34. Christ's Acquired Knowledge and the Active Intellect

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• The Completeness of Christ’s Human Nature: Christ assumed a complete human nature, which requires not only the intellectus possibilis (possible intellect) but also the intellectus agens (active intellect). God and nature do nothing in vain—every faculty must have its proper operation.

• The Problem of Acquired Knowledge: The objection states that Christ could not have acquired knowledge because (1) he did not study letters, (2) his soul was already filled with infused knowledge, and (3) acquiring a new habit of science from sensory perception would duplicate an existing habit.

• The Three Types of Knowledge in Christ:

  • Scientia acquisita (acquired knowledge): Knowledge derived from sensory images through the active intellect’s abstraction, proper to human nature
  • Scientia infusa (infused knowledge): Knowledge poured into the soul from above, proportioned to angelic nature
  • Scientia visionis (beatific knowledge): Direct vision of God’s essence, proper to God alone but participated by Christ’s soul

• The Function of the Active Intellect: The intellectus agens abstracts universal intelligible forms from particular sensory images (phantasmata), making them intelligible in act. This operation is essential to human nature.

Key Arguments #

Thomas’s Main Argument for Acquired Knowledge:

• Christ assumed complete human nature
• Human nature includes the active intellect as well as the possible intellect
• The active intellect’s proper operation is to make intelligible forms actual from sensory images
• Every faculty has its proper operation; God and nature do nothing in vain
• Therefore, Christ must have possessed acquired knowledge through the active intellect’s operation

Response to First Objection (Christ Didn’t Study Letters):

• There are two modes of acquiring knowledge: inventio (discovery/invention) and disciplina (learning from another)
• Discovery is the superior mode; learning is secondary but necessary
• Christ, as a teacher given by God, would more fittingly acquire knowledge through discovery than through learning from another
• Aristotle teaches that the best person understands things by himself; the worst person can neither discover nor learn

Response to Second Objection (Soul Already Filled with Infused Knowledge):

• The human mind has a twofold relation: to superior things (in which respect it was filled by infused knowledge) and to inferior things (sensory images)
• Infused knowledge is sufficient for the human mind in itself, but acquired knowledge is necessary for perfection in relation to sensory images
• The proper object of the human intellect is something sensed or imagined; this relation must be perfected through acquired knowledge

Response to Third Objection (Cannot Acquire New Habit When Habit Already Exists):

• Acquired and infused habits have different definitions (ratio): infused habits descend from above, while acquired habits result from comparison of the mind to images
• When a habit is of the same definition, no new habit can be required; but these are of different definitions, so both can coexist
• This is like reading the same book again: one does not acquire a new habit but perfects the existing one; yet one can also know things in different ways

Important Definitions #

• Intellectus agens (active intellect): The power of the human soul that abstracts universal intelligible forms from particular sensory images, making them intelligible in act

• Intellectus possibilis (possible intellect): The receptive capacity of the human mind to receive intelligible forms

• Scientia acquisita (acquired knowledge): Knowledge gained through the natural operation of the human intellect upon sensory experience through the active intellect’s abstraction

• Scientia infusa (infused knowledge): Knowledge poured directly into the soul by God, not derived from sensory experience, proportioned to the angelic mode of knowing

• Scientia visionis (knowledge of vision): The beatific knowledge whereby God’s essence is seen directly

• Phantasmata (sensory images): Particular sensory impressions from which the active intellect abstracts universal intelligible forms

Examples & Illustrations #

The Analogy of Sight and Touch:

• One can determine the shape of a book (rectangle) by touch alone, through resistance and texture
• One can also determine the same shape by sight, through color and extension
• These are different modes of knowing the same thing
• One mode does not prevent or destroy the other
• Similarly, infused knowledge and acquired knowledge can coexist in Christ without contradiction

The Horizon Analogy (from Descartes discussion):

• You see something on the horizon but cannot identify it
• A friend directs your attention: “Do you see that tree?” “Yes.” “Do you see the bush to the right of the tree?” “Yes.” “Do you see the man just to the left of the bush?” “Yes!”
• Dialectical reasoning does not prove the man is there; rather, it leads you to see what you did not see before
• This illustrates how Christ’s acquired knowledge through sensory experience leads to knowledge not previously possessed, even though infused knowledge existed

The Age of the Professor (Duhem’s inverse ratio of certainty to precision):

• Stating “I am over 20” is more certain than stating a specific year of birth
• The more precise the claim (specific year, month, day, hour), the less certain it becomes
• Even birth certificates can contain errors
• This illustrates that precision in measurement does not guarantee certainty

The Passion and Obedience:

• Christ could know theoretically what suffering was, but through actual experiential suffering, he acquired a different kind of knowledge
• As stated in Hebrews 5:8: “He learned obedience from those things which he suffered”
• This is not learning that suffering exists, but knowing it through singular, concrete experience

The Misplaced Cruet Incident:

• The community learned theoretically what would happen if water were substituted for wine at Mass
• The next day, in darkness, a brother confused the water cruet with the wine cruet, and the error actually occurred
• The community then knew this problem not merely theoretically but through actual experience
• The wine did not taste right, revealing the error
• This illustrates how acquired knowledge from experience differs from abstract theoretical knowledge

Notable Quotes #

“God and nature do nothing in vain” (Aristotle, cited through Thomas Aquinas)

“Everything is for the sake of its operation” (Aristotle)

“Best of all is the man who by himself understands these things; next best is the man who listens to the man who says these things well” (Hesiod, cited in Aristotle’s Epics)

“He learned obedience from those things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8)

“Although elsewhere I have written otherwise, now it ought to be said that in Christ there was acquired knowledge” (Thomas Aquinas)

Questions Addressed #

Q: Does Christ’s unlettered state (John 7) contradict the claim that he had acquired knowledge?

A: The objection confuses modes of acquiring knowledge. Christ did not acquire knowledge through disciplina (learning from teachers—the inferior mode), but through inventio (discovery—the superior mode). He needed no teachers; as a teacher given by God, he possessed knowledge in the most excellent way.

Q: If infused knowledge already fills the soul completely, how can acquired knowledge be added without creating redundancy?

A: Infused and acquired knowledge are of different definitions. Infused knowledge descends from above; acquired knowledge results from the mind’s comparison to sensory images. Just as one cannot have two acquired habits of the same kind simultaneously (reading the same book twice perfects rather than duplicates), one can have both infused and acquired knowledge because they are of different kinds. The soul is perfected in different respects.

Q: Doesn’t acquiring knowledge from sensation create a duplicate habit if knowledge already exists through infusion?

A: No. The principle that prevents duplicate habits applies only to habits of the same definition. When the same object is known through different definitions (sight vs. touch, or infused vs. acquired knowledge), there is no redundancy. One knows shape through hardness (touch) and through color (sight) without duplication. Similarly, Christ knows things through infused knowledge (angelic mode) and through acquired knowledge (human mode).

Q: What specifically does Christ acquire through experiential knowledge?

A: Christ acquires knowledge of singular, concrete realities as experienced. The example from Hebrews shows he learned obedience from suffering—not that obedience exists or that suffering exists, but the concrete experience of these realities in his human nature. He could know intellectually what it means to suffer, but knowing it through actual sensory and emotional experience is a different kind of knowledge.