The Intellectual Triadic Scaffolding of Western Civilisation
God, Conscious Man and the Natural World
Photo by Artem Horovenko on Unsplash
“Plato
was thephilosophical founder of Europe”…
— Augusto del Noce
“I am thewayand thetruthand thelife.
No one comes to the Father except through me (Jesus answered)” …
— John 14:6
“Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth;and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the first apartaker of truth, for then hecan be trusted”…
— Plato
“The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists inleading him from error to truth”…
— Thomas Aquinas
Metaphysics
/ˌmɛtəˈfɪzɪks/
the study of Being
the science of Reality
The history of intellectual thought of Western Civilisation can be viewed as the gradual metaphysical synthesis of:
a. Triadic Metaphysical and Physical Divine Order of Being (What Exists) - God (Necessary Being (Creator) - Plato & Aquinas), Conscious Man (Contingent Being (Created) - Plato & Aquinas) and the Natural World (Contingent Being (Created) - Plato & Aquinas) - The One, Nous and World Soul (Plotinus) - Father, Son (Incarnated) and Holy Spirit (Christian Theology) - Way, Truth, and Life (The Bible - John 14:6);
b. Triadic Metaphysical Order of Knowing and Intelligibility of the Conscious Self (res Cogitans) (What can we Know) - Ontological (Aristotle), Epistemological (Kant) and Phenomenological (Peirce) Categories of Thought that are grounded in a Real Distinction (foundational to Saint Thomas Aquinas Metaphysics) between essence (what a thing is) and existence (that a thing is) - Deductive (Aristotle), Inductive (Kant) and Abductive (Peirce) forms of Reason grounded in three modes of Being (Peirce) - Laws of Conservation (Divine - Created Being (Existence)), Laws of Physical Process (Symmetric - Matter is effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws - Peirce) and Laws of Mind (Asymmetric) (Peirce - The Law of the Mind (1892)) - Primisense, Altersense and Medisense elements of Human Consciousness (Peirce);
c. Triadic Metaphysical and Physical Order of Being of the Self (this Being) (Unity of this Being) - Real Being, Ideal Being and Moral Being (Rosmini) - Pathos, Logos and Ethos (Aristotle) - Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness (Peirce - three modes of Being) - Mind, Body and Spirit (Christian Theology) - Body, Soul (& Heart inner core of Soul) (Aquinas) - Intellect, Will and Appetite (Aquinas’ Soul) - Mind (Intellect), Soul (Vitality) and Heart (Will) ( Matthew 22:37) - Manage, Comprehend and Meaning (Antonovsky - Sense of Coherence);
d. Triadic Metaphysical and Physical Order of the Whole (What does it Mean and how should I ought to Act (Habits)? (Peirce) - Unity of Real Being - this Being with Being (Heidegger)) - The Semiotic Phenomenological mediation (via Signs) of the Conscious Self and Being - Being, Knowing and Meaning - Semiotic Triadic and Pragmatic Maxim (Peirce) grounded in the Triadic of Reason (Peirce, Bacon, Aristotle), Triadic Categories of Thought (Aristotle, Kant, Peirce), Triadic Modes of Being (Peirce, Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness),Universality of Reason (Kant) and the Univocity of Being (Duns Scotus), Scottish Common Sense Realism (Reid - Truths are Self Evident) and Divine Will, Moral Duties and Natural Rights (Locke); and
e. Triadic Metaphysical & Physical Order of this Being with a Natural Order (Intelligible Form & Orientation of all Being (Cosmos)) (Human Phenomena of the Will and God’s Will) - Human Reason & Actions, Natural Law and Eternal Law (Aquinas) - Truth, Justice and Beauty (Plato) - Truth, Ethics and Aesthetics (Peirce - Normative Sciences) - Divine Will, Moral Duties and Natural Rights (Locke) - Father, Son ((Logos), and Holy Spirit (Trinity of Christian Theology) - Being (Purpose), Word (Truth), and Love (Action) (Christian Theology).
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves”…
— Encyclical letter of Fides Et Ratio of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II To The Bishops of the Catholic Church on the relationship between Faith and Reason
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