Sunday, June 07, 2009

Q101 A1: Whether in the state of innocence children would have been born with perfect knowledge?

No. In the state of innocence, children would not have been born with perfect knowledge, but in course of time they would have acquired knowledge without difficulty by discovery or learning, because as regards belief in matters which are above nature, we rely on authority alone; and so, when authority is wanting, we must be guided by the ordinary course of nature; it is natural for man to acquire knowledge through the senses.

Pueri in statu innocentiae non nascerentur perfecti in scientia, sed eam in processu temporis absque difficultate acquisivissent, inveniendo vel addiscendo, quia de his quae sunt supra naturam, soli auctoritati creditur, unde ubi auctoritas deficit, sequi debemus naturae conditionem; sed est naturale homini ut scientiam per sensus acquirat.

The human soul is naturally "like a blank tablet on which nothing is written," as the Philosopher says (De Anima iii, 4).

Anima nostra per naturam est "sicut tabula rasa in qua nihil est scriptum", ut dicitur in III de anima.

For this reason is the soul united to the body, that it needs it for its proper operation; and this would not be so if the soul were endowed at birth with knowledge not acquired through the sensitive powers.

Et ideo anima unitur corpori, quia indiget eo ad suam propriam operationem; quod non esset, si statim a principio scientiam haberet non acquisitam per sensitivas virtutes.

The perfection of knowledge was an individual accident of our first parent, so far as he was established as the father and instructor of the whole human race. Therefore he begot children like himself, not in that respect, but only in those accidents which were natural or conferred gratuitously on the whole nature.

Esse perfectum in scientia fuit individuale accidens primi parentis, inquantum scilicet ipse instituebatur ut pater et instructor totius humani generis. Et ideo quantum ad hoc, non generabat filios similes sibi, sed solum quantum ad accidentia naturalia vel gratuita totius naturae.

Children would have had sufficient knowledge to direct them to deeds of righteousness, in which men are guided by universal principles of right; and this knowledge of theirs would have been much more complete than what we have now by nature, as likewise their knowledge of other universal principles.

Pueri habuissent sufficientem scientiam ad dirigendum eos in operibus iustitiae in quibus homines diriguntur per universalia principia iuris; quam multo plenius tunc habuissent quam nunc naturaliter habemus, et similiter aliorum universalium principiorum.