CONFIGURING THE FIVE POWERS

 

Blessed Raymond Lull

 

 

INTRODUCTION

This section divides into five parts, namely (1) the intellect, (2) the will, (3) memory, (4) imagination and (5) the senses.

We intend to configure the five powers by means of a discourse through the sequence of principles and rules. This configuration will enable practitioners of the Art to investigate and discover the knowledge of law. Without it, a lawyer cannot have the disposition, sense of proportion and intellectual subtlety that a proper understanding of law requires. This configuration is useful not only to lawyers, but also to theologians, philosophers, physicians and to everyone in every faculty, because it is universal.


I - 1. CONFIGURING THE INTELLECT WITH THE PRINCIPLES

The intellect that is confirmed in goodness uses its goodness as a light for understanding what is good. Consequently, an intellect that acts with goodness is well configured.

The intellect that performs great acts becomes great, because greatness magnifies the subjects in which it dwells, just as heat warms the subjects in which it exists. Therefore, an intellect that is confirmed in greatness grows greater by investigating and understanding lofty and subtle things.

The intellect that is confirmed in perseverance and constancy nurtures the species it discovers through its understanding, acquires them permanently and builds durable science with them.

The intellect empowers itself with power as a merchant grows rich through profit. As the intellect widens its quest for knowledge, it empowers itself for greater understanding

In collaboration with the will, the intellect becomes disposed for understanding many lovable and under-standable things. As the intellect seeks to understand its object, the will seeks to love its object. Thus, they help each other to build the sciences of intellect and love, and the will loves both sciences.

Virtue disposes the intellect that is confirmed in virtue to understand things in a virtuous way. Just as a bird soars in the sky on its wings, so the intellect, through virtue, grows in virtue and understands the loftiest things it can reach.

The intellect that is confirmed in truth is true, just as a rose coloured with red is red. As the intellect acts truthfully, it becomes disposed to understanding more truths.

The intellect that is confirmed in glory and delight grasps its objects easily, just as a man runs better in joy than in sorrow.

The intellect that is confirmed in difference is able to tell things apart. Discernment guides it along various paths as it develops its science by investigating and understanding numerous issues.

The intellect that is confirmed in concordance rises to subtler levels by understanding the concordance among its objects. It draws many necessary conclusions by applying one science to many concepts,.

The intellect that is confirmed in contrariety is lazy, benighted and sick. Its companion is ill will that provokes anger, just as a bad neighbor disturbs the entire neighbour-hood.

The intellect is a principle, because its understanding naturally produces species that serve to develop science. Thus, the intellect has its own naturally disposed mode for deepening its understanding of the secrets that are within its reach.

The intellect naturally stands in the middle between will and memory. Its task consists in investigating species that it makes intelligible within its innate intelligible part, just as fire heats heatable objects within its innate ignitable part. By following its own natural middle path, the intellect produces science that is understood, remembered and loved. If it favours one side more than the other, it is crippled and blind, for it can only generate opinions and beliefs. In this precarious position, it surrenders its natural freedom to memory and will.

As the intellect focuses on the object of its enquiry, it begins by believing in the supposition that either side could be right. Then it seeks out the truth, refines its reasoning and does not rest until it ultimately understands its object. An intellect that is satisfied with merely believing imprisons itself and abdicates its natural function and purpose.

As the intellect refines itself, it increases its capacity for understanding greater and loftier subjects. If it habitually understands only lesser things, it remains diminished and stultified.

As the intellect considers equal things, it equalizes its innate knower, knowledge and knowing. Thus, it configures itself with equality, rises to the standard of justice and builds the science of justice.

If the intellect leaves aside minor objects like goats, cattle, etc. it can rise aloft to major objects like God, angels and things of that nature. If it does the opposite, it diminishes itself and becomes engrossed.

We discussed the intellect by combining it with each principle in turn, and provided a doctrine to lawyers for configuring their intellect in order to understand laws, canons and many other things that they need to understand.

I - 2.   CONFIGURING THE INTELLECT WITH THE RULES

 With the first rule, we ask whether the intellect has its own essential innate correlatives. The answer is yes. Otherwise, nothing would enable it to exist as an entity. Moreover, it could not configure itself with its own innate correlatives, but only with external ones, which is impossible. The conditions of the first rule prove this.

 With the first species of the second rule, we ask what the intellect is. We say that it is a power whose specific function is to understand things. The first rule confirms this.

 With the second species of the second rule, we ask what kind of intrinsic essential correlatives the intellet has. The answer is that it has its own innate knower, knowledge and knowing, with which it causes intelligibilities that are not of its own essence.

 With the third species of the same rule, we ask what the intellect is in other things.  We answer that in the will, the intellect is an enlightening power that clarifies the objects of love and understanding. In memory, the intellect is a conveying faculty that commits things to memory for conservation.

 With the fourth species of the second rule, we ask what the intellect has in other things. We answer that it has innate intelligibility in the will that loves its understanding, and in memory that preserves it.

 With the first species of the third rule, we ask about the intellect’s origin. We answer that it has its own origin in itself, insofar as it is a creature.

 With the second species of the third rule, we ask what the intellect consists of. We answer that it consists of its own spiritual form and matter whereby it performs its specific task of investigating external species and making them intelligible.

 With the third species of the third rule, we ask to whom the intellect belongs. We answer that it belongs to man, as a part of himself that he uses for either believing or understanding.

 With the first species of the fourth rule, we ask why the intellect exists. We answer that it exists because it has its own specific form and matter.

 With the second species of the fourth rule, we ask about the intellect’s purpose. We answer that it is meant for understanding God’s goodness, greatness etc., for understanding creatures and for developing sciences.

  With the first species of the fifth rule, we ask about the intellect’s quantity. We answer that it exists in the quantity of its specific existence in every man, because it is indivisible.

 With the second species of the fifth rule, we ask about the intellect’s quantity. We answer that it exists in the same quantity as its various acts of believing and understanding.

 With the first species of the sixth rule, we ask about the intellect’s qualities.  We answer that has the qualities of its own innate correlatives, namely its own action, passion and act.

 With the second species of the sixth rule, we ask about the intellect’s qualities. We answer that it has the qualities of the sciences it discovers.

 With the first species of the seventh rule, we ask when does the intellect exist. We answer that it exists at the instant of its creation.

 With the second species of the same rule, we ask when does the intellect exist. We answer that it exists in the succession of days without any successive movement of its own being, like a remote agent in its effect.

 With the first species of the eighth rule, we ask where the intellect is located. We answer that it exists in the soul, as a part of it.

 With the second species of the eighth rule, we ask where the intellect is located. We answer that it exists in its own habit, with which it produces science.

 With the ninth rule, we ask how the intellect exists. We answer that it exists due to the mode of creation and due to its own specific form and matter and their mode for constituting and composing it.

 With the tenth rule, we ask with what the intellect exists and produces species. We answer that it exists with its creating and governing cause, produces species with the senses and the imagination and makes them intelligible its own correlatives.

 We discussed the intellect with each rule in turn and provided a doctrine that enables a diligent artist to configure his intellect and apply it to relevant issues

 

II – 1. CONFIGURING THE WILL WITH THE PRINCIPLES

 The will that is confirmed in goodness colours itself with the colour of the subject, as a crystal placed on a coloured surface. When it puts on the habit of goodness, it colours and disposes itself to love what is good.

 The will that is confirmed in greatness is magnified, aspires to great things and makes a man magnanimous. 

As the will perseveres with its beloved object, it develops constancy, fortitude and boldness of heart.

 When the will often objectifies its powerful beloved with the power of the beloved, it empowers itself to love the beloved powerfully and to hate his enemy powerfully.

 When the intellect understands the beloved, the will loves the understanding that elevates it to its beloved. If the will is aroused by mere belief without understanding, it does not approach the beloved as closely as it would through understanding. This is because the intellect does not collaborate with the will as intimately through belief as it does through understanding.

 When the will loves the virtues of its beloved, its loving is as profound as the intellect’s understanding of them. Therefore, the will must act in conjunction with the intellect.

 When the will loves truth, the truth enables it to love what is truly worthy of love. If the will loves falsehood, then falsehood prevents it from loving anything truly worthy of love.

 The will that glorifies its beloved is vigorous, light-hearted and confident as it reposes in the beloved without any fear of the enemy. If the will apprehends a painful object, in its depressed and sorrowful state, it easily succumbs to fear.

 Due to difference, the will has its two different acts of loving and hating. When the will is disposed to loving, it loves the beloved and hates the enemies of the beloved.

 Concordance draws the lover and the beloved together in love; the will thrives on this concordance and steadfastly reposes in it.

 The will that is confirmed in contrariety labours and suffers as it hates. It is so badly configured and afflicted that it painfully loves detestable things and hates lovable things.

 With a good, great, etc. beginning, the will begins its good, great, etc. loving, and seeks its repose in its good, great, etc. beloved.

 The will approaches its beloved through loving, and its enemy through hating. When it finds a friend, it reposes in loving its friend; but when it encounters an enemy, it suffers, struggles and hates.

 The will finds ultimate repose when it draws near to its beloved through loving. If the end eludes it, the will is full of hate and finds no repose in anything.

 As the will loves major objects with major loving, it raises its love to greater heights.

 With equality between the lover and the beloved, the will equally reposes in the loving of the beloved and in the loving of the lover. Without equality in love, the will has no repose.

 With minority, the will diminishes its loving, and with diminished loving, it diminishes its love. As it successively destroys its loving and its love, it succumbs to hatred, anger, pain and sorrow.

 We discussed the will with each successive principle. Through this sequential process, the artist of this Art can configure the essential operations of the will.


II – 2. CONFIGURING THE WILL WITH THE RULES

 With the first rule we ask: “Does a good, true and virtuous judgment equally confirm the will and the intellect in justice?” The answer is yes, because goodness, virtue and truth are supremely general indivisible principles equally connected to the powers of the soul. The first rule and its conditions corroborate this; for example, just as a boy cannot be a child if he is not born of a man and a woman,  similarly, a judgment or phantasm cannot exist unless it proceeds from the intellect and the will equally acting in the immutable “now” and in the succession of time and space.

 With the first species of the second rule we ask, “What is the will?” The answer is that the will is a power whose proper function is the act of willing.

 With the second species of the second rule we ask, “What does the will have coessentially within itself?” The answer is that it has its own inner correlatives, namely active will, passive will and the act of willing, without which it would be void, impotent, idle, divorced from its purpose and stripped of its garment of freedom.

 With the third species of the second rule we ask, “What is the will in other things?” The answer is that the will rules the intellect by ordering it to provide an object for it through understanding, The intellect likewise rules the will, by commanding the will to give it a lovable object through loving.

 With the fourth species of the second rule we ask, “What does the will have in other things?” We answer that the will has dominion over memory, as it commands memory to remember its beloved; and the will has a good habit with goodness, a great habit with greatness, etc.

 With the first species of the third rule we ask, “Where does the will originate from?” The answer is that it exists of itself, because it is a creature.

 With the second species of the third rule we ask, “What does the will consist of?” The answer is that it consists of its own specific correlatives through which it is a specific power, specifically active with its species, as it either desires or hates.

 With the third species of the third rule we ask, “To whom does the will belong?” The answer is that the will belongs to man, in whom it exists as a part joined to other parts, as man uses the will at his pleasure, by loving or hating.

 With the first species of the fourth rule we ask, “Why does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists because it is constituted of it own specific form and matter.

 With the second species of the fourth rule we ask, “What I the purpose of the will?” The answer is that it exists for loving God and for causing lovabilities.

 With the first species of the fifth rule we ask, “In what quantity does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists in the quantity of its specific form and specific matter, where the matter and form of the soul exist in an indivisible union. Similarly, prime matter is an undivided essence, in which every element has its specific form and its specific matter. Now, prime matter exists in conjunction with its prime form from which all particular corporeal forms descend; and likewise, all particular matters descend from prime matter.

 With the second species of the fifth rule we ask, “In what quantity does the will exist?” We say that it exists in the same quantity as its correlatives; and as much as it can extend its presence through acts of love and hate.

 With the first species of the sixth rule we ask, “What is the proper quality of will?” The answer is that has the quality of its own correlatives.

 With the second species of the sixth rule we ask, “What are the appropriated qualities of the will?” The answer is that they are the same as the qualities of its habits, namely goodness, greatness, etc.

 With the first species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists in its immutable “now” in which it was created.

 With the second species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists when it acts sequentially by loving or hating many objects.

With the first species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists in the soul, as a part in its whole.

 With the second species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where does the will exist?” We say that it exists in successive places where it loves or hates various objects.

  With the ninth rule we ask, “How does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists according to its way of working with the intellect and memory, for each power exists within the others to constitute the essence, or soul.

 With the tenth rule we ask, “With what does the will exist?” The answer is that it exists with its own correlatives without which it cannot exist. It exists with the intellect and memory in the essence to which it belongs. With goodness, it is good, and with greatness, it is great.

 We discussed the will by applying the rules in sequence. This sequential treatment is both the subject and the doctrine for teaching legislators to love, constitute and configure legislation.

III - 1. CONFIGURING MEMORY WITH THE PRINCIPLES

We intend to approach the configuration of memory in two ways, namely through the principles and through the rules. Let us begin with the principles.

 Memory that is confirmed in goodness partakes in goodness as in a light by which it recollects good species. Memory that has a good habit of goodness also has a good act when it acts with goodness.

 Memory that partakes in greatness is great, for greatness causes it to recollect great things like God, the angels, the virtues, etc.

 Duration causes memory to recollect the durable principles of the everlasting science of intellect and love.

 Power is a habit that empowers memory to recollect and govern the species that the intellect conveys to memory by understanding or believing, and the species that the will conveys to it by loving or hating.

 The intellect joined to memory provides memory with species that the intellect either understands or believes, and memory recollects and governs them. Practical memory acquires species through understanding, and theoretical memory governs them.

 The will joined to memory provides it with species that memory recollects with love or hate.

 Virtue influences memory with objectively virtuous phan-tasms or species like justice, prudence, etc.

 Truth influences memory with objectively true species.

 Glory causes memory to recollect delightful species.

 Because of difference, memory has two different acts, namely recall and conservation. Memory generates new species by recalling them and it stores old species by conserving them.

 Concordance causes many species in memory to concord in one object.

 Contrariety prevents memory from recalling objects and from restoring to the intellect and the will the species they had committed to memory. Thus, contrariety clothes memory in the privative habit of forgetfulness and loss.

 Memory is a principle whereby man remembers memorable things.

 Memory stands in the middle between intellect and will, so it can equally restore to both of them the species that they previously stored in it.

 Memory reposes in governing the species it stores, but it reposes even more is in receiving and retrieving them.

 Memory is major when it objectifies major objects. However, only its act increases, and not its essence because  memory is indivisible.

 Memory is equal to the intellect and the will, because God is equally understandable, memorable and lovable.

 With privative habits, memory is minor, just as it is major with positive habits, depending on its objects.

 We discussed memory with the principles in sequence. This is a subject matter for lawyers who can apply laws to the principles in sequence, from one principle to the next, and configure memory for remembering them.


III - 2. CONFIGURING MEMORY WITH THE RULES

 With the first rule we ask, “Is memory as perfect a power of the soul as the intellect and the will are?” We say that it is. Otherwise, God would be unjust toward his capacity of being remembered by us, which is as perfect in us as is his capacity to be understood and loved by us. Moreover, if memory were less perfect, its imperfection would cause further imperfection in the intellect and in the will, as they could not actually communicate all the species that they potentially have.

 With the first species of the second rule we ask, “What is memory?” We answer that it is a power whose proper function consists in recollecting and governing species.

 With the second species of the second rule we ask, “What does memory have coessentially in itself?” We say that it has its correlatives, with which it receives, governs and restores the species conveyed to it.

 With the third species of the second rule we ask: “What is memory in other things?” We say that memory is active in restoring and governing species, and that it is passive in receiving them.

 With the fourth species of the second rule we ask, “What does memory have in other things?” We say that memory has passivity under the intellect and the will when it receives species from them. In addition, memory has activity in the subject in whom it governs the species that it retrieves for the intellect and the will.

 With the first species of the third rule we ask, “From what does memory originate?”  We answer that it exists on its own because it is a creature.

 With the second species of the third rule we ask, “What does memory consist of?” We answer that it consists of its own specific correlatives whereby it is a specific power that acts in objects in a specific way.

 With the third species of the third rule we ask, “To whom does memory belong?” We answer that it belongs to the man in whom it exists and who causes it to remember things.

 With the first species of the fourth rule we ask, “Why does memory exist?” We say that it exists because it comprises its own specific principles, namely active memory, passive memory and the act of remembering.

 With the second species of the fourth rule we ask, “Why does memory exist?” We say that it exists for the purpose of remembering its prime cause, namely God. Moreover, memory exists for the purpose of remembering creatures.

 With the first species of the fifth rule we ask, “In what quantity does memory exist?” We answer that it exists as much as its essence does.

 With the second species of the fifth rule we ask “In what quantity does memory exist?” We answer that it exists in the dual quantity of its acts of remembering and governing.

 With the first species of the sixth rule we ask, “What qualities does memory have?” We answer that memory has the qualities of its own correlatives.

 With the second species of the sixth rule we ask, “What qualities does memory have?” We say that it has the qualities of its habits, namely goodness, greatness etc. and justice, prudence etc.

 With the first species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does memory exist?” We answer that it exists in its own inseparable “now”, because memory is an incorruptible entity.

 With the second species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does memory exist?” We answer that it exists when it moves through its successive objects.

 With the first species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where is memory?” We answer that it is in the soul, as a part in its whole.

 With the second species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where is memory?” We say that it exists in the sequential process whereby it causes the recall of species by acting as an active power in the passive power and in the act proceeding from both.

 With the ninth rule we ask, “How does memory exist?” We say that memory exists just as its constituting correlatives exist within each other. Moreover, memory exists in a good way due to goodness, in a great way due to greatness etc.

 With the tenth rule we ask, “With what does memory exist?” We say that it exists with its correlatives. In addition, it exists with the intellect and the will, without which it cannot be a part of the soul. Moreover, it is good with goodness, great with greatness etc.

 We discussed the configuration of memory with the rules. This configuration enables artists to habilitate their memory for the study of law.


IV-1. CONFIGURING THE IMAGINATION WITH THE PRINCIPLES

 The human imagination is the means and the subject wherein and whereby the human intellect develops science, the human will develops the science of love, and human memory develops the science of recalling things perceived by the senses. Now let us discuss the imagination following the sequence of principles and rules.

 Let us begin with the principles, to show what order the higher powers produce in the lower powers, so that lawyers can have an orderly knowledge of laws, and make orderly legal decisions.  We begin by saying:

 Imagination configured with the goodness of intellect, will and memory, is good imagination.

 Imagination configured with the greatness of intellect, will and memory, is great imagination.

 Imagination configured with the duration of intellect, will and memory, is durable and infallible imagination.

 Imagination configured with the power of intellect, will and memory, is powerful imagination.

 Imagination configured with the intellect, will and memory, is intelligible imagination.

 Imagination configured with the virtue of intellect, will and memory, is virtuous imagination.

 Imagination configured with the truth of intellect, will and memory, is true imagination.

 Imagination configured with the glory of intellect, will and memory, is delightful imagination.

 Imagination configured with the difference of intellect, will and memory, is distinct imagination.

 Imagination configured with the concordance of intellect, will and memory, is a cause of concordance.

 Imagination that contradicts the configuration of intellect, will and memory, is a cause of vice.

 Imagination configured with the order of intellect, will and memory, is an orderly principle.

 As the imagination is configured with the order of intellect, will and memory, it mediates between spiritual configu-rations  and sensual ones.

 In an orderly imagination, the higher powers ultimately repose in developing sensible species.

 Imagination is major when configured with a major presence of the higher and lower powers.

 Equally configured imagination stands equally between the higher and lower powers.

 With minor configuration of intellect, will and memory, the imagination fails, and this failure causes haphazard repre-sentations.

 We presented eighteen cameras, or maxims. In these loci, a lawyer can order his configurations at will by applying laws and canons to them. By making syllogisms, he can discover the middle term that stands between the subject and predicate, as he makes statements like, “This law is better configured than that one for the case at hand, in its confi-guration of goodness, greatness, etc., as shown by such-and-such a camera, and so on. This doctrine is an infallible one, and very useful in all faculties.


 

IV- 2. CONFIGURING THE IMAGINATION WITH THE RULES

 With the first rule we ask, “Is the imagination equally configured by all the higher powers?” We answer that it naturally is. Nevertheless, by accident, some power almost always happens to play a greater role than the others do. This depends on which bodily organ is better disposed. The heart and the front and back of the brain are respectively linked to the sanguine, choleric and melancholy comple-xions and to the will, the intellect and memory.

 With the first species of the second rule we ask, “What is the imagination?” We say that the imagination is an inter-mediary power between the higher and lower powers. On the one hand, we have the six senses and on the other hand, the intellect, memory and will. Through the imagination, the higher powers connect to the phantasms and lower species that the imagination derives from the lower powers. Further, the imagination is a power whose proper function consists in imagining things.

 With the second species of the second rule we ask, “What does the imagination have coessentially?” We say that it has the imaginative, imaginable and imagining whereby it produces species.

 With the third species of the second rule we ask, “What is the imagination in other things?” We say that it is a passive power in one way under the sense of hearing, in another way under the sense of sight, etc.; and likewise with the higher powers.

 With the fourth species of the second rule we ask, “What does the imagination have in other things?” We say that it has a configuring action in the principles, as we saw earlier, and also in sense objects.

 With the first species of the third rule we ask, “From what does the imagination originate?” The answer is that it originates from its first ancestors, due to its corporeal nature.

 With the second species of the third rule we ask, “What does the imagination consist of?” We say that it consists of its own specific form and matter, as it acts specifically according to its species.

 With the third species of the third rule we ask, “To whom does the imagination belong?” We answer that it belongs to the subject in whom it exists, in the same way as the power of sight belongs to the man in whom it exists.

 With the first species of the fourth rule we ask, “Why does the imagination exist?” We say that it exists because it is made of its correlatives.

 With the second species of the fourth rule we ask, “Why does the imagination exist?” We answer that it exists for linking the higher powers and the lower powers.

 With the first species of the fifth rule we ask, “In what quantity does the imagination exist?” We answer that it exists inasmuch as it links the higher and lower powers.

 With the second species of the fifth rule we ask, “In what quantity does the imagination exist?” We say, that it exists inasmuch as it diffuses in various ways through the higher and lower powers.

 With the first species of the sixth rule we ask, “What is the proper quality of the imagination?” We say that it has the quality of its own imaginability.

 With the second species of the sixth rule we ask, “What are the appropriated qualities of the imagination?” We say that the imagination appropriates the qualities of goodness, greatness, etc., and the qualities of the species it acquires.

 With the first species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does the imagination exist?” We say that it exists in the perpetual “now” in which it has been generated.

 With the second species of the seventh rule we ask, “When does the imagination exist?” We say that the imagination exists when it generates species in sequence.

 With the first species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where does the imagination exist?” We answer that it exists in man, as a part of a whole.

 With the second species of the eighth rule we ask, “Where does the imagination exist?” We answer that it exists in its sequences, as a mover exists in its movement.

 With the ninth rule we ask, “How does the imagination exist?” We answer that it exists as its different parts exist within each other, and as the elementative, vegetative, sensitive, imaginative and rational powers exist in man. Moreover, the imagination has a way of generating its own likenesses in the species it imagines.

With the tenth rule we ask, “With what does the imagination exist?” We say that it exists with its own correlatives, without which it has no way of existing. Moreover, it exists with the subject whose power it is; and it is good with goodness, and great with greatness, etc.

V -  CONFIGURING THE SENSES

The common sense contains six particular powers coessential to it, but remains substantially undivided. These powers, each different in its organs, objects and figures are the following, namely: the powers of touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing and affatus (voice). The first three of these powers are necessary for the subsistence and survival of the body. I do not intend to treat of these three powers in this Art, as they have been sufficiently dealt with in the Book of the Ascent and Descent of the Intellect (Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus). The three remaining powers are meant for man’s well-being, and I intend to deal with them in this Art, so that lawyers can know how to configure them in due order with the imagination and the higher powers, as stated above. First, let us consider the power of sight.

 

V - 1. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF SIGHT

The power of sight is configured according to objects and figures consisting of colours and the linear, triangular and circular shapes. With these, the imagination imagines visible beings such as prelates, princes, judges, lawyers, weapons, instruments for imposing sanctions and other similar figures and signs of justice. The movements of the limbs, head, hands and feet and other similar things are perceived by a well configured imagination, through which the higher powers reach the lower ones.

The Art requires that lawyers deal with the objects and figures of the visual power through an orderly sequence of principles and rules, so they can know the meanings of gestures presented to the power of sight.

The reason why we do not treat the power of sight with the sequence of principles and rules in the same way as we dealt with the imagination and the higher powers, is that we want to avoid prolixity and because the things said about the latter show the artist how to make his own application of the sequence of principles and rules to the power of sight

 

V - 2. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF HEARING

The objects and figures of the power of hearing in legal science are the sounds of laws and decrees that signify the laws when they are adduced and read out. When a lawyer with an imagination that is properly configured under the higher powers imagines the sounds of laws and decrees, he knows what they are, for everything that is signified can be recognized through its signifiers.

Just as one bell rings out more strongly than another, so does one law or decree ring out more powerfully than another in the imagination configured beneath the higher powers. The law with the most powerful sound is the one to choose, and this is an infallible rule.

 

V. 3. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF AFFATUS (VOICE)

The objects of the power of affatus are voices with their vocal figures. We say that the voice is the object of the power of affatus because the mental concept extracts voice materially from sound. The affatus gives its own specific form to the voice, so that the the imagination, as it hears the voice, can imagine the mental concept that the voice conveys and perceive it in an orderly way.

Vocal figures can be produced either in the mode of truth, or in the mode of falsehood. They are in the mode of truth when the speaker confidently speaks out with signs of goodness, greatness, etc. They are produced in the mode of falsehood, when spoken in fear and without the signs of goodness, greatness, etc. In the first mode, the virtue of words exists in the same way as do the virtues of herbs and stones that are caused by higher principles, namely by the virtues of stars and elements.

Now this is enough about the affatus, for we expounded the topic broadly enough in the Book on the Sixth Sense, (Liber sexti sensus). We have discussed the configuration of the five powers in man. The things we said here will enable lawyers to discover explicitly the laws that are implicit in this configuration by following the mode we followed, through the sequence of principles and rules. This confi-guration is very useful for legal science.

End of the treatise on configuring the five powers.

 

Translator’s notes

  This is the fifth section of Blessed Raymond’s “Art for the Quick Discovery of Law” (“Ars brevis de inventione iuris”). As we can see from the first paragraph of the text, it serves as a stand-alone tool for training the mind to use the principles and rules of Ars generalis ultima.

 Each of the five powers, namely the intellect, the will, memory, the imagination and the senses, is discussed with the sequence of principles and rules.

Yanis Dambergs, PhD,
Gatineau, Canada, February 2007

http://lullianarts.narpan.net

 


References

 

Ramon Llull Database by Professor Anthony Bonner, on line at the University of Barcelona web site:

 

http://orbita.bib.ub.es/llull/bo.asp

Ars brevis de inventione juris
Date: 1/1308  Place: Montpellier
Catalogue number: III.78
Short title: ArsBrJur

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The most recent publication in Latin - Raimundi Lulli Opera Latina, F. Stegmüller et al., editors, 21 vols. published so far, Palma de Mallorca/Turnholt, Belgium. ROL XII, 257-389

Manuscripts on line at FREIMORE, the Freiburger Multimedia Object Repository - Albert - Ludwigs – Universität, Managed by Dr. Viola Tenge-Wolf                           http://freimore.ruf.uni-freiburg.de/  

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CONFIGURING THE FIVE POWERS. 1

INTRODUCTION.. 1

I - 1. CONFIGURING THE INTELLECT WITH THE PRINCIPLES. 2

I - 2.   CONFIGURING THE INTELLECT WITH THE RULES. 5

II – 1. CONFIGURING THE WILL WITH THE PRINCIPLES. 9

II – 2. CONFIGURING THE WILL WITH THE RULES. 12

III - 1. CONFIGURING MEMORY WITH THE PRINCIPLES. 16

III - 2. CONFIGURING MEMORY WITH THE RULES. 19

IV-1. CONFIGURING THE IMAGINATION WITH THE PRINCIPLES. 23

IV- 2. CONFIGURING THE IMAGINATION WITH THE RULES. 26

V -  CONFIGURING THE SENSES. 30

V - 1. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF SIGHT. 30

V - 2. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF HEARING.. 31

V. 3. CONFIGURING THE POWER OF AFFATUS (VOICE) 32

Translator’s notes 33

References 34