I am hoping someone on this List can help a colleague and me track down a
reference to a medieval distinction between and among several truths. The
allusion comes in The Pennsylvania Gazette for 24 February 1742 and is a
reply of "one of the Moravian Brethren in Philadelphia" [note: material
between asterisks are in italics in the Gazette]:
"The Questions, Accounts and Testimonys falling under the Consideration of
Magistrates, go upon that Point; *what is true?* But Posterity likes very
often, and that justly, to hear *how a Thing is true,* especially in
Matters of Religion, where the Appearance of a Thing, (which however with
Men exceeding often goes for the *verum physicum & metaphysicum*)
infinitely differs from the *verum morale.*"
Are these distinctions rooted in medieval philosophy (perhaps scholastic
philosophy/theology)? I should add that a similar distinction, but without
the "physicum" can be found in Locke; but my colleague believes the
distinction is older than Locke. Any light a List member can shed will be
much appreciated.
Jim Dean
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