The Fundamental Truth 1 – Etiénne GilsonNovember 6, 2012 Et sic
fit ut ad ea quae sunt notissima rerum, noster intellectus se
habeat ut oculus noctuae ad solem, ut II Metaphysicorum dicitur
(Summa contra Gentiles 1.11.2). ["So it comes about, as is said
in Metaphysics 2, that our intellect is related to the most
knowable things as the eye of an owl is related to the sun."
Aristotle, Metaphysics 2.1, 993b9.] Few philosophers avoid the
temptation of philosophizing without other presuppositions than
thought itself. Fichte yielded to it without reservation in
building his well-known immense structure. No Christian
philosopher has gone that far, but some of them do not conceal
their displeasure when they are urged to consider and, if
possible, to see a primary truth which as such cannot be
demonstrated. That is why, holding the composition of essence
and existence in finite beings as the fundamental truth of
Christian philosophy, they could not tolerate the idea of
leaving it as an arbitrary assertion and have tri