Whether God Knows Things Other Than Himself by Proper Knowledge?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not know things other than
Himself by proper knowledge. For, as was shown (A. 5), God knows
things other than Himself, according as they are in Himself. But
other things are in Him as in their common and universal cause, and
are known by God as in their first and universal cause. This is to
know them by general, and not by proper knowledge. Therefore God
knows things besides Himself by general, and not by proper knowledge.
Obj. 2: Further, the created essence is as distant from the divine
essence, as the divine essence is distant from the created essence.
But the divine essence cannot be known by the created essence, as
said above (Q. 12, A. 2). Therefore neither can the created essence
be known by the divine essence. Thus as God knows only by His
essence, it follows that He does not know what the creature is in its
essence, so as to know "what it is," which is to have proper
knowledge of it.
Obj. 3: Further, proper knowledge of a thing can come only through
its proper ratio [i.e., concept]. But as God knows all things by His
essence, it seems that He does not know each thing by its proper
ratio; for one thing cannot be the proper ratio of many and diverse
things. Therefore God has not a proper knowledge of things, but a
general knowledge; for to know things otherwise than by their proper
ratio is to have only a common and general knowledge of them.
_On the contrary,_ To have a proper knowledge of things is to know them
not only in general, but as they are distinct from each other. Now God
knows things in that manner. Hence it is written that He reaches "even
to the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the
marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart;
neither is there any creature invisible in His sight" (Heb. 4:12,13).
_I answer that,_ Some have erred on this point, saying that God knows
things other than Himself only in general, that is, only as beings.
For as fire, if it knew itself as the principle of heat, would know
the nature of heat, and all things else in so far as they are hot; so
God, through knowing Himself as the principle of being, knows the
nature of being, and all other things in so far as they are beings.
But this cannot be. For to know a thing in general and not in
particular, is to have an imperfect knowledge. Hence our intellect,
when it is reduced from potentiality to act, acquires first a
universal and confused knowledge of things, before it knows them in
particular; as proceeding from the imperfect to the perfect, as is
clear from _Phys._ i. If therefore the knowledge of God regarding things
other than Himself is only universal and not special, it would follow
that His understanding would not be absolutely perfect; therefore
neither would His being be perfect; and this is against what was said
above (Q. 4, A. 1). We must therefore hold that God knows things
other than Himself with a proper knowledge; not only in so far as
being is common to them, but in so far as one is distinguished from
the other. In proof thereof we may observe that some wishing to show
that God knows many things by one, bring forward some examples, as,
for instance, that if the centre knew itself, it would know all lines
that proceed from the centre; or if light knew itself, it would know
all colors.
Now these examples although they are similar in part, namely, as
regards universal causality, nevertheless they fail in this respect,
that multitude and diversity are caused by the one universal
principle, not as regards that which is the principle of distinction,
but only as regards that in which they communicate. For the diversity
of colors is not caused by the light only, but by the different
disposition of the diaphanous medium which receives it; and likewise,
the diversity of the lines is caused by their different position.
Hence it is that this kind of diversity and multitude cannot be known
in its principle by proper knowledge, but only in a general way. In
God, however, it is otherwise. For it was shown above (Q. 4, A. 2)
that whatever perfection exists in any creature, wholly pre-exists and
is contained in God in an excelling manner. Now not only what is
common to creatures--viz. being--belongs to their perfection, but
also what makes them distinguished from each other; as living and
understanding, and the like, whereby living beings are distinguished
from the non-living, and the intelligent from the non-intelligent.
Likewise every form whereby each thing is constituted in its own
species, is a perfection; and thus all things pre-exist in God, not
only as regards what is common to all, but also as regards what
distinguishes one thing from another. And therefore as God contains
all perfections in Himself, the essence of God is compared to all
other essences of things, not as the common to the proper, as unity is
to numbers, or as the centre (of a circle) to the (radiating) lines;
but as perfect acts to imperfect; as if I were to compare man to
animal; or six, a perfect number, to the imperfect numbers contained
under it. Now it is manifest that by a perfect act imperfect acts can
be known not only in general, but also by proper knowledge; thus, for
example, whoever knows a man, knows an animal by proper knowledge; and
whoever knows the number six, knows the number three also by proper
knowledge.
As therefore the essence of God contains in itself all the perfection
contained in the essence of any other being, and far more, God can
know in Himself all of them with proper knowledge. For the nature
proper to each thing consists in some degree of participation in the
divine perfection. Now God could not be said to know Himself perfectly
unless He knew all the ways in which His own perfection can be shared
by others. Neither could He know the very nature of being perfectly,
unless He knew all modes of being. Hence it is manifest that God knows
all things with proper knowledge, in their distinction from each
other.
Reply Obj. 1: So to know a thing as it is in the knower, may be
understood in two ways. In one way this adverb "so" imports the mode
of knowledge on the part of the thing known; and in that sense it is
false. For the knower does not always know the object known according
to the existence it has in the knower; since the eye does not know a
stone according to the existence it has in the eye; but by the image
of the stone which is in the eye, the eye knows the stone according
to its existence outside the eye. And if any knower has a knowledge
of the object known according to the (mode of) existence it has in
the knower, the knower nevertheless knows it according to its (mode
of) existence outside the knower; thus the intellect knows a stone
according to the intelligible existence it has in the intellect,
inasmuch as it knows that it understands; while nevertheless it knows
what a stone is in its own nature. If however the adverb 'so' be
understood to import the mode (of knowledge) on the part of the
knower, in that sense it is true that only the knower has knowledge
of the object known as it is in the knower; for the more perfectly
the thing known is in the knower, the more perfect is the mode of
knowledge.
We must say therefore that God not only knows that all things are in
Himself; but by the fact that they are in Him, He knows them in their
own nature and all the more perfectly, the more perfectly each one is
in Him.
Reply Obj. 2: The created essence is compared to the essence of God
as the imperfect to the perfect act. Therefore the created essence
cannot sufficiently lead us to the knowledge of the divine essence,
but rather the converse.
Reply Obj. 3: The same thing cannot be taken in an equal manner as
the ratio of different things. But the divine essence excels all
creatures. Hence it can be taken as the proper ratio of each thing
according to the diverse ways in which diverse creatures participate
in, and imitate it.
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