8. Distinction, Order, and the Trinity in Thomistic Metaphysics

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Distinction and Order as Fundamental Concepts #

• Distinction in order (ordo) vs. distinction of order: a crucial preliminary distinction
• The axiom of order: Nothing can be before or after itself; distinction must logically precede order
• Distinction is about what something is relative to another (one is not the other)
• Order is about what comes before or after something else

Material and Formal Distinction #

• Material distinction: Dividing the continuous (a property of matter). Examples: dividing a line at a point, bisecting an angle, dividing a semicircle
• Formal distinction: By opposites; the way immaterial realities are distinguished
• God cannot be distinguished materially since God is not a body and is not continuous
• Therefore, the distinction in the Trinity must be formal

Four Types of Opposites (from Aristotle) #

1. Contradictories: Being and non-being
2. Having and lacking: The presence or absence of something in a subject capable of receiving it
3. Contraries: Like virtue and vice (one is a real deficiency of what should be present)
4. Relatives: Relations between things (e.g., father-son)

All first three types involve some form of non-being. In God, who is pure I am, distinctions cannot be by these three. Therefore, the Trinity is distinguished by the fourth type: relations (relativa).

The Trinity and Relational Distinction #

• The Father and Son are distinguished by relations of origin, not by division of substance
• The names ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ themselves reveal this relational distinction
• This avoids all contradictions: God is not divided, not contingent, not lacking anything

The Five Senses of ‘Before’ #

Berquist develops Aristotle’s analysis of before (prius) with five distinct senses:

1. Before in time (prius tempore): What exists first chronologically (e.g., bricks before a brick house)
2. Before in being (prius esse or secundum esse): What can exist without another, but that other cannot exist without it (e.g., bricks before the brick wall; a cause before its effect in terms of dependence)
3. Before in knowledge (prius cognitione): What can be known without knowing other things, but those things cannot be known without it (e.g., first principles before derived truths)
4. Before in goodness/dignity (prius dignitate): What is more perfect or noble (e.g., the soul before the body)
5. Before as cause (prius ut causa): Causality as a special sense of priority (related to but distinct from before in being)

Key distinction: Before in time and before in being are NOT the same. Something can be before in time without being before in being (e.g., Berquist is before his students in time, but depends on them less than they might depend on him).

The Priority of Distinction Over Order #

• To see that things are ordered, one must first see that they are distinct
• If something is to be before or after something else, there must be a distinction between them
• The axiom: Nothing is before or after itself, but morning and afternoon are distinct parts of the day, so we can speak of morning being before afternoon

Application to Natural Philosophy: First Being vs. First Cause #

Thomas demonstrates that God is not merely the first mover or first maker but also the first being (ens primum):

• From contingency: Contingent beings (capable of being and not-being) cannot be first; there must be a necessary being (ens necessarium)
• Necessary being through itself: A being necessary to another is not the first being; only a being necessary to itself can be first
• From potency and act: Things that move from potency to act do so by something already in act; therefore, act is simply (simpliciter) before potency. The first being must be pure act (actus purus) without any potentiality

Key Arguments #

Why the Trinity Must Be Distinguished by Relations #

Argument Structure:

1. God is not a body, therefore not continuous → material distinction is impossible
2. God is pure being, therefore cannot involve non-being → contradictories, contraries, and having/lacking are impossible
3. The only remaining type of opposite is relatives
4. The names ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ confirm this relational distinction

The Relation Between Distinction and Order #

• One cannot speak of order (before/after) between things that are identical
• Before we order distinctions or distinguish orders, there must be a prior distinction
• This is why Aristotle (in the Posterior Analytics, Second Postulate) distinguishes the senses of before — to clarify what is fundamentally prior

Important Definitions #

• Distinctio materialis: Division of something continuous by a boundary (a property of matter)
• Distinctio formalis: Distinction by opposites; applicable to immaterial things
• Relativa: Relatives; things defined by their relation to something else (e.g., father, son, master, servant)
• Ens necessarium: A being whose existence is necessary; either necessary in itself or necessary to another
• Actus purus: Pure act; being without any potentiality or composition
• Esse: To be; the act of existence itself

Examples & Illustrations #

Bricks and a Brick House #

• Bricks come before in time: they exist first
• Bricks come before in being: a brick house cannot exist without bricks, but bricks can exist without a brick house
• Demonstrates that temporal priority and ontological priority are distinct senses of ‘before’

Shakespeare’s “Reason Looks Before and After” #

• The phrase applies to all five senses of ‘before’
• Reason looks back and forward in time, in knowledge, in being, in goodness
• Illustrates how great poets and philosophers capture multiple dimensions of a concept in a single phrase

The Line, Point, and Semicircle #

• Geometric examples of material distinction: the point bisects the line, two semicircles meet at a diameter
• Shows how the continuous can be divided at a boundary (the point, the line)
• Demonstrates the conceptual clarity achieved through sensible examples

Notable Quotes #

“Nothing is before or after itself.” — Fundamental axiom of order

“The Father and Son are distinguished by relations, not by division of substance.” — Thomas Aquinas (paraphrased from the Sentences commentary)

“God is a being that must be through itself; He necessarily is, but not to another, but to himself.” — Berquist’s summary of Thomas on necessary being

“It’s the distinction between color and sound that is before the distinction between seeing and hearing, because both seeing and hearing are sensing; what distinguishes them is their objects.” — Illustrating that the distinction of objects precedes the distinction of acts

Questions Addressed #

Q: How can God be three and one if there is no material division? A: The distinction is formal, by relations of origin (paternity, filiation, procession), not by material division. Relations are a type of opposite that do not involve non-being.

Q: What is the difference between ‘before in time’ and ‘before in being’? A: Something can be before in time without being before in being (dependency-wise). For example, a cause may come into being after its effect begins, but the effect still depends on the cause for its continued existence.

Q: Is God the first being or merely the first cause? A: Thomas shows God is both. As first mover/cause (from Aristotle’s Physics), but more fundamentally, as the first being — the necessary being in itself from which all contingent beings derive their existence.

Q: What does it mean to distinguish orders and order distinctions? A: When we say ‘first distinction’ and ‘second distinction,’ we are ordering distinctions (arranging them in sequence). But distinctions themselves can be distinguished into types (material and formal), so we distinguish orders. Both operations are valid and important.