Friday, May 12, 2006

Q16 A6: Whether there is only one truth, according to which all things are true?

No. In one sense truth, whereby all things are true, is one, and in another sense it is not because truth resides primarily in the intellect, and secondarily in things, according as they are related to the divine intellect.

If therefore we speak of truth, as it exists in the intellect, according to its proper nature, then are there many truths in many created intellects (and even in one and the same intellect, according to the number of things known).

But if we speak of truth as it is in things, then all things are true by one primary truth, to which each one is assimilated according to its own entity. And thus, although the essences or forms of things are many, yet the truth of the divine intellect is one, in conformity to which all things are said to be true.

The soul does not judge of things according to any kind of truth, but according to the primary truth, inasmuch as it is reflected in the soul, as in a mirror, by reason of the first principles of the understanding. It follows, therefore, that the primary truth is greater than the soul.

And yet, even created truth, which resides in our intellect, is greater than the soul, not simply, but in a certain degree, in so far as it is its perfection (even as science may be said to be greater than the soul). Yet it is true that nothing subsisting is greater than the rational soul, except God.