Whether to Create Is to Make Something from Nothing?
Objection 1: It would seem that to create is not to make anything
from nothing. For Augustine says (Contra Adv. Leg. et Proph. i): "To
make concerns what did not exist at all; but to create is to make
something by bringing forth something from what was already."
Obj. 2: Further, the nobility of action and of motion is considered
from their terms. Action is therefore nobler from good to good, and
from being to being, than from nothing to something. But creation
appears to be the most noble action, and first among all actions.
Therefore it is not from nothing to something, but rather from being
to being.
Obj. 3: Further, the preposition "from" [ex] imports relation of some
cause, and especially of the material cause; as when we say that a
statue is made from brass. But "nothing" cannot be the matter of
being, nor in any way its cause. Therefore to create is not to make
something from nothing.
_On the contrary,_ On the text of Gen. 1, "In the beginning God
created," etc., the gloss has, "To create is to make something from
nothing."
_I answer that,_ As said above (Q. 44, A. 2), we must consider not
only the emanation of a particular being from a particular agent, but
also the emanation of all being from the universal cause, which is
God; and this emanation we designate by the name of creation. Now
what proceeds by particular emanation, is not presupposed to that
emanation; as when a man is generated, he was not before, but man is
made from "not-man," and white from "not-white." Hence if the
emanation of the whole universal being from the first principle be
considered, it is impossible that any being should be presupposed
before this emanation. For nothing is the same as no being. Therefore
as the generation of a man is from the "not-being" which is
"not-man," so creation, which is the emanation of all being, is from
the "not-being" which is "nothing."
Reply Obj. 1: Augustine uses the word creation in an equivocal sense,
according as to be created signifies improvement in things; as when
we say that a bishop is created. We do not, however, speak of
creation in that way here, but as it is described above.
Reply Obj. 2: Changes receive species and dignity, not from the term
_wherefrom,_ but from the term _whereto._ Therefore a change is more
perfect and excellent when the term _whereto_ of the change is more
noble and excellent, although the term _wherefrom,_ corresponding to
the term _whereto,_ may be more imperfect: thus generation is simply
nobler and more excellent than alteration, because the substantial
form is nobler than the accidental form; and yet the privation of the
substantial form, which is the term _wherefrom_ in generation, is
more imperfect than the contrary, which is the term _wherefrom_ in
alteration. Similarly creation is more perfect and excellent than
generation and alteration, because the term _whereto_ is the whole
substance of the thing; whereas what is understood as the term
_wherefrom_ is simply not-being.
Reply Obj. 3: When anything is said to be made from nothing, this
preposition "from" [ex] does not signify the material cause, but only
order; as when we say, "from morning comes midday"--i.e. after
morning is midday. But we must understand that this preposition
"from" [ex] can comprise the negation implied when I say the word
"nothing," or can be included in it. If taken in the first sense,
then we affirm the order by stating the relation between what is now
and its previous non-existence. But if the negation includes the
preposition, then the order is denied, and the sense is, "It is made
from nothing--i.e. it is not made from anything"--as if we were to
say, "He speaks of nothing," because he does not speak of anything.
And this is verified in both ways, when it is said, that anything is
made from nothing. But in the first way this preposition "from" [ex]
implies order, as has been said in this reply. In the second sense,
it imports the material cause, which is denied.
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