O Creator ineffable, who of the riches of Thy wisdom didst
appoint three hierarchies of Angels and didst set them in
wondrous order over the highest heavens, and who didst
apportion the elements of the world most wisely: do Thou,
who art in truth the fountain of light and wisdom, deign to
shed upon the darkness of my understanding the rays of
Thine infinite brightness, and remove far from me the twofold
darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance. Do
Thou, who givest speech to the tongues of little children,
instruct my tongue and pour into my lips the grace of Thy
benediction. Give me keenness of apprehension, capacity for
remembering, method and ease in learning, insight in
interpretation, and copious eloquence in speech. Instruct my
beginning, direct my progress, and set Thy seal upon the
finished work, Thou, who art true God and true Man, who
livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

The Science of Mobile Being

Regina Cœli Academy
Natural Philosophy – Physics
Lecturer: Mr. Alan Aversa

(St. Thomas Aquinas Oratio ante studium)
01/25/12

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Exploring the motions of matter
(viz., “mobile being” or ens mobile)
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Some think it is:
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What is motion?
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spirit
God
a collection of atoms
an illusion
etc.

6 species:
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Exploring the motions of matter
(viz., “mobile being” or ens mobile)
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Does it study ens mobile from the perspective of
being?

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Is it best termed “experimental physics” or
“mathematical physics” or something else?

What is modern physics?
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Maritain suggests the term empiriological.

Does it study ens mobile from the perspective of
being?

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Is it best termed “experimental physics” or
“mathematical physics” or “empirical physics” or
something else?
Maritain suggests the term empiriological.

How are they the same?

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How are they different?

How are they the same?

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How are they different?

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What is philosophical physics?
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What is modern physics?
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Generation
Corruption
Local movement (locomotion)
Alteration
Augmentation
Diminution

Exploring the motions of matter
(viz., “mobile being” or ens mobile)

What is philosophical physics?
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2

Exploring the motions of matter
(viz., “mobile being” or ens mobile)

What is matter?
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1st Order: Physical Abstraction

Intellectual Insight is Used.
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Abstraction (abs- = “away from”, traere = “to
draw”)
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V. E. Smith’s definition: “the operation of the mind
disengaging the essence of a sensible thing from
that which is non-essential or only incidental in its
make-up”

3 orders of abstraction:
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Physical

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Mathematical

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Metaphysical

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2nd Order: Mathematical Abstraction
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Boethius: “Mathematics does not deal with
motion and is not abstract, for it investigates
forms of bodies apart from matter, and
therefore apart from movement, which forms
being connected with matter cannot really be
separated from bodies.” (De Trinitate)
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Both have same material object (ens mobile)

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Different formal object
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Philosophical physicist understands it qua mobile.
formally mathematical, materially physical

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Descartes reduced physics to mathematics
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Matter = extension = length, breadth, width

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E.g., Tegmark’s “Mathematical Universe Hypothesis”

Yet, one must start with the senses before
establishing mathematics and metaphysics
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Empiriological physics:
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Being remains.

empiriological vs.
philosophical physics

Empiriological physicist understand ens mobile as
quantified
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Boethius: “Theology [what we call
‘metaphysics’] does not deal with motion and is
abstract and of things inseparable, for the
divine substance is without matter or motion.”
(De Trinitate)

empiriological vs.
philosophical physics
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Both quantity and quality are abstracted away.
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Quantity presupposes wholes and parts.

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Boethius (+ c. 524): “[Philosophical] [p]hysics deals with
motion and is not abstract or separable; for it is concerned
with forms of bodies together with their constituent matter,
which forms cannot be separated in reality from their
bodies. As bodies are in motion—the earth, for instance,
tending downward, and fire tending upward—form takes on
the movement of the particular thing to which it is annexed.”
(De Trinitate)

3rd Order: Metaphysical Abstraction

V. E. Smith: “the common sensible matter is
relinquished, but not the quantity”
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V. E. Smith: “the mind […] leave[s] aside individual sensible
matter but not common sensible matter”

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Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius in sensu

Summary:
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Empiriological physics studies quantity.

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Philosophical physics studies ens mobile.

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experience vs. experiment
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Etymologically related:
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Latin: experīrī to try, put to the test

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Experiment = controlled experience.

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Experience is more qualitative and inclusive.

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Experiment must end in an experience

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Others think metaphysics is an extension of the
philosophy of nature.
Let’s see why.

Philosophical physics is based on experience
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All knowledge begins with being.
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So how does knowledge begin with being?

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Isn’t this a vicious circle?

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E.g., children call every man “daddy” and only later
distinguish that every man isn’t their father.
General → particular knowledge

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More universal → more specific

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More known → less known

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Radical inductivism
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All we know are particulars.

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Induction: individual → universal

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It’s the same reason different sciences study different formal
objects.

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All knowledge begins with being.

No, ∵ the philosophical physicist works with a coarser
notion of being.
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St. Thomas De Trinitate q. 3 a. 1 ad 2: “The truth of things may also not be evident
because of defect on our part, as in the case of divine and necessary things
which, according to their own nature, are most knowable. Wherefore, to
understand them, we are not capable of immediate intellection, from the very
beginning, since it is in accordance with our nature to attain from things less
knowable and posterior in themselves, to knowledge of those that are themselves
more knowable and prior. But since from none of those things that we know last
do we have any knowledge of those that we know first, it is needful for us even at
first to have some notion of those things that are most knowable in themselves;
but this cannot be except by believing. And this is evident even in the order of the
sciences; since that science which is concerned with highest causes, namely,
metaphysics, comes last in human knowledge; yet in sciences that are preambles
to it there must be supposed certain truths which only in it are more fully revealed;
therefore every science has some suppositions that must be believed in order to
carry on the process of learning.”

All knowledge begins with being.
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All knowledge begins with being.

St. Thomas De Trinitate q. 2 a. 3 ad 7: “Sciences
which are ordered to one another are so related
that one can use the principles of another, just as
posterior sciences can use the principles of prior
sciences, whether they are superior or inferior:
wherefore metaphysics, which is superior in dignity
to all, uses truths that have been proved in other
sciences. And in like manner theology—Although all
other sciences are related to it in the order of
generation, as serving it and as preambles to it—
can make use of the principles of all the others,
even if they are posterior to it in dignity.”

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Descartes thought philosophy of nature derived
from metaphysics.

Both views are incorrect.

E.g., seeing a pointer reading

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So we start with metaphysics?

But very different:

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All knowledge begins with being.

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But if we don’t know the universal, how could we know a
particular instance of the universal, i.e., the individual?

Radical deductivism
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All we know are universals.

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Deduction: universal → particular

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How would we know particulars, then?

∴ knowledge must begin with being.

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References
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V. E. Smith’s Philosophical Physics ch. 1
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Please read 1st half, up to pg. 25
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We will send you a PDF file of those pages.

Boethius’s De Trinitate
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Division and Method of
the Sciences
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01/25/12

a.k.a. his commentary on Boethius’s De Trinitate
questions 5 & 6

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