19. Universal Causes, Predicables, and Wisdom in Aristotle

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Two Senses of Universality #

• Universale in predicando: Universal in predication—what is said of many things with one meaning in response to “what is it?” (e.g., “human” said of all humans)
• Universale in causando: Universal in causality—a cause whose causal power extends to all things (e.g., the king’s causality extends to all citizens)
• These two senses are distinct but often confused, particularly in modern philosophy

The Error of Heidegger and Spinoza #

• Heidegger’s mistake: Takes “being” (which is said of all things) and treats it as the origin/cause from which everything proceeds, conflating predication with causation
• Spinoza’s error: Claims “the order in thoughts and the order in things is the same,” identifying the most confused human thought of being with the first principle of all things
• Both make the fundamental error of confusing the order in which we know with the order of things themselves

Aristotle’s Approach in the Metaphysics #

• Aristotle (in the 14 books of wisdom) avoids this confusion by maintaining both dimensions of universality
• Wisdom considers what is said of all things (being and one) AND the first causes
• In the preface to the Metaphysics, Aristotle explicitly distinguishes: the first three points of the wise man concern what is said of all; the last three concern first causes
• The correspondence between the two is justified by causality: the more universal the cause, the more universal the effect or domain

The Relationship Between Causality and Predication #

• The science of the king is also the science of citizens because the king’s causality extends to all citizens
• The science of the general is also the science of soldiers because the general’s causality extends to soldiers
• “Citizen” is more universal than “soldier” (all soldiers are citizens but not vice versa), yet the king’s causality extends further than the general’s
• This demonstrates how universal causality justifies treating more universal predicates in the same science

Application to Ethics #

• Ethics differs from medicine or carpentry: medicine treats health (not the end of all human things), but ethics treats happiness (the end of all human things)
• Because happiness is the cause of all human action, ethics must consider all human goods in general
• The division of goods into goods of the soul, goods of the body, and exterior goods belongs to the philosopher, not the medical doctor
• Ethics is universal like wisdom, but in reference to human life specifically

Heraclitus’s Insight #

• “Those who speak with understanding must be strong in what is common to all”
• The wise man becomes strong in universals in both senses: first causes (universal in causation), being and one (universal in predication), and axioms
• This is why the wise man alone speaks with understanding

Key Arguments #

Against Confusing the Two Universalities #

• Confusion of universale in predicando and universale in causando is a “gross confusion” that leads to fundamental errors in metaphysics
• Heidegger treats being (a universal predicate) as if it were a first cause/principle
• Spinoza makes the confused human thought of being into the first principle of all reality
• Both errors stem from failing to distinguish the order of knowledge from the order of being

The Order of Knowledge vs. Order of Being #

• Aristotle teaches (in Physics Book II) that the distinction in order by which we know is not the same as the order in which things exist
• We can know things in confusion that exist in distinction
• We can know things in reverse order from how they exist in things (knowing effect before cause)
• Sherlock Holmes’s reasoning “backwards” (from effect to cause) is not false reasoning simply because causes exist before effects

Why Not Everything Must Exist in Separation? #

• Plato’s error: assumes that because man-in-general must exist prior to individual men (as a cause), there must be a separated universal Form of Man
• Aristotle’s refutation: universal cannot exist separately; universals exist only in particulars
• Man cannot exist without matter; a universal man would require matter absence, which is impossible

Important Definitions #

• Universale in predicando (Latin): Universal in predication; a name said with one meaning of many things differing individually, in answer to “what is it?”
• Universale in causando (Latin): Universal in causation; something whose causal power extends to all or many things
• Suppositum (Latin): An individual substance or supposit; the concrete individual that exists
• Genus (Latin): A general class said with one meaning of many things differing in kind, signifying what something is
• Species (Latin): For lowest species, a name said with one meaning of many individuals differing only in number, in answer to “what is it?”

Examples & Illustrations #

The General and the Soldier #

• General Schwarzkopf: “Generals always speak general”
• General (military commander): an individual, not said of all in the army; possesses universale in causando
• Soldier: said of all in the army; universale in predicando
• Douglas MacArthur: individual person, not said of others, but commands entire army

Shakespeare’s Pun in Troilus and Cressida #

• When Cressida comes to the Greek camp, “the general” (like Agamemnon) kisses her
• Nestor says she “has been kissed by the general, but not kissed in general”
• Shakespeare puns on two senses of “general” (particular leader vs. universal predicate), showing wisdom in recognizing different meanings
• Berquist: “Shakespeare is wiser than Hegel” because he recognized these distinctions

The King and Citizens #

• A science about the king is also a science about citizens
• The king’s causality extends to all citizens
• Citizens form a larger predicate class than soldiers (all soldiers are citizens)
• The king’s universal causation justifies including citizen-science within the same knowledge framework

Questions Addressed #

How does Aristotle maintain both universalities without confusion? #

Aristotle keeps them quite distinct: wisdom considers being and one (universal in predication) AND first causes (universal in causation), but he does not treat them as identical. In the preface to the Metaphysics, he explicitly argues the first three characteristics of the wise man concern universals in predication, while the last three concern first causes.

Why do Heidegger and Spinoza make this mistake? #

Both conflate the order of human knowledge with the order of being. Heidegger treats the universal “being” (predicable of all things) as the origin from which all things proceed. Spinoza argues that because our thought moves from confused to distinct, the most confused universal thought must correspond to the first reality—fundamentally confusing predication with causation.

How does this apply to understanding the incarnation? #

When discussing whether the Son of God should assume human nature in all individuals, one must not confuse: (1) human nature as a universal predicate (said of all men), with (2) the Word as a universal cause (whose causality extends to all human salvation). The incarnate Word is universal cause of salvation, not universal predicate of human nature.