Introduction the Cause of Per Accidens Being

Abstract

In all the previous applications of the principle, “The per accidens necessarily implies the per se,” the context selected was limited to some important, but restricted, aspect of reality. First it was shown that wherever is found that type of per accidens known as accidental being there must necessarily exist some per se substance.¹ Secondly, it was shown that change of any type revealed the existence of per accidens principles of change, form and privation, which must involve the existence of some per se or matter — known as subject or substance in the case of accidental change, and as prime matter in the case of substantial change.² Thirdly, and lastly, it was seen that the per accidens known objects of sense and intellect could not themselves be known unless there exists some per se known object for each respective faculty.³ The unique aspect of this Part (Part II) is not an examination of some limited application of the principle, but rather an investigation of the principle’s application in St. Thomas’ attempt to show that wherever any finite facet of reality is found — something per accidens, something by intrinsic nature dependent in the order of existence — that every such finite per accidens demands the existence of a per se existing cause of its very being.⁴