Friday, June 03, 2022

The Truth About Double Truth

The theory of "double truth," according to Prof. Wiki, is 

the view that religion and philosophy, as separate sources of knowledge, might arrive at contradictory truths without detriment to either.

This has always been rejected by the Church, and Thomas Aquinas in particular built a pretty nice career out of the contrary idea that truth is one, irrespective of our opinions about it.  

Now -- spoiler alert -- not only is truth one, but every thinking person understands this, whether explicitly or, more often, implicitly. 

For the act of thinking presupposes the unity of reality, of intelligence and intelligibility. After all, if reality isn't intelligible to intelligence, then we're done here: truth is reduced to opinion, and man can only forever marinate in his own stupidity, like an endless loop of CNN. 

Our friend Nicolas observes that

Truths are not relative. What is relative are opinions about the truth.

Come to think of it, the act of thinking presupposes a number of things, and let us count the ways. 

Better yet, let's consider science, since it is believed by many to be synonymous with reason itself, and very much opposed to any so-called "truth" of religion. Indeed, scientism is the doctrine of Single Truth, period. All truth is scientific truth. And that's the truth!

Yes, it's too easy to point out that this epistemological assertion isn't subject to scientific proof, but we'll let that pass for the moment. Suffice it to say that science cannot prove that science is the only path to truth, any more than the Bible proves the Bible is infallibly true because it is infallible. 

Let's say we want to do us some science. What are the conditions that must be present in order for science to be possible? First of all, there must be an order in things, an order we do not invent but discover. On the one hand, these things are external to us, and yet, we are able to decode a hidden order via our own interiority. 

As mentioned a few posts back, the word "intellect" means read withinand this is indeed what the scientist does when, for example, he discovers the invisible laws that govern the material world. The weirdness of this ability is insufficiently appreciated, but certainly no mere animal can access this immaterial world of laws, causes, and principles. Only an immaterial being could do this.

What kind of immaterial being? A person

Now, we just finished a series of posts exploring the idea that person is the ultimate principle of the cosmos. I probably didn't convince anyone who doesn't already believe it, and besides, the deluded are prolix, so I probably should have just rested on the authority of the Aphorist:

Truth is a person.
However, terse as he is, he makes some other key points about truth, for example, 

In order for a multitude of diverse terms to coexist, it is necessary to place them on different levels. A hierarchical ordering is the only one that neither expels nor suppresses them.

This is helpful, because it allows us to see that what may look like a double truth is merely a result of putting these truths out of order, such that the lower truth may eclipse the higher. For example, the truth of scientism results in a total eclipse of God. But does the truth of God eclipse science? Not even remotely. 

Rather, the truth of science is a direct consequence of the truth of God, which is to say, Truth. For Aquinas, 

The intellectual light dwelling in us is nothing else than a kind of participated image of the uncreated light...

Which means that there is and must be something in humans that, despite the fact that we are created, nevertheless participates in the uncreated; although we are obviously contingent -- we exist, but our existence is unnecessary -- even in knowing this, we know a necessary truth; and as Aquinas says, "Everything eternal is necessary." 

Therefore, if I'm following my argument, I just now participated in eternity, because the converse must be equally true -- that everything necessary is eternal.

Which is precisely what Eckhart says about the intellect, and so too does Schuon -- that at least some part of it must not only be uncreated but uncreatable, to the extent that it knows the necessary:

geometrically speaking, the Intellect is a ray rather than a circle, it “emanates” from God rather than “reflecting” Him. 

Or only reflecting him. More specifically, we may distinguish  

a "created Intellect" and an "uncreated Intellect," the latter being the divine Light and the former the reflection of this Light at the center of Existence; "essentially," they are One, but "existentially," they are distinct.

And now that I'm thinking about it, it seems to me that the unfortunate events of Genesis 3 must involve a serious rupture in this prior unity, while the Incarnation must entail its reunification and healing via the metacosmic Person -- and our participation in Him.

So, I woke up two hours early this morning and decided to stay up. Big. Mistake. Without the usual nine hour coma, I'm feeling pretty fuzzy, so I never did get to the main event. To be continued... 

11 comments:

John Venlet said...

What scientists who deny The Creator fail to comprehend, is, their ability to winnow out the operation of the material world, with its numerous laws, the order of things as you referred to it, is contingent upon their minds being able to invent instruments of precision which allow the order of things to be known, to be measured and replicable. Their musings on scientism as the final truth lacks the instruments of precision required for their musings to be truth, i.e. measurable, and rock solid truth. And though the truth of Scriptures also lacks man invented instruments of precision, The Way remains an unfailing guide to verticality, and you can take that to the bank of heavenly treasure.

Mamoud Lefthand Eater said...

That "religion and philosophy, as separate sources of knowledge, might arrive at contradictory truths without detriment to either" is true when it comes to commandments that violate nature. Perhaps its true that a religious founder banned self-defence and so the religion puts that forth as truth (it is historically true assuming they didn't lie) but philosophy finds that there is a right to self defence (that's true in a different way than historical). So historical truth that a religion says X is banned but philosophy says borhing is wron g with X. Islam says you can't east eith ypur left hand because the devil does. Its historically true that they say that but what they say is false and philosophy shows that.

Nicolás said...

What some call religion hardly astonishes us more than what others call science.

Gagdad Bob said...

Speaking of witch, 400 Years Ago, They Would Be Witches. Today, They Can Be Your Coach:

"If we are tempted to dismiss their taste for crystals and energy healing as New Age flimflam, it’s partly because they face up to something that many modern Westerners struggle to admit: Neither total submission to a traditional religious institution nor atheistic materialism feels right. We kind of do want the universe to hold our hand -- without bossing us around too much."

Gagdad Bob said...

'Coaches I interviewed told me that trusting the universe can replace chemotherapy, that healing prayers drive away chronic bladder infections, that a professional clairvoyant can read a client’s future in the universe’s “nonphysical, vibrational library," as a recent Goop article put it, of past lives and future events called the Akashic records.'

Gagdad Bob said...

“I identify as a Christian, but I’m very open to other ideas and opinions,” Krystal Vernee’, a coach in Maryland, told me. She became a coach after her business experience founding a pole-dancing studio prompted her to look for ways to draw on her life lessons to help others...

John Venlet said...

Ah, good ol' spiritualism. For just $29.95, plus tax, the latest new age book can show you how you too can move further down the road to, well whatever you want, horizontally.

julie said...

This is helpful, because it allows us to see that what may look like a double truth is merely a result of putting these truths out of order, such that the lower truth may eclipse the higher.

It's like the difference between Newtonian physics and quantam physics. Neither are wrong at the level in which they function, but if ordered incorrectly there would be a big problem.

Re. the Times article, "I identify as a Christian."

Is that like identifying as literally anything other than what you actually are? What a passive way of describing something that should affect one at the very core of the self! I wonder if she's ever considered being a Methodist, I bet she'd fit right in.

Cousin Dupree said...

Life Lessons of a Pole Dancer, or Ask Me About My Sexual Trauma

Mrs. Crabapple said...

HA!

Van Harvey said...

"The intellectual light dwelling in us is nothing else than a kind of participated image of the uncreated light..."

Translation for knuckleheaded programmers: " the instantiated instance of a class"
You're welcome.

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