Purity as a Condition for Knowledge, by Josef Pieper

Short quote on the ascetic approach to truth, from Josef Pieper's book The Silence of St. Thomas

0:00 Intro
0:24 Quote

Quote:
“Since nowadays we think that all a man needs for acquisition of truth is to exert his brain more or less vigorously, and since we consider an ascetic approach to knowledge hardly sensible, we have lost the awareness of the close bond that links the knowing of truth to the condition of purity.

Thomas says that unchastity’s first-born daughter is blindness of the spirit. Only he who wants nothing for himself, who is not subjectively ‘interested,’ can know the truth.

On the other hand, an impure selfishly corrupted will-to-pleasure destroys both resoluteness of spirit and the ability of the psyche to listen in silent attention to the language of reality.”

Music: Among the Clouds, by Darren Curtis

[sharonhennessy]

This quote is true, Jesus admonishes us that we be born again. If we are a lover of truth we would seek to be cleansed by it which will bring purity into our lifes.

[MrMarktrumble]

Thank you again. If you pursue philosophic knowledge, you have to order your entire life to it. You have to be economically sound, but not greedy. You have to be in right relation to people, but cannot socialize absent mindedly. I would prefer to completely ignore these issues, but philosophy demands that these ( and more) aspects are given their due, before one can clear a space to study and think. One has to be open to listen to reality. One has to seek to create the situation where one can be open to reality, and there are too many purposes and distractions that make one trapped in compulsion or dissipated in lassitude. The habit of philosophy is accidentally a behaviouristic means of cultivating peace of mind. The end, the final end, is knowledge for its own sake. But we ourselves are shaped by the lifelong project of working towards this end. When I think of how many times in each moment of my life have slid around, I am grateful for my persistant commitment to the end of being wise. The very end has kept me from "falling in all directions at once" without even moving. And now, I will go back to Joseph Owen's "Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics", as there are many incisive details to see into.