The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life

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Matthew Minerd, along with C. S. Morrissey and Brian Kemple, is a Deely student and/or modern promoter of Peirce, Thomism, and semiotics.translation of Le Sens du Mystère et le Clair-Obscur Intellectuel, Nature et Surnaturel (1934)

A very profound quote from Fr. G.-L. (p. 142):

he [St. Thomas] feared neither logic nor mystery—and the first leads unto the second

The footnote is interesting, too (p. 152):

41. St. Thomas never would have admitted like Suarez that the principle of contradiction is not applied in the case of the Trinity. It is applied there according to an eminent mode that remains hidden to us, and nothing can show that this mystery implies a contradiction.

Suarez held there could be an exception to the law of non-contradiction?

(Also, I was thinking today that the word ἀνάλογος would best be translated "higher logic".)As Feingold mentions, Le Sens du Mystère ddresses the question of the relations of nature and grace, natural desire to see God (which is important for understanding the relation between marriage and virginity; cf. Bourassa)

esprit de géométrie et l’esprit de finesse

Fr. G.-L. (pp. 64-8 // PDF pp. 58-63), discussing the certitude of prudence, quotes I-II q. 57 a. 5 ("Whether prudence is a virtue necessary to man?") ad 3:

1. "verum intellectus speculativi accipitur per conformitatem intellectus ad rem"
2. "Verum autem intellectus practici accipitur per conformitatem ad appetitum rectum." ← Fr. G.-L.: "esprit de finesse", "connaissance par sympathie"

Interestingly, Fr. G.-L., after quoting Pascal's Pensées, identifies l’esprit de finesse with the practical intellect. Is Duhem's bon sens intellection "per conformitatem ad appetitum rectum"?cf.:

• Réginald Garrigou Lagrange O.P., “Remarks Concerning the Metaphysical Character of St. Thomas’s Moral Theology, in Particular as It Is Related to Prudence and Conscience,” trans. Matthew K. Minerd, Nova et Vetera 17 (March 13, 2019): 245–70.

ch. Le verbe être :

• Mt. 5:77 ("sic sic, non non"); 2 Cor. 1:17-19 ("Est et Non, sed Est in illo fuit")
• S. Caterina da Siena's: "I am who am; you are she who is not."

one of the strongest arguments against "copulating coin" idiocies: 1Cor 3:6 "I have planted, Apollo watered: but God gave the increase."

• pp. 133-8 "The Mystery of Causality" for the mystery of how there can be something new in secondary causes' effects that is not in said causes:

"Is there more being in the effect and the cause united together than there is in the cause alone?” Yes—if it pertains to a finite or secondary cause; no—if it pertains to the Supreme Cause, which is infinite.

p. 255 ¶5 on accidental vs. necessary (per se) division, related to classification:

• "Tr. note: For a brief, accessible explanation of logical division as a preparation for definition, see Vincent E. Smith, The Elements of Logic (Milwaukee, WI: Bruce, 1957), 66–74. The interested researcher would benefit from consulting the treatment of division in Austin Woodbury, Logic, The John N. Deely and Anthony F. Russell Collection, Latimer Family Library, St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA, nos. 183–94."
• cf. Grenier PDF pp. 115-6: "Article II: Division"