Some Reflections on the Medieval Idea of Perfection

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE MEDIEVAL IDEA OF PERFECTION* T. E. Hulme's term "critique of satisfaction" provides us with a very useful tool in approaching the history of ideas, for not only do ideas and concepts change with the passing of time but the very canons of satisfactory proof change. I do not deny a continuity in both, but as an historian of ideas I am more interested in their variability. What is it that gives a unique flavor to each historic epoch or indeed to each century or decade ? The persistence of ideas and canons cannot be doubted by one who believes in reason, in certain absolute standards, and in some kind of continuity in human nature; but at the same time it must not be forgotten that there is change, growth and development, at least in the sub-lunar world. As historian, one must, while not forgetting the persistence, concentrate on the change without necessarily committing oneself to the metaphysical proposition that there is ever true novelty in the universe. By the phrase "critique of satisfaction," Hulme points up the fact that what seems a satisfactory answer to one age may not content another. In the realm of natural science, no one can seriously question such a proposition. A modem would not be satisfied, in asking the question of why an apple is red, to be told that it is red because it possesses the accident of redness or that all apples, potentially red, become red in act by maturation. We would be satisfied, however, if we were told that the skin of the apple possesses, along with other qualities, the power of absorbing all the colors in the spectrum except red which is hence reflected. Whether this reply really answers the question or not depends on how deeply one may wish to probe, and I do not wish to eliminate the philosophic as opposed to the scientific question here ; but at least most moderns would not feel it worthwhile to pursue the matter further. This response satisfies their critique of satisfaction, as far as the question of color goes. * This article was delivered in substantially this form as a speech before a meeting of the East-Central Conference of the ACPA held at the Pontifical Josephinum College, Worthington, Ohio on March 24, 1957. 213 214?· w· BLOOMFIELD One of the ways of approaching the reality of the thought of the past is through awareness of the differences in critiques of satisfaction. As soon as we delve into medieval philosophy we have the sensation that we are meeting, in at least some matters, with critiques of satisfaction different from our own. To enter sympathetically, then, into medieval thought, whether for the purpose of discovering truth or for establishing what was then believed to be truth, we must be conscious of this difference in answering questions at different times. On many matters there is no problem at all. We silently make the adjustment and do not let it interfere, if the point under discussion can otherwise be substantiated to us, with our belief or with our awareness. In the matter, for instance, of the etymological mode of argument, we have no difficulty. Until fairly recent times it was believed that the history of words provided us with a clue to their present meaning. When we find in St. Thomas, for instance, a passage in a brilliantly argued "questio" which deals with the etymology or even worse an assumed etymology of the word or words involved in the proof being used as an additional argument in its favor, we silently excise the passage; and if the rationality of the rest of the argument is strong, we can accept the truth of his answer, provided of course that in general we accept his intellectual premisses.1 We do the same when St. Thomas makes use of antiquated science to support an argument. There is, however, more difficulty with certain other canons of verificability and response, and it is with one of them, the notion of perfection, that I wish to deal today. I have deliberately entitled this address some reflections on the medieval idea of perfection, for I am very conscious...