Folia Theologica 22. (2011)
Juhász Gábor Tamás: Equality and Inequality of "Christ's Faithful" from a Perspective of Philosophy and Theology of Canon Law
168 Gábor Tamás JUHÁSZ will lead us to the answers of our questions, namely to the doctrine of analogy. Therefore we pose the following eight questions: 1. What is our first scientific concept? We look for that concept, whose extension we are able to define without the previous distinguishing of their accidents and proprieties. This is the concept of the being as being (ens ut ens).21 2. What are the scientifically certain principles?22 a) The principle of contradiction: it is impossible that something is true and not true from the same perspective and in the same time. This principle cannot be denied or taken into doubt, because it must be presupposed to the very act of denial or doubting. b) The principle of identity: everything is identical with itself. c) The principle of the exclusion of a third: from two contradictory judgements either one is true or the other, there is no third option. d) The principle of sufficient reason of being: everything that exists necessarily has sufficient reason for its being what it is. e) The principle of causality: everything that comes into being necessarily must have its sufficient cause. f) Our intellect is able to get to know the truth. g) The thinking being exists. h) Everything is true that is obvious for our intellect. i) Our senses cannot err regarding their proper object. j) The comprehension of our universal concepts is objective, their extension is subjective. We demonstrate our points from b) to j) reducing them to the principle of contradiction: we demonstrate that their denial leads to contradiction. Eventually the demonstration of every truth happens by its reduction to the principle of contradiction. 3. What are the modes of reduction to the principle of contradiction? a) Deduction: with the help of a proposition of greater extension. b) Induction: with the help of a proposition of minor extension. The two species of this latter one are aa) Complete induction, which draws its conclusion from the examination of all the particular cases. A complete induction started from the 21 S. Thomas Aquinas, Questiones quodlibetales, II, a 3; cf. Schütz, A., A bölcselet elemei, Budapest 1940. 67-75. Gredt, I., Elementa philosophiae aristotelicothomisticae, Barcelona 1946. II. 4-11. 22 S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I q. I art. 3 (Taurini-Romae 1940. 3-4).
