Order and Chaos in Dante's Cosmos

Welcome and Instructions

zpovis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:44:46 +0000

Thank you for checking out my short look at one of the themes of Dante’s Divine Comedy. You’ll notice that the post just below this one refers to the Paradiso, the last Canticle of the Comedia. I think that the best way to experience this blog would be to scroll all the way to the bottom of this page where you will find my thesis statement, and work your way up from there through my discussion of the Inferno and the Purgatorio. Please leave any comments that you would like to, either in response to my prompts or in regard to any other thoughts you might have.

Thanks again for stopping by

St. Thomas on Order and Divine Government

zpovis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:38:50 +0000

As Dante is led closer and closer to God, he is more easily able to recognize the order that exists in created things. St. Thomas Aquinas in Part I q. 103 of the Summa Theologica looks at the situation from the opposite point of view, and presents it in a way that is more accessible and recognizable to us still here on earth. He points out that by recognizing the order of created things, we can come to a better understanding of God or, at the very least, of His existence.

“… Wherefore, the unfailing order we observe in things is a sign of their being governed…”

Where in the Paradiso are examples of this order that can direct us to an awareness of God?
Think of these examples in comparison to what was seen in the Inferno. Explain why, in this light, the Inferno is not an utter and complete lack of all order.

A Deeper Understanding of Order in Purgatory

zpovis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:14:50 +0000

As Dante climbs the mountain of Purgatory, he finds his mind afflicted with an insatiable thirst for Wisdom, and a desire to more fully understand the world around him. Having escaped the world of chaos, a world in which all that moves does so for a different end and thus renders few things understandable, he is most edified by the wondrous order of this new world around him. It is in light of this that we can understand why he takes the time to give us such long and detailed descriptions of the movement of the sun, every word of the meticulous answers that Virgil gives to his various questions, and other careful descriptions that we would not have seen in the Inferno. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy offers the following insights regarding Dante’s ascent through Purgatory:

“… His emphasis on the ordering function of moral wisdom, and on the happiness attainable through intellectual contemplation, reflects an engagement with the philosophical tradition…”
“… Yet philosophy offers the promise of more. The same chapter is climaxed by the vision of Wisdom as “the mother of all things,” the origin of all motion and order in the created universe guiding the quest of human wisdom by the light of the divine intellect…”
“… She has assumed the status of Wisdom, sapientia, the divine mind as expressed in the order and harmony of creation…”

As Dante experiences purgation, his mind seems to become more and more disposed to recognize order in the universe. Bearing in mind what has been said of the souls in hell, what does Dante seem to propose as the relationship between sin and the intellect?
How do the various souls that Dante meets in Purgatory manifest the order that is realized as one gets closer to God?

Job 10:20-22

zpovis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:50:45 +0000

“Would He not let my few days alone?
         Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer
    Before I go–and I shall not return–
         To the land of darkness and deep shadow,
    The land of utter gloom as darkness itself,
         Of deep shadow without order,
         And which shines as the darkness.”

Order Among Men According to Aristotle

zpovis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, has the following to say about the way in which order can come to be developed among men, and what the conditions are for those men who seek order (or concord as he calls it):

“… concord is found in the realm of action, and in the realm of action in matters of importance and in those matters of in which it is possible for both partners or all partners to attain their goals….”
“… For concord does not consist in two persons having identical thoughts of any kind at all, but in having them in relation to the same person…”
“… Bad men, on the other hand, cannot live in concord, except to a small extent, any more than they can be friends. They aim at more than their share when material advantages are to be gotten, but fall short when it comes to exertion and to the performance of public services. Each of them has these wishes only for himself…”

As we move deeper into hell, closer to Satan, we see the souls of the damned living to a greater and greater extent in a world of chaos. According to Aristotle, this is because the motive for action becomes more and more self-centered. Instead of reaching for the same goal, they seek their own, individual, selfish goals, and it is this that pulls them apart.

What is the common goal that these souls have lost sight of?
To what extent do we see this theory hold true in our world (of the living) today?

Bibliography

zpovis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:26:59 +0000

1) Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. Translated by John Ciardi. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2003.

The primary source material for the project.

2) Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999).

In Book 9, Aristotle speaks of harmony (or concord) and the fact that it can be reached among people, as a kind of friendship, when they seek a common, attainable goal. I will use Aristotle’s reasoning to help account for the chaos among the souls in lower hell (the seeking of a thousand different selfish interests).

3) The Holy Bible: The New American Edition (Kansas: Devore & Sons, Inc., 1981).

The Holy Bible has much to say about chaos, especially in: Isaiah 24:9-10; 34:9-11; Job 10:20-22

4) Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae, I, q. 103: Complete English Edition in Five Volumes. Vol. 1. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1981.

This particular question and others detail the governance of the world and the order that God has set over creation.

5) Dante Alighieri. (2001). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Septermber 21, 2009, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dante/

This entry speaks especially of the concept of order as expressed in the Purgatorio. Particularly mentioned are the intelligibility of the universe and the happiness attained through contemplation of this order, and the ordering function of moral wisdom.

6) Griggs, Edward Howard. “The Problem of the Divine Comedy.” The Divine Comedy of Dante: A Handbook of Six Lectures. New York: B.W. Huebsch Inc., 1921. 13-17

In this particular selection, the author explains the way in which order is brought out of chaos as Dante ascends through his cosmos.

Project Thesis Statement

zpovis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:18:08 +0000

Dante’s proximity to God and Satan while in the three layers of his cosmos mirror and parallel his closeness to order and chaos, respectively.

Before going any further, it will be important for me to explain exactly what I mean when using the word “order.” By this word I mean a sort of appropriate interconnectedness or concurrence of parts. On the macro level, it is true to say that the entire cosmos is, in fact, ordered (each soul has been assigned to its appropriate place). On the micro level, however, the significance of my thesis lies primarily in beings of reason (on this subject, order must be likened to “harmony”, or “concord” as Aristotle will later call it). Order among non-rational things then, is almost exclusively significant to the observations of Dante, himself, as will be pointed out later.