deception
• Creates the possibility of error precisely because it resembles truth
• The more perfect the likeness, the greater the potential for deception if one is not careful in discernment

Proportionaliter (Proportionally) #

• Indicates analogy rather than univocal identity
• Reason’s self-knowledge is like God’s self-knowledge, but in a proportional (lesser) way
• Preserves both the genuine similarity and the real difference in perfection

Examples & Illustrations #

The Strawberries and Grandpa #

• Children at a table with a centerpiece containing strawberries
• They offer these to “Grandpa”
• Grandpa is not deceived by their resemblance to real strawberries
• This prompted reflection on likeness as a cause of deception
• Lesson: even very close resemblances can deceive if one is not vigilant in discernment

“Nothing Too Much” in Literature: Mowbray’s Exile in Richard II #

• Shakespeare’s Richard II, Act 1: Mowbray is exiled from England
• Mowbray describes his impending ignorance in exile with three words: dull, unfeeling, barren
• Dull = inability to distinguish (failure in the first act of reason)
• Unfeeling = inability to grasp or apprehend (failure in simple apprehension)
• Barren = inability to produce new knowledge through discourse (failure in discursive knowledge)
• These three words encapsulate the three fundamental dimensions of reason’s activity, now lost through exile
• Ignorance is the non-being of knowledge in something capable of knowing—hence it is necessarily barren

Concrete Examples of “Nothing Too Much” #

• The messenger who ran from Marathon and died from overexertion (“Marathon” reference)
• The Russian folktale of the man offered as much land as he could run around in a day: he runs extensively but dies from the effort
• These illustrate the obvious dimension of moderation, but the lecture pushes toward the hidden, spiritual dimension

Notable Quotes #

“Know thyself, that’s an exhortation, right? An exhortation is given to someone, right? So to whom is this exhortation given?… It must be something that is able to know itself, right? But maybe it doesn’t know itself, or it doesn’t know itself too well, right? And that fits man exactly, right?”

“When reason knows itself, it is what? Like God… For reason to know itself, it’s something like for God to know himself, right? So they’re urging you to be God-like, huh?”

“But there’s this big difference that God in knowing himself knows what’s best to know. And reason in knowing itself doesn’t know what’s best to know. It’s not what its highest object is. That’s God himself, right? Nothing too much.”

“Likeness is the cause of deception.” (Similitudo est causa deceptionis)

“Dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance.” (Shakespeare, Richard II)

Questions Addressed #

To Whom is the Exhortation “Know Thyself” Directed? #

• Resolution: To human reason specifically, not to all humans indiscriminately. It is directed to that faculty which is capable of self-knowledge but may fail to achieve it or achieve it imperfectly.

How Do the Delphic Maxims Relate to Each Other? #

• Resolution: “Know thyself” comes first as the prerequisite condition; “Nothing too much” follows as a warning against misapplying the first maxim. Knowing oneself must be pursued, but not to excess—not as if self-knowledge were the ultimate human end.

Why Is Reason’s Self-Knowledge Godlike? #

• Resolution: Because God’s primary and supreme activity is knowing himself. When reason mirrors this activity of self-knowledge, it participates in the divine mode of knowledge, becoming proportionally like God.

What Is the Hidden Danger in Reason’s Self-Knowledge? #

• Resolution: The danger of deception arising from likeness. Because reason’s self-knowledge is genuinely like God’s self-knowledge, one can be deceived into treating it as humanity’s ultimate end, when in fact reason’s true end is knowledge of God himself.

Philosophical Connections #

To Ancient Philosophy #

• Engages the Delphic inscriptions as focal points for understanding human nature and virtue
• Integrates Aristotelian and Platonic themes regarding self-knowledge and the hierarchy of knowledge
• The principle that opposites are known by opposites (referenced earlier in the lecture) grounds understanding of ignorance through understanding of knowledge

To Thomistic Theology #

• Reflects Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on human beatitude as culminating in the visio Dei (the beatific vision of God), not in self-knowledge
• The distinction between proportional likeness (similitudo) and univocal equality
• The role of reason in directing the soul toward its true end

To Scripture and Patristic Sources #

• References to the seven angels standing before God (biblical imagery of divine wisdom)
• Preparation for Thomas’s discussion of beatitude and grace (as mentioned in the transition to subsequent material)