HKB
1 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: reason and the intellect · prudence and practical wisdom · practical reason · intellectual virtues · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · affirmation and negation
Usually: reflection (1) · detachment (1)
“There will be excess if something false is affirmed, as though something were, which in reality it is not: and there will be deficiency if something is falsely denied, and declared not to be, whereas in reality it is.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · observation
Aquinas argues intellectual virtues also observe a mean: speculative virtues are measured by things themselves, while practical virtues are measured in conformity with right appetite, with excess in false affirmation and deficiency in false denial.
the case of contemplative virtue, it is the true taken absolutely (Ethic. vi, 2); in the case of practical virtue, it is the true in conformity with a right appetite. Now truth apprehended by our intellect, if we consider it absolutely, is measured by things; since things are the measure of our intellect, as stated in *Metaph.* x, text. 5; because there is truth in what we think or say, according as the thing is so …