Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

126 ANTONIE VOS
church and society and in particular only one medieval frame of mind.
This hypothesis has collapsed altogether, but what about Saint
Thomas? Is he perhaps steady as a solitary rock without any trace of
development? Are there traces of some development to be discerned in
his works over the years?
The theme of a chronological development of Thomas'
thought is not an independent one in Goris's investigation, but
nevertheless new perspectives are offered regarding this area of
research. In the seventies the problem of a Thomasian evolution was a
mysterious one on which it was not easy to get a grip. Apart from the
Augustinian colouring of the Scriptum no substantial development
seemed to be discerned. The theory on the relationship between
essentia and existence which Thomas held later on differently from his
iuvenile view constituted a kind of exception to the rule of uniformity.
Jan Aertsen pictured the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas as a universe
of thought characterized by a unique stability. However, Goris's
investigation adds glimpses of a different reality. Thomas Aquinas
applies more and more the principle of the parallelism of thought and
being, of knowledge and the known: The known follows the modality of
our knowing - see in particular section 5.3. Now the non-existence of
the future can be deduced. The temporalisation of knowledge is
accompanied by the temporalisation of the proposition.
Moreover, because of the temporal character of our
knowledge a priori and deductive knowledge loses its degree of
reasonableness if the deduction is in progress. A parallel fascinating
aspect is the adaptation of the notion of scientia/notitia visionis
(knowing as seeing) in Summa Theologiae I 14: The distinction
between the two main kinds of divine knowledge consists of the couple
scientia/notitia simplicis intelligentiae and scieniia/notitia visionis.
Both kinds of knowledge are related to kinds of non-being. These two
kinds of non-being are both to be elucidated in temporal terms: The
scientia simplicis intelligentiae (knowledge which is knowledge as
such) is knowledge of what is never the case. Never is linked up with
sometimes in terms of an exclusive disjunction as always/fall and
sometimes//some are in Aristotelian logic. In the same way Thomas
Aquinas Connects scientia simplicis intelligentiae and scientia visionis
in Summa Theologiae I 14.