What do all things have in common? When you look at the world around you, what features do you see in everything that exists? Think beyond their physical attributes like shape, size, or color. What does it mean for something to exist? And what do all things in existence share? Throughout history, philosophers have commonly identified three features of all things in reality: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Let's explore these Three Transcendentals.
First, some philosophical groundwork: Everything that exists has Being. If something has Being, then it exists. If something does not have Being, then it does not exist. Also, having a certain amount of Being means having the same amount of Goodness. If something had all the Being that it's supposed to have, then that thing would be perfectly Good. To be Good means to have the amount of Being something is supposed to have. However, most things that exist lack some amount of Being, which makes them less Good than they could be, therefore making them imperfect. But to the extent that a thing does have the Being that it's supposed to have, that is how Good it is, and that Truth and Goodness is what makes it Beautiful.
You've just received an introduction to the philosophy of ontology, the philosophy of Being, what it means to exist. And this is tied to the philosophy of teleology, the philosophy of purpose, what it means to be Good. And both of these are tied into the philosophy of Beauty, because Beauty is the manifestation of Goodness as Truth. (Read here for more on Beauty.) Altogether, these three philosophies have their parts in a broader category of philosophy called metaphysics, which is about the fundamental nature of reality beyond the natural sciences.
Transcendental Properties
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty are together referred to as the Three Transcendentals, because they are metaphysical elements present in all of reality. Although, "elements" is not the proper word. In philosophy, they are called properties. Whereas elements are small components that make larger objects, properties are the unique characteristics that make objects distinct from one another. For example, an apple has the properties of redness, roundness, sweetness, solidity, and edibility, among others. An apple has mostly very different properties than a cloud. And because you recognize the difference between an apple's properties and a cloud's properties, you don't suspect rain is coming whenever you see an apple, and you have never tried to bake a cloud into a pie.
What's special about the Three Transcendentals is that they are properties of Being itself; and this means that all things in existence have the properties of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty to some extent. They transcend all things because they are properties of all things, because all things have Being. In fact, the Three Transcendentals are properties of all other properties, since all other properties in existence have Being. Moreover, the Three Transcendentals are the properties that we desire most in all things. We desire not just to be told that there will be pizza, but we desire that the pizza will exist. And we desire that it will perfectly resemble what pizza ought to be; it should be good. And we desire that it will please us as pizza should; it should be a beautiful experience.
In fact, all of our desires can be classified as at least one of the Three Transcendentals, if not all of them. And on top of that, we desire the Three Transcendentals to be an ever-increasing part of ourselves. And even beyond that, we desire the Three Transcendentals for their own sake. We spend our lives searching and grasping for more Truth, more Goodness, more Beauty. We can never get enough of it.
The World is Real
Now, here, I would like to use the Three Transcendentals to emphasize a point that most people take for granted. If we desire the Three Transcendentals (and there is no one who doesn't), then this implies that the world is real. In other words, the world is not in your mind. If it was only in your mind, then you could shape it according to your desires. For the most part, in order to increase your emotional happiness, you actually have to consciously acknowledge that the world is almost completely out of your control. You have to surrender to this fact. You have to focus on the few things that you can actually change, and most of that involves your own actions. Otherwise, you could simply imagine what you desire, and the world would shape-shift before your very eyes. But you probably realize that you only have two kinds of choices: what you think about and how you move your body. And even though there can be difficult limitations to these capabilities in the form of physical ailment and mental illness, we still recognize what kinds of choices a person ought to have.
"My Truth" and the Common Good
So the world is real; and though you're part of the world in one sense, in another sense you're distinct from everything else. And yet, it seems many people still get confused thinking about Truth. In popular culture, important philosophical concepts like Truth and the Good are never defined. This is why influencers can pontificate about "my truth" and the common good in one tweet.
Either the Truth and the Good are both common to everybody; or they're both in your mind. But they cannot be in different places.
But you say, "Well, nobody uses those words in the high and lofty manner of philosophers." Do they not? What else could a person mean by the word "truth" except that which corresponds to reality? What else could a person mean by the word "good" except to imply that the world ought to be a certain way? And doesn't the word "beautiful" make use of both? Doesn't "beauty" refer to something that really is the way it ought to be? You may object, "Beauty could just be what a person prefers." To which I respond: Then why do people defend something as beautiful when other people call it ugly? If beauty is just "in the eye of the beholder," then why would anyone need correction? Then someone might assert, "Well, this is how most people think," as if a majority vote determines what is True and Good. But this is unfortunately the way most people think in the western world today. They defend "their truth" by appealing to majority agreement or the common good. But again, the True and the Good have to be in the same place, either in your mind or outside it.
Ramblings of a Madman
But what if you're actually insane and have lost nearly all control of your mind? What if the world is just your fever dream? Well, if your mind is running amok, and none of your thoughts can be controlled; if all of your private knowledge and sensibilities are nothing more than just random hallucinations recurring perpetually until your brain finally withers away, then there's no point worrying about it. Your concern is not your doing. Your worry is unfounded. Your doubt is just as meaningless as what you think you know. You can't trust your senses to give you knowledge, and you can't trust your thoughts to understand truth. You're just the mental equivalent of a firework fizzling on a finite line of neurons until pop goes the weasel. And if this is true of me, then these words are nothing more than the ramblings of a madman. Nothing I've said makes any more sense than arguing that fleeb riik anop laarn puwa hon det yoyn. It's all just nonsense. And if our thoughts are nothing but random noises in our heads, then we cannot reason toward truth.
So in this sense, you only have two mental choices: believe that you have no control over your thoughts, or direct your thoughts toward truth as much as possible. Keep in mind that if you choose to believe that you have no control over your own thoughts, then your choice makes no sense. You didn't have a choice to begin with. So the only choice that makes sense of this apparent choice is to believe that you do have control of your thoughts; and the world is real, and mostly out of your control.
Hopefully we've properly discerned the difference between your mind and Truth. Truth comes to you; you do not produce Truth. Truth is a property of all things in existence. So you are part of the Truth that comes to other people's minds, including mine. The philosopher Thomas Aquinas compared Truth to the rays of light coming from the sun:
"Hence light, which is caused in air by something extrinsic, namely the sun, follows the motion of the sun rather than air. Similarly truth, which is caused in the mind by things, does not follow the appraisal of the soul but the existence of things, 'since insofar as the thing is or is not, speech is true or false,' and similarly in intellect." - Aquinas [1]
Three Kinds of Truth
Now, in philosophy, the word "Truth" simply means whatever corresponds with reality. But Aquinas pointed out that there are three kinds of Truth. [2] First Truth is what exists outside the mind. These are the objects or subjects of our knowledge. In philosophy, this kind of Truth is said to "obtain." Second Truth is the knowledge of what exists. This is what First Truth becomes in our mind when we receive it. Second Truth is a true idea which our thoughts think about. You could call it true knowledge, correct thinking, or right fact. Third Truth is a true idea communicated through a medium. So if Truth is shown from a book or a picture, or even simply spoken, it has become a new kind of Truth. Third Truth exists distinct from the First Truth of the medium. It's an embodiment of Second Truth, a representation of a true idea. Third Truth is the product of a mind imparting Second Truth onto First Truth. The three kinds of Truth can be remembered with this mnemonic: (1) on its own, (2) what is known, and (3) what is shown.
The intricate harmony between the Three Transcendentals and the three kinds of Truth is wonderfully apparent here. Each kind of Truth is accompanied by its own version of Goodness and Beauty. The Goodness and Beauty of First Truth is what we commonly perceive as excellence and aesthetics in the world around us, particularly in nature. The Goodness and Beauty of Second Truth is the accuracy and elegance of an idea. And the Goodness and Beauty of Third Truth are what we appraise and enjoy about artforms. All the fascinating wonders of our universe are endowed with these multiplied Beauties.
What is Being?
Now here we must face a sobering question, which I have intentionally saved for last: What exactly is Being? All three kinds of Truth have Being, and all Three Transcendentals are properties of Being. So what is Being? Well, if we consider all the kinds of things that consist of it, then we must conclude that Being is itself something that exists on its own. It must be so. If Being is what makes something True, then Being itself must be True in and of itself. If Being is what makes something Good, then Being itself must be Good in and of itself. If Being is what makes something Beautiful, then Being itself must be Beautiful in and of itself. Furthermore, since Truth can be true in three ways, then Being must be true in those same three ways. So Being must be the source of material Truth, the source of Mental Truth, and the source of Artistic Truth. It must transcend time, space, and thought. Therefore, Being must be a self-existing, perfectly good, perfectly beautiful Mind from which all things originate. And it must be a Mind because only a Mind can produce thoughts and art. So there is no better way to refer this Being than to call it God. God is by definition the origin of everything in existence: material things, thoughts, and the will to create.
In case you feel tricked into this conclusion, I encourage you to consider each part again. Consider that everything in existence must have a source. Space, time, and matter must have a source; we call this the cosmological argument, the origin of First Truth. Thoughts and logic must have a source; we call this the transcendental argument, the origin of Second Truth. The will to be a good person must have a source; we call this the moral argument, the origin of Goodness. The will to create must have a source; we call this the teleological argument, the origin of Third Truth. And the source of all these things must be constantly necessary for them to continue existing, to hold them together; we call this the ontological argument, the origin of Beauty. God is all of this. God is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. And here philosophy has led us to a remarkable parallel within Scripture.
The apostle John wrote in his gospel, in chapter 14, verse 6, that Jesus said to the people:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." - Jesus, John 14:6 [3]
Jesus said He is the truth; this means He is Truth and Being as philosophy shows us God must be. Jesus said He is the way; this means He is the Good that we desire to align ourselves with. Jesus said He is the life; this means He is the Beauty that brings unity between Truth and Goodness that manifests in the world around us. Therefore He is the only one who can bring us everlasting existence and everlasting righteousness, which together is everlasting life. Only Jesus can give us this, because God is the only one who makes it possible for us to exist. How else could we possibly expect to find eternal Truth, eternal Goodness, and eternal Beauty?
Aquinas: Disputed Question on Truth I, "The Meanings of Truth," Question 1, Article 2, from Selected Writings (Penguin, 1998) page 172
Ibid, Article 1, page 167
New King James Version
Featuring "The Fallout" by Hannah Parrott
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