53
The Forgotten Ground
That the human senses should be related to the nature of things is itself not so strange. But that
there should be a purpose to perception that is related to the proper work of intelligence runs counter to the modern notion of the autonomy of human intelligence and the belief that it can stand,
as it were, outside the world looking in. 6 But as soon as it is acknowledged that the cosmos itself
is rational and intelligent, then it is clear that human intelligence cannot dissociate itself from the
cosmos any more than the body can dissociate itself from the biosphere. On the contrary, it has to
be understood as in some sense participating in it, or as ‘partaking of the natural truth of reason’,
as Plato puts it. 7
The notion of applying the ‘courses of intelligence in the heaven’ to ‘the courses of our own intelligence’ is not simply a poetic manner of speaking. It indicates that human intelligence can align
itself with the truth of things with which it has a direct kinship. That alignment goes beyond the
capacity simply to give accurate descriptions of things. To align with the truth of things belongs as
much to practical reason as to intellectual reason. It ‘regulates’ the intelligence by conforming it to
the cosmic intelligence or reason. When ordered in this manner, the soul is brought into harmony
with itself. According to Plato’s anthropology, that means that the rational, the spirited and the appetitive parts of the soul are brought into concord with one another and can therefore act truthfully
and virtuously. 8 Otherwise, disorder exists between the parts of the soul, what Plato calls ‘vagaries’.
THE NATURAL INCLINATION TO RESPONSIBLE KNOWLEDGE
Seen in this way, our natural inclination to the truth of things, our desire to enquire, arises from the
rational relation of the soul with the rational order of reality itself. There is a continuum between
nature and thought. Thus, Aristotle opens his Metaphysics with the observation that:
All human beings by nature stretch themselves out toward knowing. A sign of this is our love of the
senses; for even apart from their use, they are loved on their own account, and above all the rest, the
one through the eyes.
Aristotle (2002: 980a: 21)
And what the mind seeks through the senses is wisdom. Yet the mind must reach out of itself in
order to be itself. When the order of things is apprehended, there is a correlation between outward
perception and inward refection. We might even say that, through being present and perceptible,
nature confers the gift of self-refection upon human intelligence. The Greek word for truth is aletheia, meaning ‘unconcealing’. Nature at once conceals and reveals itself. Truth cannot be taken by
force, but offers itself to rightly oriented intelligence and reverential intention. 9
This way of seeing the relation between human intelligence and the rational order of things
raises the question of human responsibility towards nature as a whole. Aristotle poses the question:
‘One must also consider in which of the two ways the nature of the whole contains what is good and
what is best, whether as something separate, itself by itself, or as the order of the whole of things’
(Aristotle, 2002: 1075a). That is to say, does the ‘good’ lie simply in the whole as such, or in some
principle ordering the whole? Or are the ‘whole’ and its principle the same? For what can lie beyond
the whole? In asking these questions, we are brought to consider how the ‘being’ and the ‘good’ of
things are related, or if, ultimately, they are separate. Such metaphysical questions are more easily
approached when the responsibilities of the human person are considered in relation to the whole.
6 For a philosophical discussion of why nature cannot be properly accounted for if consciousness is omitted, see Thomas
Nagel, Mind & Cosmos (2012).
7 For a comprehensive study of Plato’s ethics and cosmology, see Gabriela Roxana Carone, Plato’s Cosmology and Its
Ethical Dimensions (2005).
8 For Plato’s elaboration of the tripartite soul, see Republic IV: 435−442.
9 The consequences of seeking to take truth by force are famously captured in the story of building the tower of Babel in
Genesis 11:1–9, and how this destroys the power of speech, the essential human characteristic.
The Forgotten Ground
That the human senses should be related to the nature of things is itself not so strange. But that
there should be a purpose to perception that is related to the proper work of intelligence runs counter to the modern notion of the autonomy of human intelligence and the belief that it can stand,
as it were, outside the world looking in. 6 But as soon as it is acknowledged that the cosmos itself
is rational and intelligent, then it is clear that human intelligence cannot dissociate itself from the
cosmos any more than the body can dissociate itself from the biosphere. On the contrary, it has to
be understood as in some sense participating in it, or as ‘partaking of the natural truth of reason’,
as Plato puts it. 7
The notion of applying the ‘courses of intelligence in the heaven’ to ‘the courses of our own intelligence’ is not simply a poetic manner of speaking. It indicates that human intelligence can align
itself with the truth of things with which it has a direct kinship. That alignment goes beyond the
capacity simply to give accurate descriptions of things. To align with the truth of things belongs as
much to practical reason as to intellectual reason. It ‘regulates’ the intelligence by conforming it to
the cosmic intelligence or reason. When ordered in this manner, the soul is brought into harmony
with itself. According to Plato’s anthropology, that means that the rational, the spirited and the appetitive parts of the soul are brought into concord with one another and can therefore act truthfully
and virtuously. 8 Otherwise, disorder exists between the parts of the soul, what Plato calls ‘vagaries’.
THE NATURAL INCLINATION TO RESPONSIBLE KNOWLEDGE
Seen in this way, our natural inclination to the truth of things, our desire to enquire, arises from the
rational relation of the soul with the rational order of reality itself. There is a continuum between
nature and thought. Thus, Aristotle opens his Metaphysics with the observation that:
All human beings by nature stretch themselves out toward knowing. A sign of this is our love of the
senses; for even apart from their use, they are loved on their own account, and above all the rest, the
one through the eyes.
Aristotle (2002: 980a: 21)
And what the mind seeks through the senses is wisdom. Yet the mind must reach out of itself in
order to be itself. When the order of things is apprehended, there is a correlation between outward
perception and inward refection. We might even say that, through being present and perceptible,
nature confers the gift of self-refection upon human intelligence. The Greek word for truth is aletheia, meaning ‘unconcealing’. Nature at once conceals and reveals itself. Truth cannot be taken by
force, but offers itself to rightly oriented intelligence and reverential intention. 9
This way of seeing the relation between human intelligence and the rational order of things
raises the question of human responsibility towards nature as a whole. Aristotle poses the question:
‘One must also consider in which of the two ways the nature of the whole contains what is good and
what is best, whether as something separate, itself by itself, or as the order of the whole of things’
(Aristotle, 2002: 1075a). That is to say, does the ‘good’ lie simply in the whole as such, or in some
principle ordering the whole? Or are the ‘whole’ and its principle the same? For what can lie beyond
the whole? In asking these questions, we are brought to consider how the ‘being’ and the ‘good’ of
things are related, or if, ultimately, they are separate. Such metaphysical questions are more easily
approached when the responsibilities of the human person are considered in relation to the whole.
6 For a philosophical discussion of why nature cannot be properly accounted for if consciousness is omitted, see Thomas
Nagel, Mind & Cosmos (2012).
7 For a comprehensive study of Plato’s ethics and cosmology, see Gabriela Roxana Carone, Plato’s Cosmology and Its
Ethical Dimensions (2005).
8 For Plato’s elaboration of the tripartite soul, see Republic IV: 435−442.
9 The consequences of seeking to take truth by force are famously captured in the story of building the tower of Babel in
Genesis 11:1–9, and how this destroys the power of speech, the essential human characteristic.