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Single Idea 11202

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 1. Essences of Objects ]

Full Idea

It is by having essence that things exist.

Gist of Idea

It is by having essence that things exist

Source

Thomas Aquinas (De Ente et Essentia (Being and Essence) [1267], p.94)

Book Ref

Aquinas,Thomas: 'Selected Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. McDermott,Timothy [OUP 1993], p.94

A Reaction

Compare Idea 11199, which gives a fuller picture. This idea seems to suggest essence as the cause of existence, which sounds wrong. Perhaps essence is a necessary condition of existence, but it is necessary that nothing indeterminate can exist?

Related Idea

Idea 11199 Aristotelian essence underlies behaviour, or underlies definition, or is the source of existence [Aristotle, by Aquinas]

The 109 ideas from Thomas Aquinas

22115 Wise people should contemplate and discuss the truth, and fight against falsehood [Aquinas]
15202 Eternity coexists with passing time, as the centre of a circle coexists with its circumference [Aquinas]
20700 Without God's influence every operation would stop, so God causes everything [Aquinas]
13090 The principle of diversity for corporeal substances is their matter [Aquinas, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
13070 If definitions must be general, and general terms can't individuate, then Socrates can't be defined [Aquinas, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
11205 If the form of 'human' contains 'many', Socrates isn't human; if it contains 'one', Socrates is Plato [Aquinas]
11206 The mind constructs complete attributions, based on the unified elements of the real world [Aquinas]
11207 A cause can exist without its effect, but the effect cannot exist without its cause [Aquinas]
11208 A simple substance is its own essence [Aquinas]
11198 Definition of essence makes things understandable [Aquinas]
11196 Essence is something in common between the natures which sort things into categories [Aquinas]
11197 The definitions expressing identity are used to sort things [Aquinas]
11195 If affirmative propositions express being, we affirm about what is absent [Aquinas]
11200 The definition of a physical object must include the material as well as the form [Aquinas]
11201 Properties have an incomplete essence, with definitions referring to their subject [Aquinas]
11202 It is by having essence that things exist [Aquinas]
11203 Specific individual essence is defined by material, and generic essence is defined by form [Aquinas]
22101 Philosophy aims to know the truth about the way things are [Aquinas]
16655 Different genera are delimited by modes of predication, which rest on modes of being [Aquinas]
1863 If the soul achieves well-being in another life, it doesn't follow that I do [Aquinas]
22109 The fullest knowledge places a conclusion within an accurate theory [Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
17555 'One' can mean undivided and not a multitude, or it can add measurement, giving number [Aquinas]
16766 One thing needs a single thing to unite it; if there were two forms, something must unite them [Aquinas]
1846 The will can only want what it thinks is good [Aquinas]
1847 The will must aim at happiness, but can choose the means [Aquinas]
1848 We are coerced into assent to a truth by reason's violence [Aquinas]
1856 Nothing can be willed except what is good, but good is very varied, and so choices are unpredictable [Aquinas]
1857 We don't have to will even perfect good, because we can choose not to think of it [Aquinas]
1858 The mind is compelled by necessary truths, but not by contingent truths [Aquinas]
1859 Even a sufficient cause doesn't compel its effect, because interference could interrupt the process [Aquinas]
1860 Knowledge may be based on senses, but we needn't sense all our knowledge [Aquinas]
1861 The will is not compelled to move, even if pleasant things are set before it [Aquinas]
1862 However habituated you are, given time to ponder you can go against a habit [Aquinas]
1854 We must admit that when the will is not willing something, the first movement to will must come from outside the will [Aquinas]
1853 Because the will moves by examining alternatives, it doesn't compel itself to will [Aquinas]
1855 If we saw something as totally and utterly good, we would be compelled to will it [Aquinas]
1852 For the mind Good is one truth among many, and Truth is one good among many [Aquinas]
1850 Without free will not only is ethical action meaningless, but also planning, commanding, praising and blaming [Aquinas]
1851 Good applies to goals, just as truth applies to ideas in the mind [Aquinas]
1849 Since will is a reasoning power, it can entertain opposites, so it is not compelled to embrace one of them [Aquinas]
22103 Being is basic to thought, and all other concepts are additions to being [Aquinas]
22104 Truth is the conformity of being to intellect [Aquinas]
22168 Minds take in a likeness of things, which activates an awaiting potential [Aquinas]
22169 Initial universal truths are present within us as potential, to be drawn out by reason [Aquinas]
22170 Senses grasp external properties, but the understanding grasps the essential natures of things [Aquinas]
16641 Whiteness does not exist, but by it something can exist-as-white [Aquinas]
16711 Heretics should be eradicated like wolves [Aquinas]
22102 Arguing with opponents uncovers truths, and restrains falsehoods [Aquinas]
22111 Aquinas attributes freedom to decisions and judgements, and not to the will alone [Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
22107 Sensations are transmitted to 'internal senses' in the brain, chiefly to 'phantasia' and 'imagination' [Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
22106 Aquinas saw angels as separated forms, rather than as made of 'spiritual matter' [Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
20211 Life aims at the Beatific Vision - of perfect happiness, and revealed truth [Aquinas, by Zagzebski]
5614 If you assume that there must be a necessary being, you can't say which being has this quality [Kant on Aquinas]
8009 Aquinas wanted, not to escape desire, but to transform it for moral ends [Aquinas, by MacIntyre]
5508 Aquinas says a fertilized egg is not human, and has no immortal soul [Aquinas, by Martin/Barresi]
21251 We can't know God's essence, so his existence can't be self-evident for us [Aquinas]
21250 A proposition is self-evident if the predicate is included in the essence of the subject [Aquinas]
21249 Some things are self-evident to us; others are only self-evident in themselves [Aquinas]
21248 If the existence of truth is denied, the 'Truth does not exist' must be true! [Aquinas]
9092 Abstracting A from B generates truth, as long as the connection is not denied [Aquinas]
9093 We understand the general nature of things by ignoring individual peculiarities [Aquinas]
9097 The mind abstracts generalities from images, but also uses images for understanding [Aquinas]
9095 Very general ideas (being, oneness, potentiality) can be abstracted from thought matter in general [Aquinas]
9096 The mind must produce by its own power an image of the individual species [Aquinas]
9094 Mathematical objects abstract both from perceived matter, and from particular substance [Aquinas]
9098 Mental activity combines what we sense with imagination of what is not present [Aquinas]
9099 Particular instances come first, and (pace Plato) generalisations are abstracted from them [Aquinas]
15812 Being implies distinctness, which implies division, unity, and multitude [Aquinas]
23306 Humans have a non-physical faculty of reason, so they can be immortal [Aquinas, by Sorabji]
22399 Temperance prevents our passions from acting against reason [Aquinas]
22112 For humans good is accordance with reason, and bad is contrary to reason [Aquinas]
22114 Tyrannical laws are irrational, and so not really laws [Aquinas]
22113 Right and wrong actions pertain to natural law, as perceived by practical reason [Aquinas]
16687 Bodies are three-dimensional substances [Aquinas]
16765 Humans only have a single substantial form, which contains the others and acts for them [Aquinas]
21337 A knowing being possesses a further reality, the 'presence' of the thing known [Aquinas]
21266 God does not exist, because He is infinite and good, and so no evil should be discoverable [Aquinas]
21274 It is part of God's supreme goodness that He brings good even out of evil [Aquinas]
21268 Non-human things are explicable naturally, and voluntary things by the will, so God is not needed [Aquinas]
21267 Supposing many principles is superfluous if a few will do it [Aquinas]
21269 Way 1: the infinite chain of potential-to-actual movement has to have a first mover [Aquinas]
21270 Way 2: no effect without a cause, and this cannot go back to infinity, so there is First Cause [Aquinas]
21271 Way 3: contingent beings eventually vanish, so continuity needs a necessary being [Aquinas]
21272 Way 4: the source of all qualities is their maximum, so something (God) causes all perfections [Aquinas]
21273 Way 5: mindless things act towards an obvious end, so there is an intelligent director [Aquinas]
22105 The human intellectual soul is an incorporeal, subsistent principle [Aquinas]
22108 First grasp what it is, then its essential features; judgement is their compounding and division [Aquinas]
7291 For Aquinas a war must be in a just cause, have proper authority, and aim at good [Aquinas, by Grayling]
23173 If a syllogism admits one absurdity, others must follow [Aquinas]
20224 Sensation prepares the way for intellectual knowledge, which needs the virtues of reason [Aquinas]
23174 Natural law is a rational creature's participation in eternal law [Aquinas]
23175 The conclusions of speculative reason about necessities are certain [Aquinas]
23176 Truth is universal, but knowledge of it is not [Aquinas]
4412 Those in bliss have their happiness increased by seeing the damned punished [Aquinas]
22494 We must know the end, know that it is the end, and know how to attain it [Aquinas]
23177 Justice directs our relations with others, because it denotes a kind of equality [Aquinas]
23178 Divine law commands some things because they are good, while others are good because commanded [Aquinas]
23179 People differ in their social degrees, and a particular type of right applies to each [Aquinas]
23180 The will is the rational appetite [Aquinas]
23181 All acts of virtue relate to justice, which is directed towards the common good [Aquinas]
23182 Legal justice is supreme, because it directs the other virtues to the common good [Aquinas]
20621 Types of lying: Speak lies, intend lies, intend deception, aim at deceptive goal? [Aquinas, by Tuckness/Wolf]
10505 We can just think of an apple's colour, because the apple is not part of the colour's nature [Aquinas]
10504 Abstracting either treats something as separate, or thinks of it separately [Aquinas]
10503 We abstract forms from appearances, and acquire knowledge of immaterial things [Aquinas]
10507 Numbers and shapes are abstracted by ignoring their sensible qualities [Aquinas]
10506 Mathematics can be abstracted from sensible matter, and from individual intelligible matter [Aquinas]
10508 Species are abstracted from appearances by ignoring individual conditions [Aquinas]
10509 Understanding consists entirely of grasping abstracted species [Aquinas]