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21337 | A knowing being possesses a further reality, the 'presence' of the thing known [Aquinas] |
Full Idea: Knowing beings are differentiated from non-knowing beings by this: non-knowing beings have only their own reality, but knowing beings are capable of possessing also the reality of something else, ...a presence of the thing known produced by this thing. | |
From: Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Ia,q.Q14,art 1) | |
A reaction: [Quoted by Ryan Meade in a talk at Pigotts] A famous and much discussed remark. Aquinas was a direct realist about perception, so this presence seems to be the thing itself, rather than a 'representation'. |