"Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality"
About this Quote
Aquinas is quietly warning you that your brain is a razor blade that loves to keep cutting even when there’s nothing left to slice. The line lands with special force coming from a medieval theologian who took logic seriously enough to fear its overreach. In scholastic culture, the mind’s job was to sort: genus and species, substance and accident, essence and existence. That sorting produces real insight, but it also tempts the thinker into mistaking a clean conceptual boundary for a seam in the world itself.
The intent is methodological humility. Aquinas is defending a disciplined realism: reality exists independent of our descriptions, and our categories are tools, not mirrors. The subtext is a critique of intellectual vanity, especially the kind that treats clever distinctions as metaphysical discoveries. If you can define it, the mind whispers, it must be “out there” as a separate thing. Aquinas pushes back: many distinctions are “of reason” (useful for understanding and speaking) without being “in the thing” (a genuine division in what exists).
Context matters. Aquinas is mediating between Aristotle’s empirical sobriety and Christian doctrinal demands. Theology requires careful language about God, soul, sin, grace - but God is also, by definition, not fully capturable by human concepts. So the line doubles as a safeguard against heresy-by-overprecision: you can divide attributes in speech (justice vs mercy) without implying God is made of parts.
It still reads like an antidote to modern culture wars and algorithmic labeling: taxonomy feels like truth. Aquinas reminds us the map’s sharp edges can be useful, and still be only the map.
The intent is methodological humility. Aquinas is defending a disciplined realism: reality exists independent of our descriptions, and our categories are tools, not mirrors. The subtext is a critique of intellectual vanity, especially the kind that treats clever distinctions as metaphysical discoveries. If you can define it, the mind whispers, it must be “out there” as a separate thing. Aquinas pushes back: many distinctions are “of reason” (useful for understanding and speaking) without being “in the thing” (a genuine division in what exists).
Context matters. Aquinas is mediating between Aristotle’s empirical sobriety and Christian doctrinal demands. Theology requires careful language about God, soul, sin, grace - but God is also, by definition, not fully capturable by human concepts. So the line doubles as a safeguard against heresy-by-overprecision: you can divide attributes in speech (justice vs mercy) without implying God is made of parts.
It still reads like an antidote to modern culture wars and algorithmic labeling: taxonomy feels like truth. Aquinas reminds us the map’s sharp edges can be useful, and still be only the map.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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