Principialidad de las facultades en el orden del ser

Abstract

In saint Thomas Aquinas philosophy, faculty is shown to us as the means between being and operation. Though operation we come to know the existence and nature of the faculty, while the act of the operation is known thanks to the object in itself. But from being we find the principiality of the faculty. The faculty is the principle of operations, but it is, in turn, principled. Through the distinctions between esse or actus essendi and essence, we come to understand that each being is perfect because it is in act and the diversity and perfection of their acts origins the graduation of beings. Through the distinction between substance and operation we can understand that substance tends to its operations as its own end, for it is its perfection. Thus, form is principle of operation and the faculty is a teleological principle that comes from the perfection of being.