The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden

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According to Thomas Aquinas, "veritas est adæquatio rei et intellectus" = "Truth is agreement of thing and intellect" (Summa theol. Ques. xvi, Art. 1, 3).

Significantly, Aquinas can substitute "correspondentia" = "correspondence" and "convenientia" = "harmony" or "conformity," for "adæquatio".

Whether "agreement" is the best translation of "adæquatio" may be questioned. The infinitive "adæquare" used transitively means to make equal; hence to compare; used intransitively, it means to match, to come near to. Therefore, the meaning of the abstract noun might be better rendered by translating Aquinas's dictum, "Truth is the matching of thing and intellect," or even "Truth is the approximation of thing and intellect." In that event, "agreement" could be used to translate "convenientia."

January 1996; rev. 30 July 2002

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