Saturday, December 10, 2011

"the more simple a thing, the more relations attend it"

"it is not against the notion of anything's simplicity that there be many relations between it and others; indeed the more simple a thing, the more relations attend it.  For the more simple a thing is the less limited is its power and thus its causality can extend to more.  That it why it is said in the Book of Causes that the more a power is unifed, the more infinite it is than any multiplied power. . . .
     "Therefore, it follows on the supreme simplicity of God that infinite relations exist between creatures and him, insofar as he produces creatures different from himself, but in some way like unto him."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, De potentia 7.8.Resp., trans. Ralph McInerny (Thomas Aquinas: selected writings, ed. & trans. Ralph McInerny (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1998), 328).

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