Dist. 35, Art. 1, Q. 6
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/1/d/35/q/bon-sent-I-d35-a1-q6
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### Question VI.
#### *Whether the ideas have an order.*

Sixth and last, it is asked whether in the ideas an ordered number is to be posited. And that [it is], appears thus.

1. Augustine seems to say: "By another account was man created than horse," since man is one thing, horse another: therefore, since man is nobler than horse, by parity of reason man was created by a nobler idea or account than horse. But where there is a more noble and a less, there is order: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, just as God by ideas knows and produces distinct things, so he knows and produces ordered things: therefore, just as plurality is posited in the ideas from the plurality of things known and ideated, so order ought to be posited [in them] from order.

3. Likewise, where there is plurality or distinction, there is either order or disorder; but in God there falls no disorder nor confusion: therefore in God they have an order.

**On the contrary:**

1. Ideas are several, since by them God distinctly knows; but God does not know one [thing] after another, but all things at once: therefore the ideas have in God simultaneity.

2. Likewise, if there is order, then either of priority, or of dignity, or of origin: not of priority, since then one idea would be posterior to another, which it is unfitting to say; not of nobility, since each in God is supremely noble; not of origin, since if one arose from another, there would then be a true distinction there according to the thing: therefore in no way, as it seems, is there order in them.

3. Likewise, every infinity either altogether takes away order, or removes perfection from order, since it takes away [its] state and completion; but in the ideas there is infinity, as has been seen in another problem: therefore either no order, or an incomplete one; but not incomplete, therefore none.

### Conclusion.

> *In the ideas there is no order among themselves, neither according to thing nor according to reason, but only [an order] toward the ideated.*

**I respond:** It must be said, as was touched upon in [the arguments] on the opposite side, that there is no order in the ideas or accounts of knowing among themselves, neither according to thing nor according to reason. The ideas indeed have an order to the ideated, but not among themselves, since neither is one prior to another, nor posterior, nor is one from another, nor is [one] more noble; and therefore no order is posited there. — And the reason of this is that ideas, of the very account of their name, bespeak a respect to things known. And because those [things] are several, therefore the ideas, from the first respect of their name, are several. But order bespeaks a new respect and a new disposition, when one idea is compared to another. And since, when that respect is set aside which is toward the ideated, in God the ideas are simply one and have no order among themselves; therefore it is not to be conceded that the ideas have plurality with order among themselves.

**To the arguments:**

1. *To that which is objected*, that the idea is other, since man is other: therefore nobler, since man is nobler than horse; it must be said that the case is not similar. For likeness, since it is compared to another, has [to be] distinguished, but is not [thereby] ennobled by it, unless it receive something from that to which it is compared. And since the idea of man receives nothing from man, nor the idea of horse from horse: therefore the one is not called more noble than the other.

2. *To that which is objected*, that God knows ordered things; it must be said that, although he knows ordered things, yet he knows them at once and equally nobly; and therefore, just as distinction was posited in the ideas, since by them he distinctly knew, so simultaneity and equal nobility ought to be posited, since he knows at once and equally nobly; and so order ought not to be posited. For just as, although God knows white things, the ideas are not white in God, so although he knows ordered things, it is not necessary that they be ordered in God.

3. *To that which is objected*, that where there is plurality without order, there is confusion and disorder; it must be said that this is false, since there can be simultaneity there; and so it is in the ideas. — Or it may be said that that [rule] holds where there is real plurality; such is not [the case] in the ideas, since all are one; and therefore there cannot be disorder.