Sunday, January 28, 2018

Aquinas on the unicity of truth

"there are indeed different and distinct domains of enquiry, each with its own standards for distinguishing the true from the false.  Mathematics is one such domain, physics another, history a third, theology a fourth.  But these domains are not self-enclosed, so that the truths in any one domain have no implications for what is true or false in any of the others.  Some truths in physics exclude certain historical possibilities.  Some truths in mathematics exclude certain physical possibilities.  Some truths in theology exclude certain physical and certain philosophical possibilities."

     Alisdair MacIntyre, channeling Aquinas contra the 13th-century Averroists on the doctrine of the two truths, in God, philosophy, universities:  a selective history of the Catholic philosophical tradition (Lanham, MD:  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., A Sheed & Ward Book, 2009), 68.

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