トマス･アクィナスの《モドゥス》研究（一） --《モドゥス》の存在論的側面--

Abstract

Thomas Aquinas uses the term “modes” (modi) in various contexts. Like many other scholastics, he frequently makes distinctions, saying, for instance, that there are two different modes to understand the issue, and then explicating one mode (unus modus) and another (alius modus). In this sort of customary usage, “mode” means nothing more than “a way.” Others, however, seem to have loaded meanings. Aquinas claims that every created good and being has its own mode, species, and order. Here “mode” means the limit or the standard of each being. Some remarkable usages are also found in his discussions on virtues. Aquinas claims that the mode of a virtue is, as it were, a sort of a form of the virtue, whence the virtue derives its praise and its name. Thus, we find ontological, ethical, and semantic aspects of modes in Aquinas's works. This article, which constitutes the first part of my study on Aquinas's modes, focuses upon the first aspects, i.e., the ontological aspects. First, we analyse Augustine's statements on modes as a fundamental source of Aquinas's theory of modes. The Book of Wisdom says, “But you have arranged all things by measure, and number and weight” (11, 20 [21] NRSA). In interpreting this sentence, Augustine claims that each created good and being has a mode, species, and order. Second, we examine Aquinas's interpretation of the Augustinian modes. Through the analyses of texts in which Aquinas discusses Augustine's triad of mode-species-order, we shall see what these modes mean for Aquinas and how they constitute Aquinas's ontology. Third, we focus on the dual meaning of “mode.” Aquinas, as well as Augustine, acknowledges that God is a mode in a different sense from modes in creatures. God is a mode as a measure which assesses everything he creates while creatures have modes that are measured by the divine measure. The dual meaning of mode is not their invention but has existed in the usage of modus in classical Latin as “a measure with which, or according to which, anything is measured, its size, length, circumference, quantity” (Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary). Fourth, we search for other sources of Aquinas's ideas of ontological modes. Aquinas attributes his famous ontological thesis “whatever is received is received according to the mode of the recipient” to Pseudo-Dionysius and the Book of Causes. The thesis itself, however, cannot be found anywhere in these works. Hence, we examine how the idea of this thesis is originally found in them. In the final part of this article, we consider the differences between “modes of being” (modi essendi) and “modes of existence” (modi existendi) so as to reach a precise understanding of Aquinas's claim that every created being has its own mode and mode of being.