Liber de causis, proposition 6

prop bardenhewer 6 · pattin prop 6 · bardenhewer page 169-170

Intelligentia est substantia quae non diuiditur. quod est quia si non est cum magnitudine neque corpus neque mouetur, tunc procul dubio non diuiditur. et iterum omne diuisibile non diuiditur nisi aut in multitudinem aut in magnitudinem aut in motum suum. cum ergo res est secundum hanc dispositionem, est sub tempore, quoniam non recipit diuisionem nisi in tempore. et intelligentia quidem non est cum tempore, immo est cum aeternitate, quapropter facta est altior et superior omni corpore et omni multitudine. quod si inueniatur in ea multitudo, non inuenitur nisi quasi res existens una. cum ergo intelligentia sit secundum hunc modum, penitus diuisionem non recipit. et significatio quidem illius est reditio sui super essentiam suam: scilicet quia non extenditur cum re extensa, ita ut sit una suarum extremitatum secunda ab alia. quod est quia cum uult scientiam rei corporalis, extenditur cum ea, et ipsa stat fixa secundum suam dispositionem: quoniam est forma a qua non pertransit aliquid. et corpora quidem non sunt ita. et significatio quod intelligentia non est corpus neque diuiditur eius substantia et operatio eius, est quod utraeque sunt res una. et intelligentia quidem est multa propter bonitates quae adueniunt ei a causa prima: et ipsa quamuis multiplicetur per hunc modum, tamen quia adpropinquat uni, fit unum et non diuiditur. et intelligentia quidem non recipit diuisionem, quoniam est primum causatum quod causatum est a causa prima, et unitas est dignior ea quam diuisio. iam ergo uerificatum est quod intelligentia est substantia quae non est cum magnitudine neque corpus neque mouetur per aliquem modorum motus corporei: quapropter facta est supra tempus et cum aeternitate, sicut ostendimus.

Intellect is a substance which is not divided. This is because, if it is not with magnitude, and is not a body, and is not moved, then beyond doubt it is not divided. And again, everything divisible is divided only either into multitude, or into magnitude, or into its own motion. When, therefore, a thing is in this disposition, it is under time, since it does not receive division except in time. But intellect is not with time; rather it is with eternity, and therefore it was made higher and above every body and every multitude. And if a multitude is found in it, it is found only as a thing existing as one. Since, then, intellect is in this manner, it receives no division at all. And the sign of this is its reversion upon its own essence — that is, because it is not extended along with an extended thing, so that one of its extremities would be second to another. This is because, when it wants knowledge of a corporeal thing, it is extended along with that thing, while it itself stands fixed according to its own disposition, since it is a form from which nothing passes away. But bodies are not so. And the sign that intellect is not a body, and that its substance and its operation are not divided, is that both are one thing. And intellect is many because of the goodnesses which come to it from the first cause; and although it is multiplied in this way, yet because it draws near to the One it becomes one and is not divided. And intellect does not receive division, since it is the first caused thing caused by the first cause, and unity is more worthy of it than division. Now, therefore, it has been verified that intellect is a substance which is not with magnitude, nor a body, nor moved in any of the modes of bodily motion; and therefore it was made above time and with eternity, as we have shown.

⚠ Confirms the provenance file's flag that §6's heading OCRs oddly: on the plate '§ 6.' stands alone at p.169 line 25, immediately followed on the next line by 'Intelligentia est substantia quae non diuiditur.' with no visual break from §5's closing 'sicut ostendimus.' two lines above — the heading is easy for a mechanical splitter to miss because it sits mid-page with no extra whitespace. Section confirmed plate-side across the p.169/170 break (leaves n194-n195). ⚠ The eins/eius error recurs a third time: 'diuiditur eins substantia et operatio eins' for 'diuiditur eius substantia et operatio eius' — now clearly a running OCR habit before 's', not an isolated slip. Corrected from the plate. Apparatus not captured. Phase 3 translation notes — the section that answers El. 171. (a) substantia is 'substance', as the glossary requires, where El. 171's οὐσία is 'essence'. The two lemmata therefore do not read identically in English — 'Intellect is a substance which is not divided' against 'Every intellect is an undivided essence' — and that is deliberate: the difference is in the texts, and the glossary fixes each language's own word. (b) reditio sui super essentiam suam is rendered 'its reversion upon its own essence', holding the glossary's 'reversion' for the ἐπιστροφή / conversio / reditus family, so El. 171's 'its reversion upon itself' and this clause read as one argument. (c) multitudo is 'multitude' here and throughout the Latin; El. 171's parallel list has πλῆθος, rendered 'multiplicity' in that phrase. Different words, kept apart. (d) The clause 'neque diuiditur eius substantia et operatio eius ... utraeque sunt res una' answers El. 171's 'the identity of its activity with its essence'.