“ As man is more perfect than other animals, he has more intrinsic operations than other animals, because his perfection is something composite. ”
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1274). copy citation
Author | Thomas Aquinas |
---|---|
Source | Summa Theologica |
Topic | perfection animal |
Date | 1274 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17611/pg17611-images.html |
Context
“But love, as such, does not proceed as the similitude of that whence it proceeds; although in God love is co-essential as being divine; and therefore the procession of love is not called generation in God.
Reply Obj. 3: As man is more perfect than other animals, he has more intrinsic operations than other animals, because his perfection is something composite. Hence the angels, who are more perfect and more simple, have fewer intrinsic operations than man, for they have no imagination, or feeling, or the like. In God there exists only one real operation—that is, His essence.”
source