Chapter 5, Section 1j

Hence the title “Existent” is not quite so general as the title “Good.” “Living” is a less general title still (since a stone, for instance, has no life), and “Wise” is yet less general (since a plant is not wise). Thus we get the following table of emanating activity: (1) Good (including and transcending existent and non-existent things, viz. “good,” and “evil”). (2) Existent ( existent things, viz. good). (3) Life (plants, animals, men, angels). (4) Wisdom (men and angels). 371 Intuition is the faculty of the Intelligences or Angels, by which are meant, of course, angels and spiritual men; Discursive Reason is that of natural men. 372 The more universal a Title is, the more truly it is applicable to God (see end of Section 2). Thus Existence is more applicable than Life, and Life than Wisdom, as involving in each case less that needs to be discarded. Thus Wisdom implies both a time-process and also a certain finite mode of consciousness, neither of which belong to the eternal and infinite God: Life implies a time-process though not a finite consciousness: Existence implies neither time-process nor finite consciousness. Thus we reach the highest conception of God by a process of abstraction in which we cast aside all particular elements (cf. St. Augustine on the Bonum bonum). This is the philosophical basis of the Via Negativa . But this abstraction is not mere abstraction nor this negation mere negation. Existence in God subsumes and so includes all that is real in Life; and Life in Him subsumes all that is real in Wisdom. Hence the creatures, as they advance in the scale of creation, draw from Him more and more particular qualities and progress by becoming more concrete and individual instead of more abstract. All the rich variety of creation exists as a simple Unity in God, and the higher a creature stands in the scale, the more does it draw fresh forces from this simple Unity and convert them into its own multiplicity. D. would have understood Evolution very well. This passage exactly fits in with D’s. psychological doctrine of the Via Negativa . That which is reached by the spiritual act of Contemplation explains the principles underlying the whole creative process, the growing diversity of the world-process and of human life. In God there is a rich Unity, and we must leave all diversity behind to reach It. Thus we shall have richness without diversity. 373 Eternity is a totum simul. It may thus be symbolized by a point revolving round a centre at infinite speed. Time would be symbolized by a point revolving round a centre at a finite speed. Thus eternity is time made perfect. Time is thus subsumed in eternity as the incomplete in the complete. Hence time, like existence, life, etc., exists in God as transcended. Hence the temporal-process is a manifestation of Him. This might had to Pantheism, but D. is saved from such a result by his hold on the complementary truth of Transcendence. All the properties, etc., of each thing exist outside that thing as an element in the Transcendent Being of God. 374 i. e. The qualities of things. 375 sc. Logically not temporally. 376 Cf. St. Augustine, ”Homini bono tolle hominem, et Deum invenis.“ Cf. Section 8. 377 The number One, being infinitely divisible, contains the potentiality of all numbers. 378 Cf. Plotinus. 379 sc. In contradistinction to the Godhead, which (being beyond essence) does not literally exist. 380 2 Cor. iv. 18 381 Cf. Theol. Germ. passim.