Agere sequitur esse
Agere sequitur esse ( Latin: action follows being ) denotes a principle in scholastic thinking , especially through Thomas Aquinas .
Thomas Aquinas wrote in his Summa contra gentiles of “agere sequitur ad esse in actu” (“being active follows reality”). Esse is to be understood here in the sense of existence. The scholastic proposition says that only what exists acts (mere beings or "ens rationis" do not act). On the other hand, things exist by their essence. In this way the essential perfection of a thing becomes visible from action.
The determining being can appear in different forms:
- The objective being : From the existing objectivity, the essence of an existing thing, follows the acting, the behavior, in an active and passive way, whereby the nature of the behavior is determined by the properties, relationships and characteristics of the thing.
- The spiritual being : If the being consists in established faith, then the corresponding action follows from it.
- Predetermined being : With the bondage to "spiritual being" or "objective being" there is a limitation of freedom in action, i. H. there is no limitless, absolute freedom in action, but a freedom that is limited by being itself.
The (metaphysical) actualism denies the principle of the agere sequitur esse.
Web links
- Thomas Aquinas : Summa contra Gentiles III, 69 ( Corpus Thomisticum )
literature
- Wilhelm Korff : Agere sequitur esse. , in: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church. (LThK) - Freiburg i. Br .; Basel; Rome: Herder. - 3. Edition. - Vol. 1. A - Barcelona. , 1993, ISBN 3-451-22001-6 , Sp. 230.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Summa contra gentiles (ScG) III, 69: "Facere autem aliquid actu consequitur ad hoc quod est esse actu, ut patet in Deo: ... Si agere sequitur ad esse in actu , inconveniens est quod actus perfectior actione destituatur.", quoted from Corpus Thomisticum (emphasis added by the author).