Apr 18 2009
Rosmini’s Sketch of His Own Philosophy: Article 9 (conclusion)
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9. The Immortality of the Soul. Existence of God.
Such is our solution of the question of the origin of ideas. For all ideas, whether specific or generic, are nothing but the idea of being or existence, as determined in various ways by the sensations and operations of the human spirit. And since this one primitive idea can not be the product of these operations, since it is itself and indispensible condition of them all, we must admit that it is given to men by nature; so that we know what being is without having any need of learning it, and we learn all other things by means of this primitive cognition.
We can not with reason ask for a definition of being, because it is known in and by itself, and enters into the definition of all other things. We can indeed describe it, and analyze its characteristics, but we can do nothing more.
We have seen that this idea contains the pure essence of the thing. The idea of being, therefore, contains and enables us to know the essence of being.
The essence has nothing to do with space; ideal being, therefore, is incorporeal. But this ideal being is the form of the intelligent soul, and by the simple intuition of this idea the intelligent soul subsists. Therefore the intelligent soul is incorporeal, and therefore spiritual, therefore again both incorruptible and immortal.
The essence of being has also nothing to do with time, because being in its essence is always being, and can never cease to be, since it would be a contradiction in terms for being to cease to be being. Therefore it is eternal. But it was united to the soul in time. Therefore it was before the soul existed and is independent of it. But being is the light of intelligence, and the light of intelligence is conditioned on the existence of that which it is the light. Therefore there exists and intelligence anterior to human intelligence, an eternal mind. But this eternal mind is God’s, therefore God exists.
The existence of God and the immortality of the soul are the two foundations of morals. For God is the end to which the immortal soul ought to tend, and this duty comprehends the whole summary of man’s moral obligations, so that the abstract investigation of the origin of ideas becomes of the gravest import to the destinies of man.
